The Pleasure of Your Kiss Read Free Page A

both devoted and practical. His position within the Company carries with it tremendous responsibilities. I can hardly expect him to abandon his duties and return to London for something as frivolous as a wedding.” Linking her arm through Poppy’s, she turned her face toward the wind, relishing its promise of freedom, even if it was only an illusion. “I can’t begin to tell you what a comfort it is to have you by my side on this journey. I suggest we both stop fretting over the past and the future and start savoring every moment of this voyage. It may very well be our last grand adventure before we settle down into a life of dull respectability.”
    Clarinda was proved wrong with her very next breath when thunder boomed down from the clear blue sky. She and Poppy barely had time to turn their bewildered glances toward its cloudless vault before something struck the water in front of the ship with a tremendous splash, drenching them both in chill salt spray.
    “What in the devil … ?” Clarinda muttered, thankful she hadn’t yet given up cursing in preparation for her new station in life.
    Before she could mop the water from her eyes, another boom sounded, followed by a deafening crack from behind them. They whirled around just in time to see the towering mainmast of the ship begin to topple sideways like a felled tree, its mighty trunk splintered by the deadly weight of a cannonball. Clarinda was vaguely aware of Poppy’s fingernails biting into the tender skin of her forearm, but all she could do was watch in helpless horror as what looked like acres of sail came billowing down to bury the deck in a canvas shroud.
    They were forced to let go of each other and grasp the rail behind them as the ship lurched to the left, its forward momentum demolished along with its mainmast. Hoarse shouts assailed their ears, underscored by the high-pitched keening of some poor soul in agonizing pain. Sailors came pouring across the deck from every direction, some bearing buckets of water, others dropping to their knees to beat at the smoldering topsail with their bare hands.
    As the vessel began to list in a stomach-churning circle, effectively crippled by that one deadly blow, a young lieutenant came racing toward them from the aftercastle of the ship. “Please, ladies, you must get belowdecks immediately! We’re under attack!”
    “Attack?” Clarinda echoed, his frantic words only deepening her confusion. As far as she knew, there was no one left to attack them. Since the final defeat of Napoléon’s navy, most of England’s enemies had been routed and subdued, if not by sword and cannon, then by various treaties. No one had dared to challenge England’s supremacy on the high seas in nearly two decades.
    The sailor stumbled to a halt in front of them and snatched off his bicorne hat, remembering his manners even at such a trying time. “I’m afraid it’s pirates, miss.” His Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat as he made a valiant attempt to swallow his own terror. “Corsairs.”
    Poppy gasped. One had only to whisper that name to strike terror in the heart of even the most courageous of souls. Parents had been using it to chasten generations of rebellious children, whispering in their little ears that the notorious pirates would come and snatch them from their beds in the dead of night if they failed to recite their evening prayers or eat every last spoonful of their porridge.
    The Corsairs had always been notorious for prowling the Mediterranean waters. They would sack every ship they encountered for its booty, none so valuable as the women they captured and sold at the barbarian slave markets in North Africa and Arabia.
    And those were the lucky ones.
    “I don’t understand.” Clarinda clenched her teeth to still their sudden chattering. “I thought the French subdued the Corsairs when they conquered Algiers.”
    “Most of them did surrender at that time. But that only made the ones who refused more desperate