Rules of an Engagement by Suzanne Enoch

Author:Suzanne Enoch [Enoch, Suzanne]
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, General
ISBN: 9780061662225
Publisher: Harper Collins, Inc.
Published: 2010-10-26T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

A captain bold from Halifax

Once left his captain quarters

Seduced a maid who hanged herself

One morning in her garters.

“THE UNFORTUNATE MISS BAILEY”

Bradshaw peered at the half mirrors of the sextant and made another adjustment to the delicate instrument. Once he had his sighting, he checked his pocket watch against the measurements and handed the sextant back to one of the cabin boys. “Make us two degrees to port, Mr. Leavey,” he said.

The pilot spun the wheel. “Aye, aye, Captain. Two degrees to port.”

As he turned his gaze to starboard and the growing wall of clouds filling the horizon, he could almost smell the coming storm. They’d been lucky to this point; fairly mild weather had followed them all the way from England and out to the middle of the Pacific. Silently he sent up a prayer that the worst of it would pass to the south of them, but not only were they due, but he’d cut his deadline to reach Tahiti to almost nothing.

He could blame it on Sir Joseph, who wanted to stop and linger at every island they sighted, but it wasn’t the botanist’s gray eyes lit with the joy of wonder and discovery that had him setting anchor when they should have been moving. Whatever he’d embarked on with her rules, at the least it seemed to be affecting him. He enjoyed women, but he’d never had one as a friend before. A friend he wanted, but a friend nonetheless.

It was for that reason he could wish that Zephyr hadn’t become so friendly with Juliette Quanstone; the London chit knew far too much about his past reputation for his comfort. And he was fairly certain that somewhere during this voyage he’d ceased to be that man. On the other hand, once they returned to England it would help if Zephyr knew some of the nuances of Society, because she simply couldn’t go about speaking to dukes and earls the way she spoke to him.

He supposed he could blame these new and odd feelings on those nebulous rules of hers, but he wasn’t certain that “blame” was the correct word. If he’d simply seduced her straightaway he would of course have remained polite and amiable toward her, but in becoming acquainted with her first he’d discovered some things about her and about himself that he would never have had cause or opportunity to otherwise experience.

Material swished behind him, and he turned around. At the sight of the blond hair and parasol, the anticipation stirring through his muscles faded again, and he nodded. “Miss Jones. What may I do for you?”

“Lieutenant Gerard said we won’t see another island until we reach Tahiti. Is that true?”

“Yes. There’s nothing between us and Tahiti but four days of large, empty ocean.” And a rather alarming-looking storm front.

“That sounds terribly dull.”

Shaw just refrained from rolling his eyes. “After our reception in Tonga, a bit of boredom sounds rather refreshing to me.”

“But I haven’t done anything the least bit amusing since we were in Fiji, and even that ended far too abruptly.

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