Laura Kinsale Read Free Page B

unladylike tantrum, she was ready to do battle for her specimens.
    Captain Frost was obviously still embarrassed by the perfectly natural mistake of taking her for a crewman; he kept glancing down and up and anywhere but at her. His diffidence gave Tess ample opportunity for observation. He looked exactly as a blockade-runner should, she decided, with his sou’wester tilted at a rakish angle above strong, well-formed features, and his face clean-shaven and deeply tanned. No softness, except in his smoky-gray eyes, where an unexpected youthfulness contrasted with the hard lines etched around his mouth. Tess found herself warming to him, even as she ruthlessly prepared to take advantage of his discomfort. Sheraised her chin and smiled persuasively. “But Captain, the specimens will be on deck.”
    “Not for long,” he vowed. “I promise you, ma’am, we’ll have those plants out of the rain within the hour.”
    “You will do nothing of the sort,” she retorted, changing tactics smoothly. “I want the pots lashed securely just aft of the forecastle deck. Your mate wouldn’t do it, so I was trying to get on myself, but I can’t seem to manage the larger ones.”
    Gryf looked down at his premier passenger in consternation, and found that Grady’s rebellion suddenly made sense. “You were trying to move them yourself?”
    “Since your crew didn’t seem inclined to help. Something about the plants being a hazard on deck, which is nonsense. If we put them here, just between the anchor deck and the windlass, they won’t be in the way at all.”
    The idea that Lady Collier would even know port from starboard, much less recognize the windlass, made Gryf’s eyebrows go up in dubious surprise. He absently wiped a rivulet of rainwater from his cheek. “I’m sure Grady meant that the plants themselves wouldn’t be safe here,” he temporized. “The hold—”
    “—will be too dark,” she finished for him. “Captain, several of these specimens have already traveled halfway around the globe on deck. I’m certain they will be fine.”
    He took a breath. “On a steamer, I’m sure they were. But the Arcanum is a clipper under full sail, ma—uh, Your Ladyship. We’ll have water across the bow if we get into heavy weather.”
    “If the weather threatens, then we’ll move them below, of course. But my father and I sailed from New Guinea to San Francisco on an American clipper, and even in foul weather, there was never any problem with salt water this far forward. That’s one reason why I would like to have the specimens here.”
    Gryf glanced away, unable to look into her lovely face and argue deck sheer and freeboard heights and the difference between his Aberdeen-built ship and a Yankee design. Driving into rising seas, there would be plenty of salt water on the foredeck; enough to wash a man overboard, and certainly enough to damage the plants. But the answer was simple enough. Let the plants stay where they were for now. He’d have them moved after the Arcanum was under way.
    “As you wish,” he said at last. “I’ll see that they’re secured on deck.”
    He was rewarded for his surrender with a smile so bright it made him blink.
    “Thank you. You’re very reasonable, Captain Frost. I shall take myself out of your way, then—I know you won’t fail me. And you had my note? The Taylors would like you to dine with us this evening.”
    All Gryf could manage was an awkward nod. There was a pressure building inside of him, a knot of hopeless yearning that he wanted to hide and was afraid he could not. He bowed to her, followed her to the rail, was turned down with a laugh when he offered to escort her home. She left him standing on the deck like an adoring puppy told to stay. He had that kind of worship on his face; he knew it, because when Grady came on board a moment later there was a disapproving scowl in the older man’s glance.
    It made no difference. Gryf watched her walk away, determined and graceful