Sweet Vengeance by Elizabeth St. Michel

Author:Elizabeth St. Michel
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: 0
Published: 2017-09-25T16:00:00+00:00

Abigail bit her lip to hide a smile. “He is protecting me.”

“I gathered as much, but I don’t have to like it.”

Simeon’s mother hen antics irked Jacob, but the real reason for his displeasure was learning his cabin boy could read and expound on several subjects. “How is it you have such a good education?” she asked him, fingering the spine of her book.

He scorched her with a black look. “For a cloddish colonial?”

Abby giggled. “You did suffer Abe. I’m curious Captain Thorne,” she said unable to stop her impulsive questions in spite of herself. “How is it you are so informed on many subjects?”

He lathered two scones with butter, lopped a teaspoon of sweet guava jelly on top and handed one to her. “My uncle insisted on my education, setting a straight course, barring no deviation and demanding I receive the best education. With the family struggling financially, I objected the expense. Where he obtained the money to hire a scholar from Oxford remains a mystery.”

Abby nibbled on her scone then tilted her head to the side, the guava, an intriguing taste in her mouth. “A scholar from Oxford in the Colonies? Very unusual.” She wanted to ask him so many things…what he had left behind in his past that she sensed remained buried, what he expected of his future, but she held her tongue. The lessons of the past few months had taught her caution.

She sat in silence, considering this side of Jacob Thorne. In her young life, she had been courted by many swains, and seeing men from different angles, yet she regarded him as unique and unnervingly interesting.

He leaned over and wiped a crumb from her chin. The movement was only for a second, but it seemed a lifetime, and so incongruous with the roguish adventurer. Abby stopped breathing.

“So,” he said, his grin slightly off center. “The seed of discovering had been planted by my instructor then cultivated with questions and reasoning until my appetite for learning became voracious. I read everything I could get my hands on. To the surprise of my tutor, I had eclipsed him in a few years.”

“Your uncle was quite a man. Your mother and father must be proud?” He had said nothing of his parents and had earlier disclosed he had relatives in England. The man was a closed door.

He thought for a moment, obviously weighing what he would reveal to her, but it was the gruffness of his voice that caught her and added to his mystery. “My mother had traveled from England and we lived with her sister, Ester and her husband, Hugh Thorne. I never knew my father. My mother died when I was ten summers. My aunt and uncle adopted me, a natural and logical inclination since I had lived with them from the time I was born. They extended their love and extended their acknowledgement of me as a child of their own, nullifying my bastardy. I owe them a great debt.”

Abby swallowed. It took a lot for the proud Captain Thorne to acknowledge the facts of his lineage.

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