Happily Ever After by Crosby Tanya Anne

Author:Crosby, Tanya Anne [Crosby, Tanya Anne]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Romance, General, Sea Stories, Historical, Fiction
ISBN: 9780380785742
Publisher: Avon
Published: 1999-11-09T08:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 17

She was a lousy as hell spy!

She’d obviously fallen asleep while snooping through his papers.

“What the hell are you doing?” Jack shouted at the top of his lungs as he entered his cabin, slamming the door behind him.

He startled her from her slumber, and she awoke with a gasp, her hands flying out, papers scattering.

Her gaze met his for the briefest instant; confusion in hers, then fear.

It happened too fast to stop it.

She knocked the lantern over. Its flame spilled onto his research, engulfing the papers at once. She shrieked in alarm when she realized and tried to put out the flames, blowing on them.

The fire merely spread faster.

His work was going up, literally, in smoke!

Jack moved quickly; he removed his shirt and began to smack at the flames, yelling for Kell to get water—something—anything!

By God! She was going to kill them all!

She ran out the door suddenly, shrieking, abandoning him to the fire—damned woman!

“Yah, right, save yourself!” he growled after her.

He was thankful the ship was small. Someone shouted at him and Jack ordered him to bring water to put out the fire—all the while continuing to slap out the flames, cursing Sophia Vanderwahl under his breath.

Had he really begun to soften toward her?

Dangerous prospect.

He was going to have to remember this the next time a good thought about her niggled its way into his brain.

“Kell!” he shouted. “Damn it, someone get in here!”

He heard footsteps and spun to see who was there. Water rushed past him, onto the desk, but not without drenching him first.

Before he could say anything, she ran away again, bucket in hand.

Stunned, he turned again to slap at the flames.

Kell was right behind her with another bucket, and someone else with another. By the time Sophia returned, the flames were extinguished, and she stood in the doorway, looking a little bit dazed and a lot sorry.

Jack wasn’t in the mood to be forgiving.

“What were you doing at my desk?” he railed at her. “Looking through my papers?”

She stood there clutching her bucket, and had the nerve to look injured by his anger.

“I should have known you couldn’t be trusted!” he told her, slamming his shirt down on the floor at her feet. She winced and took a step backward. Kell came up behind her, but Jack was undeterred.

By God, he had had enough!

“Did Penn put you up to this?”

He wanted to know right now. To hell with waiting to see. If she was Penn’s spy, for whatever reason, he wanted her exposed.

“Jack,” Kell objected.

“I... I don’t know what you are talking about,” she replied.

Jack ignored Kell, determined to find out the truth once and for all. “Sure you don’t.”

“I don’t!” she protested, her eyes filling with tears. “I fell asleep and then you scared me and then—”

“I know what happened then,” he countered. “What I want to know is why you were going through my papers!”

Sophie stood there, trying to make sense of his questions.

She shouldn’t have been snooping, that much was true, but she didn’t understand why he was so furious with her.

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