Embrace and Conquer by Jennifer Blake

Author:Jennifer Blake [Blake, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 0-7592-0015-7
Publisher: ereads.com

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Chapter 11

THE river chuckled to itself, slurping mightily at the lugger that swung on its current, attached by hawsers to trees along the bank. In the baleful glow of the ship's stern lantern, Félicité climbed the rope ladder let down over the side, following Valcour and trailed by Ashanti and their guide, the last grunting with profane impatience. The masts draped with furled sails spiked upward from the deck. As they stepped aboard they could feel the planking moving underfoot with the calm regularity of a heartbeat. Beyond the range of the flickering light were dark humps of sleeping men, their snores a raucous chorus.

They did not remain long in the open waist of the ship. Valcour refused to wait for the captain to be awakened, sending word he would see him as soon as he had settled his passengers. Morning would be time enough for the amenities for them. Ignoring the stares and lewd growls of the dogwatch over Ashanti's presence, he bustled Félicité and her maid below.

The cabin to which Valcour led the way along dim corridors was small, being no more than a cubicle with a pair of bunks against one wall, a chest, and a washstand. Félicité was in no mood or position for complaint. After spending the better part of twenty-four hours in a cramped open boat, she wanted nothing more than to stretch out on a yielding surface and let the exhaustion nipping at her heels overtake her. She could muster no reply to Valcour's sardonic good wishes for her repose, nor could she bring herself to be overly concerned as to where her brother would find a berth. She was only glad when he left them alone.

Day had not broken through the enclosing fog when she was roused by movement in the dim cabin. Her eyes were sealed with fatigue as surely as with copper coins, and the effort to prise them open was too strenuous and chancy to venture. The shout of orders in nautical parlance and the sense of shuddering life through the hull beside her was an adequate explanation. They were sailing, heading out to sea; that much sifted through the gauze of her awareness. It was enough to send her burrowing once more into the deeper layers of sleep.

She could not remain with eyelids shut and mind shuttered forever. The noises of morning gathered beyond her, and she came awake with a sudden upsweep of lashes. Ashanti stirred in the bunk above her, but Valcour, swaying slack-jawed and unwigged in a hammock, slept on.

The puzzle of it knotted her brow as she stared at the squares of refracted sunlight glittering on the wall. Crowded ships were not unusual, especially on the sort of cargo vessel that plied between Louisiana and Europe. To make a voyage as profitable as possible, the maximum amount of space was given to merchandise; it was important, and the comfort of the people who transported it was not. In most cases, only the captain had a private cabin.

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