Kings of the Sea by Van Every Frost Joan

Author:Van Every Frost, Joan [Van Every Frost, Joan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Endeavour Press
Published: 2017-05-10T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter III

She loved London, which was just as well, since she was sent on endless errands into what seemed every corner of it. She had spent only a week at the Compton shipyard before being hustled back to the city. She was glad to leave the yard, for there she had seen yet another Christian, balancing catlike on the metal skeleton of the second ship, Clarice: nimble, deft, confident — thoroughly at home in a man’s demanding world. She didn’t want to know what she felt. Everything had been fine until that lovely and yet disturbing voyage that had stirred up all of the old memories, opened cracks in the protective scar tissue. She wondered if she was only feeling for Christian those emotions which she refused to admit for Charles. She had to face it; Christian was as far out of her sphere as he would have been had she been a serving maid. She wiped the problem from the surface of her mind by plunging into the depths of the sprawling, complex city of London, and if she dreamed, her waking mind at least never remembered.

Katharine never tired of watching the stream of faces, listening to the unfamiliar cadences that were English yet often incomprehensible. Even the street and district names had a flavor totally unlike any she had ever encountered: Pudding Lane, Threadneedle Street, Cripplegate, Wormwood Scrubs Common. There were not only streets and roads and alleys, but ditches like Shoreditch, mews, lanes, courts, corners, gates, and circuses.

The people she dealt with in the various firms seemed surprised to see a woman, but they were unfailingly polite. She wondered if it was that she was an American — everyone knew Americans were utterly mad — that made them accept her. She had had no idea how many details there were in the fitting out of a ship: the silverware, the linens, the faucets for the handbasins and bathtubs — yes, real bathtubs — the enameled chamber pots, the material for the cushions in the saloon, engraved dishes, curtains, bedspreads, pillows, printed menus allowing for a seemingly endless combination of dishes, carpeting, wall hangings, hand rails, doorknobs, and a further endless array of trivia. That didn’t even include food and the necessaries for the actual running of the Circe, such as rope, shovels for the stokers, and the like.

She had gone only once more to Compton where the ship was being finished, and that was to see her launched. She met Jack Carr, who had been up in Scotland when she had been there before. He grinned at her around his cigar and raised his eyebrows at Christian. “A lady secretary, eh? Damn my soul if I don’t think that’s a smashing idea. I’ll have to get one myself.”

Katharine should have been irritated with him, but he said it with such obvious good humor that she couldn’t take offense. Christian only laughed and passed it off, telling Carr she was worth any three men.

At the christening of the

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.