Ready & Willing Read Free Page A

making her stumble for a moment, but she grabbed the newel post and righted herself just as the good captain had started to reach out to steady her. She was back on solid footing before he would have grabbed her, and she was suddenly strangely sorry she hadn’t fallen. She would have liked to see what happened when he touched her. Would his hand go right through her arm? Or would she feel the warmth of his fingers curling over her bare flesh?
    And why did she even ask herself that? Not only was this just a dream, but so far, everything else in it felt substantial enough. Why wouldn’t Captain Summerfield be substantial, too?
    After a small hesitation, he put down his hand and strode into the living room. Audrey followed until he came to a halt by the fire. He placed a hand on the mantelpiece and gazed into the flickering flames, lifting the brandy to his mouth for a generous taste before speaking again.
    “My marriage only lasted six months,” he said when he finally did. “We were both very young. She was the daughter of one of my father’s business partners, and we . . .” He sighed deeply and turned to look at Audrey. “Well, as I said, we were very young. And impulsive. And neither knew to take the proper measures against . . .”
    “She got pregnant and the two of you had to get married,” Audrey finished for him.
    His expression changed at her assessment, but she wasn’t sure if it was because he was distressed at the mention of his wife’s doubtless unwanted condition or because he was perturbed by Audrey’s frankness. Finally, he said, “Yes. She increased. Unfortunately, she didn’t survive our son’s birth.” Before Audrey had a chance to remark on that, he hurried on, “As her mother was also deceased, my mother took the child and raised him. After Rebecca and I married, I had taken a position on one of the riverboats that traveled between New Orleans and New York, so I was often absent. I barely knew my son, Mrs. Magill. For that matter, I barely knew my wife.” He looked into the fire again. “Even after the boy grew to be a man, married, and had children of his own, I saw him only sporadically. I wasn’t suited to family life. I grew too . . . restless.”
    Really weird dream, Audrey thought. Captain Summerfield’s portrait had definitely made an impression, if she was dreaming about exchanging deep, dark secrets with the guy.
    “In any event,” he continued, “my son’s sons married and had sons, and then their sons married and had sons, and so on and so forth, and each new generation made the Summerfield name more honorable and more respected than the one before it.” He looked at Audrey again, and the unmistakable, unmitigated fury in his eyes pinned her to the spot. “Until now,” he said. “My great-great . . . et cetera . . . grandson Nathaniel Summerfield has been suffering for some time now from a slowly deteriorating sense of duty and obligation. Over the years, he has blurred his personal line between right and wrong to the point where it is nearly indistinct. The boy is in terrible danger from himself, and I need for you to go speak with him.”
    “Me?” Audrey echoed. “Why me? I don’t even know your great-great-et-cetera grandson.”
    “There will be an article about him in tomorrow’s newspaper,” Captain Summerfield told her. “Read it, and everything will be made clear. You must go speak to him directly after reading about him.”
    “And tell him what?” Audrey asked. “That his great-great-et-cetera grandfather visited me in a portentous dream and made me go talk to him about his representation in the media?”
    Silas Summerfield sighed heavily. “No, Mrs. Magill. Tell him I visited you in a portentous dream and asked you to tell him that he’s in danger of losing his soul.”
    “ What? ”
    “And that once lost,” the captain continued as if she hadn’t spoken—or, rather, yelled—“his soul will be gone forever.”
    “Oh, well, in that