I Kissed an Earl by Long Julie Anne

Author:Long, Julie Anne [Long, Julie Anne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance
ISBN: 0061885665
Publisher: Avon
Published: 2010-01-02T07:00:00+00:00

“Ziss? You bring me ziss?” Hercules’s eyes bulged with disbelief.

He raked her a look from head to toe, his face wrinkled in panic at what he saw—a slim, pale, well-groomed, surly aristocratic woman—and then he whirled on Greeber. “What am I to do wis ziss?”

He clapped two despairing hands to either sides of his skull and shook his head to and fro as though he were trying to twist it off and hurl it overboard from sheer despair. He was a small sturdy man, with a broad torso and huge hands and short legs and a handsome, profoundly Greek face.

“Captain’s horders, Hercules. Miss Redmond is to be cook’s mate.”

Hercules released a string of dark Greek utterances, and then sighed theatrically.

Granted, it was undeniably interesting to see how willingly these men followed captain’s orders, no matter how distasteful they found them.

“Geev me your hands, Miss Redmond.”

She slowly extended her hands, suspiciously eyeing the cleavers lined on the long, thick-topped tables forming an L for a workspace.

He took them in his, surprisingly gently given all the shouting he was doing.

He examined their fronts. Then turned them over and examined their backs. As though they were chops he contemplated purchasing. He lifted each up and squinted at her

fingertips.

Greeber squirmed enviously. “Perhaps ye’d like my opinion o’ them, too?” he suggested.

He bent to peer at Violet’s hands.

Hercules scowled at him and swatted him away with one hand.

Then he all but tossed Violet’s hands back to her. “Useless! Soft, like butter, like kid, like supple, supple kid! Zeez hands are useless.”

“Supple, sup…” Greeber trailed, sounding light-headed. “Mayhap ye’d like me to take a look, too, Miss Redmond?” He held out his hands hopefully for hers.

Violet discreetly put her hands behind her back and eyed both men warily.

“They are the hands of a lady, Mr. Hercules,” she informed him icily.

Her eyebrows went up, and so did his. He had the blackest, thickest eyebrows she’d ever seen, and his nose was a stately potato, and his long arrogant mouth was turned down in a marvelously malevolent frown.

They disdainfully took each other’s measure.

“Oh? What can zey do, zeez hands of yours? Flutter fans?” He locked his thumbs and fluttered his fingers beneath his chin in imitation. “Pull bells to summon ze servants?” He imitated this, too, giving a great yank to the air.

“Yes,” she agreed calmly. “That’s all they can do.”

He paused. Then narrowed his eyes at her.

Damn. He was smarter than she’d hoped.

“Everyone works on a ship, or you are extra ballast and we throw you over the side,” he lied shrewdly.

They stared at each other icily again. He needed to crane his head up to see her, his cap sliding back over his bald head, as it could get no purchase on the slippery, perspiring surface.

Greeber looked worried, his gaze bouncing from one to the other and back again.

“Aye! Very well, then! I am rude! Rude!” Hercules conceded unapologetically, finally. “I am a busy man and I need to feed the crew and I do not wish to pamper a princess of no experience.

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