Her Heart's Captain Read Free Page A

Lord Clement, his eyebrows raised with interest as soon as the news was imparted to him. Lord Clement was the highest peer in the neighborhood, the largest landowner for miles round and the possessor of the region’s oldest title. Clement Hall was huge and impressive, making Lady Garvin’s property, Willowrise, seem paltry in comparison. Willowrise was the second-finest house in the area, but in any other town the size of Wyndham it would have been considered the first. It sat high on a hill, with an avenue of willows leading up to it, designed in the elegant Palladian style and very grand. It filled Lady Garvin’s breast with venom to have had, all these years, only the second-highest place in the community. But at least she had a son. Lord and Lady Clement had only Andrea. And when her son became a famous admiral, she would take second place to none!
    â€œThe Providential , eh?” his lordship repeated with excitement. “That’s my nephew’s ship, you know. My sister Dulcie’s second son. Tristram Allenby’s his name. Made his name and fortune during the late hostilities. A fine, courageous sailor. Your boy is indeed fortunate to sail with him.”
    â€œSo I’ve been told,” Lady Garvin responded with an obvious lack of enthusiasm. Even in this matter the Clements were trying to get the better of her. The captain of the vessel had to be their relation. She ground her teeth in irritation but quickly recovered her smile. “The whole enterprise promises to be fortunate,” she told Lord Clement with charming if obvious emphasis. “I hope you will tell your sister to tell her son that he is fortunate to have my boy on his staff. Very fortunate indeed.”
    Jenny, although not given to effusion in her mother’s style, was nevertheless equally optimistic about her brother’s future. The boy was his sister’s beloved, admired darling, and as she sat stitching his monogram on the new shirts they’d had made for his dress uniforms, she happily envisioned a future for him every bit as glorious as the one her mother dreamed of. She would miss him when he was away at sea, of course, but she was very proud of him.
    Not in her wildest imaginings, however, could she have guessed that her brother’s very promising future would directly endanger her own.

Chapter Two
    As the day of Robbie’s departure neared, both Lady Garvin and Jenny were beset with misgivings. Lady Garvin, not one to keep her feelings hidden, expressed to Jenny her fears and sense of desolation as they sat together in the sewing room, putting the finishing touches on the boy’s new shirts. “What if something dreadful should happen to him?” she asked, her eyes clouded by inner visions of shipwreck and disaster.
    Jenny shook her head. “Don’t think of such things, Mama,” she said in her low, soothing voice. “Such fears are very natural, of course, but we’ve both agreed, haven’t we, that the Navy is the best place for Robbie? It’s in his best interest—and ours, too—if we behave bravely and keep from troubling his mind with our own anxieties.”
    Lady Garvin was convinced of Jenny’s good sense, and she bravely held her tongue, letting her tears fall only at night in the privacy of her bedroom. Meanwhile, the two ladies stitched his monograms, ordered fresh linens to be made for him, supervised his new, manly haircut (the sight of which caused Lady Garvin to drip a few sentimental tears in spite of herself), sewed the insignia on the coats of his uniforms, selected his hats and packed all his belongings tenderly into a new, highly polished wooden trunk with brass fittings. When Robbie objected that they were packing too many things, telling his mother and sister that he was certain that “we sailing men” carry only a few items of clothing in a small, canvas seabag, his mother insisted that he was mistaken. “Surely