Kiss of the Spindle by Nancy Campbell Allen

Author:Nancy Campbell Allen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Shadow Mountain Publishing
Published: 2018-04-01T16:00:00+00:00

Isla supposed the situation could have been worse. Drawing Nigel Crowe from his cabin might have been a good idea, if awkward silences and palpable mistrust were just the thing to have at a gathering.

She had greeted Crowe warmly and suggested he would be ever so much more comfortable without his boots and heavy jacket, and when she’d taken him to the waterfall where Daniel, Bonadea, and Lewis were swimming—bare-chested, to her eternal embarrassment—they had not thrown rocks or held his head under the water.

As it was her idea to invite him, she took it upon herself to point out the items of interest she’d discovered—“These flowers are the brightest orange I have ever seen, and Mr. Bonadea tells me there are monkeys in the trees!”—and for his part, he did respond, albeit monosyllabically, with an almost pleasant expression.

With the sun sinking toward the horizon, Lewis and Daniel dragged three large logs onto the beach. Quince and Isla gathered twigs and branches for firewood, while Crowe lingered, clearly uncomfortable. He seemed relieved when Quince handed him a kit and asked him to start a fire.

Isla spied the dinghy approaching with Robert and Samson to deliver dinner. “I am quite famished,” she said and sat on one of the large logs. “I haven’t been swimming in an age, and I forget how much energy it requires.” She smiled at Crowe and Quince, who shuffled their feet in the sand and conspicuously did not look at each other.

“Please, gentlemen, sit with me. You are obliged to provide a lady with conversation at a social event, yes?”

Mr. Quince smiled and slowly lowered himself to the log, and Mr. Crowe eventually did the same on her other side. The ’tons neared the beach and rowed up as far as they could onto the sand, at which point they began arguing about who should perform which task.

Mr. Quince rose and approached the two assistants. “Let us see if we can’t sort out this tangle, my friends.”

Beside her, Crowe muttered, “He is aware they’re not human?”

Isla was determined to maintain her good humor. “He treats everyone and everything the same. One of his more admirable qualities.” She stretched her hands toward the fire. “Now that the sun is setting, I am quite chilled.”

“You’d have been better off staying aboard the ship.”

She glanced at him. “Come now, Mr. Crowe. You cannot deny the beauty of this place. If you do, I shall not believe you.”

He cleared his throat. “Passable, I suppose.”

Coming from him, she figured it was high praise. “Very passable indeed. Have you traveled much?”

He shrugged. “To Port Lucy. All of the rest of my time has been in England.”

“I have been all over our British Isles and a few times to Paris, but I have never traveled this far.”

He met her eyes. “And you are going to Port Lucy for research.”

She nodded. “I have questions that need answers. I was given to understand they could be found in Port Lucy.”

“I can’t imagine what questions the mighty Dr.

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.