A Lady of Integrity by Shelley Adina

Author:Shelley Adina [Adina, Shelley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, Romance, Science Fiction, Young Adult
Goodreads: 22369001
Publisher: Moonshell Books, Inc.
Published: 2014-12-22T07:00:00+00:00

*

Venice lay basking in the sun, the breeze toying with the lacy drapes inside open windows. Somewhere down one of the waterways, a gondolier sang a plaintive melody.

“This is what comes of allowing women and children to interfere with one’s duty.” Captain Hollys stalked along the pavement as though he would beat Lizzie’s location out of the recalcitrant stones. “I should never have permitted it.”

“I don’t recall that you had a choice in the matter,” Alice told him mildly, her gaze combing walls and alleys for any sign that either Lizzie or Tigg had passed this way.

“It has been nothing but chaos and confusion and the unnecessary involvement of others since the moment we landed.”

“I believe that was the plan. We’re to look like tourists, aren’t we? The best way to do that is to join a party of people who really are tourists—and while I have never been one before this week, I understand that some confusion is inevitable.”

This logic had no effect on him. “And now we have lost Lizzie. What possesses her to draw attention to herself in this irresponsible manner?”

“Her irrepressible spirits and warm heart?” It had worked, hadn’t it? “Thanks to her calling through that grate, we have information now that we didn’t before.” When he did not deign to reply, she said, “Captain, we’re not going to find them. I think we had better return to the hotel. Lizzie will find her way back to report to Claire, never fear.”

“It is not a matter of fear,” he said stiffly. “It is a matter of discipline.”

“I’ll be happy to watch you explain that to Lizzie, then, since discipline isn’t a word we usually associate with her or Maggie.”

He eyed her, his shoulders stiff and his bearing upright. “Surely you do not condone her behavior?”

“She’s a young woman who has come through worse than a brush with the local militia. It’s not my job to worry about her behavior, anyway. It’s Claire’s.”

“If it had been mine—” But he cut himself off.

Alice saw where the course of his thoughts had been set before he altered it. If Claire had accepted his offer of marriage, the remainder of the Mopsies’ upbringing might have been laid at his door. She did her best not to smile at the thought, to no avail.

“Do you find something amusing, Miss Chalmers?”

“Captain Chalmers,” she corrected him. “I’m sorry. I did have an amusing thought, but it’s none of my business.”

“Do tell.”

“You won’t like it.”

“There are any number of things about this mission I do not like, but I bear them with what equanimity I can.”

Goodness. Did all baronets talk like a dictionary, or just this one? “I was just thinking you’ve had a narrow escape. If things had been different, you would have been standing in a father’s place with the girls now, and that would have been even more trying for you.”

He stopped altogether, in the shade of a shop awning. “That is absolutely none of your business.”

“I said so, didn’t I? And I told you that you wouldn’t like it.

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