Captain Of Her Heart Read Free Page B

support Jason’s outstretched frame, Alex braced for a lightning strike.
    “If you say so, ma’am.”  Casting a doubtful glance at the object in question, Molly walked to a rear door.  “This way, please.”
    A decent-sized bed laden with timeworn quilts and down pillows held pride of place in the adjoining suite, if she could call it that.  A single night table sat just to the left, with a small wash area to the right.  Yes, her captain was a fastidious sort.  Beyond an arched doorway posited a dressing room, including a chest and an armoire.
    With a smile, Alex entered the closet and claimed a coat from a wall peg.  Fingering a mother-of-pearl button, she summoned heartwarming images from the past, when Jason had draped the frock over her shoulders, after she had been caught in the rain with Cara.  With the wool pressed to her cheek, she closed her eyes and inhaled his signature sandalwood scent.
    “Shall I unpack your trunk, Miss Seymour?” the charwoman asked in a small voice.
    “Please, do so.”  Alex returned the garment to the peg and then peered from side to side.  “Tell me, Molly, if there is only one bedchamber, where does the valet sleep?”
    “The valet, ma’am?”  Molly blinked.
    “Indeed.”  Alex noted the tattered rug at the footboard and decided it would have to be replaced.  “You know, Jason’s manservant?  Does he reside elsewhere?”
    “I am sorry, Miss Seymour, but Cap’n has no valet.”  Molly propped open the lid on the trunk.  “I believe he tends himself.”
    “Oh?”  A chill of unease danced a merry jig down her spine.  “So you are the sole servant Jason employs?”
    “Yes, ma’am.”  Molly bent to set a pair of slippers on the floor.  “Cap’n hired me to clean the cottage, wash his clothes, and prepare his evening meal.  To my knowledge, he takes care of everything else.”
    Now that manifested another kink in her grand scheme.  Given her hasty flight from London, and the deception upon which her plan relied, Alex had departed sans lady’s maid.  Perhaps Jason could tie and untie her laces, as that might aid her campaign to win his heart.
    So as Molly smoothed the wrinkles from various gowns, Alex escorted the footman to the door and bade him farewell, with instructions to return at her written summons.  And then she waved to the driver, as the coach lurched forward and eventually disappeared in a cloud of dust.
    As she reassessed her bucolic accommodations, for which she had been entirely unprepared, Alex supposed she could cry.  Yet she recalled her married Brethren sisters had confronted similar, if not worse, circumstances when they wagered everything for love.
    In an attempt to evade the parson’s noose, Caroline had stowed away aboard Dalton’s ship, whereupon Trevor mistook her for a courtesan and kidnapped her.  Sabrina had spent a summer transforming herself into a true English lady to win Everett.  And only last year, Cara had thrown caution to the wind and seduced Lance.  At long last, Alex understood their motivation, carefully inscribed in the Brethren oath.
    For love and comradeship we live .
    In the end, each lady had married the man of her dreams, only after they had breached the limits of polite society, and Alex resolved to follow in their successful paths.  So for her, there was no going back.  For good or ill, she had crossed her Rubicon.
    #
    The sun had sunk well below the yardarm, when Jason steered his mount toward the single-stall stable at the rear of the cottage he had rented, while repairs to the Intrepid were completed.  After securing the horse, he tugged off his gloves as he rounded the side of the house.  It was then he noticed smoke billowing from the chimney.
    “Bloody hell.”  Jason hastened his stride.  “How many times have I told that harebrained girl not to leave a fire burning in the hearth?  Does she wish to destroy my home away from home?”
    And then it occurred to him that Molly might