High Sea by Catherine E. Chapman

Author:Catherine E. Chapman
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
Tags: romance and adventure, romance historical, victorian romance, victorian historical romance, heroine in disguise, romance 1800s, doctor hero, romance historical short story, doctor and nurse romance, heroines at sea

* * *

“Come. Come sit beside me,” Estelle said, beckoning me to her bed.

I stood stock-still at the door. I didn’t trust her.

“I am sorry for what I said last night, Sam,” Estelle continued. “I realise now I should be thankful to you for saving my life. Come, Sam, sit beside me. What harm can there be in it?”

Reluctantly I walked over to her bedside.

“Sit!” she insisted.

Nervously, I sat down on her bunk.

Now she had got me where she wanted me, Estelle seemed to have nothing to say. Tentatively, I began, “Miss Estelle, if you don’t mind my asking, have you told your father how you feel about your proposed marriage?”

“Have you ever been in love, Sam?” she returned rather evasively.

“No,” I replied.

“Don’t lie, Sam, your eyes betray you.”

I looked away from her.

“My father knows that I am in love with a man who is not the man he wants me to marry,” Estelle said bitterly. “He tells me lies about the man I love.”

“What does he say?” I asked.

“He says that the man I love is betrothed to another but he is lying–”

“How do you know?” I asked her.

“Because he loved me,” she insisted, beginning to weep as she spoke the words.

Before I knew it, Estelle had taken hold of me and clung to me desperately. Instinctively, I began to comfort her by patting her back but I stopped almost immediately, fearing the gesture to be unmanly.

Estelle, whose head had been resting on my shoulder, suddenly pulled away from me but then lunged at me again, kissing my lips.

I tried to escape her grasp but met, once more, with the surprising physical strength that matched her will.

“Miss Estelle, stop!” I demanded when I managed to free my lips from hers.

Her look was one of frenzied excitement. She reached her hand very decidedly and grabbed at my bosom. Then she collapsed back into her bed in fits of laughter.

“I must go, Miss,” I said urgently, rising from the bed.

“Poor Sam,” she mocked as I backed away from her, “do I scare you that much?”

I couldn’t find words of reply.

“Poor Sam,” she repeated softly, looking steadily at me with her big, mocking eyes, “or should I say Samantha?”

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.