Calhoun Chronicles Bundle by Susan Wiggs

Author:Susan Wiggs [Wiggs, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, Retail, Historical, Fiction
ISBN: 9781426804946
Google: 1VIV1r_3MCAC
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Mira
Published: 2007-08-01T04:00:00+00:00

Seventeen

Albion. In Latin the word meant “white,” but Eliza’s overwhelming first impression was of green. Green hills rising in ever-receding misty layers to the west. Green haze lying in the low valleys between the hills. Green trees taller than anything she’d seen on her low country island. Green murk at the fringes of the vast opening of the bay leading way up into the heart of Virginia.

The lushness of the area seemed vaguely decadent, as if it were about to burst from so much bounty. But decadence in the conventional sense had never bothered Eliza particularly.

While Hunter secured the lines to the ramp so the livestock could exit, Caliban barked excitedly and leaped ashore, toenails scrabbling over the weathered planks. Eliza felt nothing of the dog’s sense of adventure. Overnight, her world had been transformed. The father she thought she had known had turned out to be a different person entirely. She took pride in the notion that he had secretly helped fugitives to freedom. Yet a part of her felt betrayed, because he’d hidden something so important from her. And the thing that he’d hidden had got him killed.

She felt foolish, having believed all this time that he’d been murdered because of his affinity for horses. But foolishness was not the cause of her broken heart. Hunter Calhoun was.

Even after an eventful night, a dangerous sail across the dark waters of the bay and an encounter with slave-catchers, he looked magnificent. The sunlight had a special quality when filtered through the tender green of the budding trees, and when it fell over him, his harsh masculinity was softened, so that he appeared almost vulnerable. His beard, nearly an inch long by now, had reddish strands amid the gold, and the ends looked so soft she had to fold her hands into fists to keep from touching them.

“Why are you staring at me like that?” he asked.

She stood up, preparing to help off-load the animals. “What do you suppose became of those men you left out in the bay?”

“With any luck, they couldn’t repair their steering and were swept out into the Atlantic.”

The thought that they might die created a strange coldness in her chest. Not regret, but discomfort, certainly. Hunter showed no emotion at all as he went about setting the ramp. After a while, he glanced at her again. “Now what?” he asked.

“I was just thinking about The Tempest.”

“That again.”

“I never really thought about the ending. But you know, the story ends before they leave the island.”

“So?”

“We never learn what becomes of everyone.”

“Prospero goes back to his dukedom in Milan. Ferdinand and Miranda sail to Naples, where they live happily ever after as prince and princess. All the sprites and beasts are released from their enchantment. Make fast that line, will you?”

She obeyed sulkily. He didn’t understand. As long as she stayed on the island, she didn’t have to worry about the way things ended. Now, thrust into this strange place, she had to make her way through unfamiliar terrain, alien and green, fraught with peril.

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