Captain Of Her Heart Read Free

point in fact of which she suspected he was well aware, given Jason surveyed her from top to toe, as if he knew how she looked in her chemise.  Slowly, very slowly, he smiled a wicked smile—matched by hers, no doubt.
    “Shall we dance?”
    How Alex lamented the bittersweet memory, because what had followed his elementary request had been a full-scale assault on her faculties. When Jason had slipped his arm about her waist, and he held her close, Alex had been giddy with unfamiliar but enticing excitement.  Imaginary bells had sounded a carillon in her ears, delicious fire had simmered beneath her skin, and she had trembled with each successive turn about the room.  To her embarrassment, she had tripped more than once, as no man had ever affected her thus.
    In that moment, Alex set her cap for Jason Collingwood.
    “My dear Captain, we could have such a wonderful life, if only you would do your part,” she said to no one.  “Must I do everything to further our relationship?”
    The situation, as it stood, remained intolerable, as she had to make Jason understand they were destined for each other.  And while his foul disposition, directed at her, of late, might prove useful when commanding his crew, he sometimes gave her a headache.  So nagging uncertainty rested on her shoulders, as the weight of the world.
    “I must be strong.”  In that instant, she studied her quavering fingers and emitted a plaintive cry.  “Oh, Jason.  I would fight Napoleon, himself, to win your love.”
    Determined to stay her course, Alex gave her attention to the snow-dusted landscape of the bustling seaport.  Located in the county of Devon, and facing the western end of the Channel, Plymouth hosted a prominent naval base from which many expeditions launched against France, which seemed an appropriate place for her to wage a war of hearts.
    And it was just around the corner, at Devonport, the main dockyard and shipbuilding facility of the British Navy, where Jason’s ship, the Intrepid , berthed for refitting and duty under letters of marque from the Lord High Admiral.  The new commission completed the well-played ruse as Jason embarked on his first solo mission for the Brethren of the Coast, a mysterious band of mariners who served the Crown in secret.
    It was Jason’s recent accomplishment that entrenched her belief that the hesitant captain was fated to be hers, because as a young girl Alex had often fantasized she was the wife of a knight from the famed order descended of the Templars, the warriors of the Crusades.  Her father, God rest him, had once been counted among their esteemed ranks, but unlike Cara, Alex could never fathom marrying a member of the much-fabled nautionniers, because she considered them brothers.  As a newcomer initiated into the order, Jason manifested the answer to her prayers.
    If only he shared her perspective.
    The coach came to an abrupt halt, which sent her tumbling to the floor, and she realized she had arrived at her destination.  Before her breach in feminine deportment was discovered, she regained the bench and smoothed her skirts, just as the footman opened the door.
    As Alex stepped to the unpaved drive, she scrutinized the little thatched cottage, which nestled amid a copse of formidable oaks.  A pebbled walkway led to the entry, which had been painted a vivid green and contrasted with whitewashed walls.  At either side of the entrance loomed the thorny skeletons of rosebushes, which stood dormant in winter, and bare flowerbeds.
    “Where should we leave your trunk, Miss Seymour?”  The coachman addressed her informally, as she had not apprised him of her true identity.
    “A moment, please, and I shall inquire.”  Without fear or hesitation, Alex marched straight up the path, grabbed the knocker, and pounded hard on the door.  And then nagging doubt nipped her heels.
    Painful seconds ticked past, as she considered the tenor of her welcome.  Would Jason express unbridled elation or