Moonwitch Read Free Page B

her lips, and what was more shameful, she hadn’t much wanted to.
    She was still considering what explanation she would give when she reached the milliner’s shop on High Street. Her Negro groom, Samuel, wasn’t waiting with the gig as she had directed, but it was early yet and she still had her errand to complete. As she was about to enter the shop, however, an elegant black-and-green curricle clattered up the street and came to a halt beside her. The equipage was drawn by a matched pair of bays and driven by her betrothed, Avery Warner, with a young black slave perched up behind.
    Avery was a tall, middle-aged gentleman, distinguished looking rather than handsome, with dark hair graying at the temples. At the moment his stern features were set in an unsmiling expression as he regarded Selena. “Might I take you up with me, my dear? It is unbecoming for you to be walking the streets unattended.”
    Selena felt herself flushing at his public censure. “That won’t be necessary, Avery,” she replied woodenly. “Samuel will be along in a moment, and I have some shopping yet to do.”
    “But I insist. I cannot have my future wife behaving in a manner that is less than circumspect. It will give rise to gossip.”
    “I’m surprised you think it proper for us to be seen together without a chaperon!”
    Avery’s brows drew together as he shot her a surprised look; Selena rarely spoke sharply to anyone. “I rather think a chaperon is unnecessary, my dear,” he said in mild reproof. “This an open carriage, and we are affianced, after all. I am simply concerned about appearances.”
    Selena pressed her lips together. It was a bit late for Avery to be concerned about appearances, for she had already lent herself to gossip with a vengeance.
    “And of course,” he continued in a more tolerant tone, “I am thinking of your safety, as well, Selena. I passed a throng of ruffians fighting in front of the courthouse just now—the courthouse, no less—and not a justice in sight. I was disgusted, I can tell you. Such conduct is disgraceful. Rabble like that should be clapped in jail and not be free to roam the streets. I intend to take it up with the council at the first opportunity.”
    She should have told Avery then about her encounter with the “rabble” and their bold, roisterous captain, she knew. But she couldn’t bring herself speak of it, not in the middle of the street with the bright-eyed black groom overhearing her every word. Besides, Avery would learn of it soon enough. And perhaps by keeping silent she would be avoiding an even greater scandal. Avery was sufficiently aroused just now to demand the captain be brought to justice, and she didn’t think Captain Ramsey’s offense was serious enough to warrant a jail sentence.
    And so she murmured a noncommittal reply. When Avery insisted on waiting for her so that he could see her home, she gave in gracefully and hastily completed her shopping. She was carrying a bandbox when she left the shop. Avery consigned it to the groom, who stowed it behind the seat, then handed Selena into the curricle, informing her that he had sent Samuel on ahead.
    As they left St. John’s, with its Georgian weatherboard buildings and scattering of coconut palms, they turned south onto a narrow road of crushed coral, following the ridge of a hill. From that vantage, Selena had a good view of the warm, wind-washed island.
    On her right was a luminous expanse of jewel-blue sea, shading to lighter green as it met the reefs that ringed Antigua and filled the numerous coves and inlets along the coast. The leeward side of the island was sheltered from the full force of the trade winds, so that the waves of the Caribbean lapped easily at the dazzling white sand beaches—unlike the eastern shore, which had no defense against the wind-driven rollers of Atlantic.
    Before her stretched a gently rolling landscape, covered by low scrub and verdant fields, and beyond, in the distance, rose Boggy