Silver Tears Read Free

nor Jonathan Hargrave noticed, however.
    Hargrave, who had held his tongue for many leagues as they crossed the rough seas, could take it no longer. Now the words burst from his lips. “What do you know about this Christopher Gunn, milady? How can you even consider marrying him?”
    Alice took a step back as if he’d struck her a blow. “I beg your pardon! I don’t believe that’s any of your concern.”
    He put out a hand to steady her as the ship’s bow plowed through a swell. “ You are my concern until I discharge you on that wild shore yonder. And, by God, I’ll not see an innocent… lovely woman left to her own devices among heathens.”
    “I won’t be alone, Captain, and Christopher Gunn, from what I know of him, could hardly be considered a heathen.”
    “Did your husband tell you everything about Gunn? Did he warn you?”
    Alice couldn’t imagine what the man was talking about. Yes, she knew about Christopher Gunn—he was a tall, incredibly handsome Scotsman, from what she remembered, having seen him that one time years ago. She knew he was the only son of one of her late husband’s friends. According to Lord Geoffrey, he had been a restless young man, “a ship without a sail—but he’ll do great things one day,” her husband had said. Alice told the captain all this, then added, “My late husband assured me that he had written to Mr. Gunn and that all was arranged for our marriage. If you are truly concerned, I have a letter of introduction to Mr. Gunn, along with a deed to my colonial holdings in my cabin.”
    “Aye,” the captain answered, skepticism dripping from the single syllable. “I’ll take your word for all that. However, Lord Balfour neglected to tell you the rest of Gunn’s story, I’ll wager.”
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    “Obviously. Lord Balfour knew—he must have. What could he have been thinking, handing you over to such a man?”
    Alice was beginning to feel a trembling in the pit of her stomach. She wasn’t sure she wanted to hear any more of what Captain Hargrave had to say. “You know Christopher Gunn?” Her voice was barely a whisper.
    “Aye, know and detest him, I do. Scoundrel, blackguard, and a few other names I won’t mention in a lady’s presence. We were shipmates once, even friends for a time. But no more. We both set our caps for a pretty maid in a foreign port. She chose Gunn over me. I challenged him. He laughed in my face, shaming me in front of her. But ’twas I who had the last laugh when we sailed away and he left her there on the dock. Have you any inkling why he’s off in this godforsaken place, a man of his intelligence and education?”
    Alice shrugged. She had wondered, but she refused to admit that to the outspoken captain, who was obviously trying to get even with Gunn for their past differences.
    “I’ll tell you why he’s here.”
    “Somehow I knew you would.”
    “Gunn has a special talent,” the irate man continued, “a talent with ladies. He might have married and settled down to a gentleman’s life back in England. There’s talk that more than one well-dowered young woman of noble family had her eye on him a few years back. But, no, Chris Gunn wanted none of this settling down to home and hearth. Proper young ladies bored him, he told me once as we sat drinking together late one night in a dockside tavern. He was fond of the chippies of White-chapel, but his main passion ran to other men’s wives. Noblemen’s wives, at that.”
    A soft gasp escaped Alice’s rosy lips. “I don’t believe you.”
    “Well, be that as it may, it’s high time someone spoke the plain truth of the matter to you. Gunn ran off here to the wilds of Maine to escape not one, but several angry husbands.”
    Alice turned quickly away. “I believe I’ll go below now and see that Pegeen has finished the packing.”
    “Fine by me, milady. But think hard on what you’re doing before it’s too late.”
    She hesitated,