The Stolen Heart Read Free Page A

said when he was able to turn his attention to her
    once more, “how is your father?”
     
     
She sighed. “I was hoping you might be able to tell me news of him,
    sir. He still hasn't returned to port, though it’s been more than
    four years.”
     
     
Jared stopped in his tracks and stared at her in astonishment. “That
    can’t be. He left New Zealand before I did. Months before.”
     
     
She nodded. “So far as we know, he gammed at the Bay of Islands with
    the Lyra and the Mermaid , and filled his hold. They
    threw their try works over board, and began to head for home almost
    a year ago with all possible speed. That’s the last that anyone's
    seen or heard of him.”
     
     
He looked truly crestfallen. “I’m sorry to hear it. It’s a dreadful
    loss, and hard for you and your sisters.”
     
     
“Yes, it has been,” she said hoarsely, barely holding back the
    tears.
     
     
“Well, if there is anything I can do to help,” he said.
     
     
He held the door open for her as they entered the hotel, and headed
    for the dining room.
     
     
“Actually, there is,” Almira had the nerve to say once they were
    seated.
     
     
He looked up from the elegantly-printed menu with a slight frown.
    “There is what?”
     
     
“Something you can do to help. I wouldn't ask if I weren't
    desperate.”
     
     
He looked mildly wary, but nodded. “I can try.”
     
     
“I need a job. I want to ship on board with you.”
     
     
He shook his head. “Very admirable, but you're so young and green,
    and small.” He grasped her thin forearm by way of illustrating his
    point.
     
     
She blushed at the contact. “I know all the objections to my
    becoming a whaleman, and I'd never ask for myself. It’s for my
    sisters. I need some money to apprentice them with a good
    dressmaker. If you were to take me on, and pay me in advance, I
    could buy them their articles, and be sure they were looked after
    well while I’m away.
     
     
"Then I could go off to look for my father and brother with a clear
    conscience. And at least if Father did happen to come home while I
    was gone, he would find Amy and Alice, and news of what had happened
    to me and my brother Adrian.”
     
     
“He wasn't at sea with your father?” Jared asked, his brows
    knitting.
     
     
“No, he shipped out on another whaler, for work, and to find Father
    once he was so overdue that we began to fear the worst.”
     
     
“And so he left you in charge of your sisters? You're so young. How
    could he?”
     
     
She shook her head. “He didn’t know Mother would fall ill and die.
    He thought he was helping, earning money and searching for Father
    himself. But I fear he might not take to the whaling life, and might
    be in trouble, miserable.”
     
     
Jared shrugged. “Many greenhands suffer when they first ship out,
    but they soon settle down-”
     
     
She shook her head. “You don’t understand. We were desperate for
    money at that point, so he took the first berth he could get. The
    shipping agent who signed him up told him a pack of lies. He shipped
    out on the Dolphin from New Bedford, with Captain Smith.”
     
     
Jared was dumbstruck. When he finally found his voice, he gasped,
    “Good God, not Killer Smith! How long has he been gone?”
     
     
“About three months.”
     
     
He rubbed his jaw and did some quick mental calculations. “There
    might still be time to catch them, if they run into some whales, and
    make long stops in each port for a drinking binge. Knowing Smith,
    that's pretty likely.”
     
     
He stared at the plate the waiter brought him as if he could not
    understand where it had appeared from.
     
     
Then he glanced up at Almira, who was still looking at him
    pleadingly, her blue eyes sparkling with unshed tears. His own
    golden gaze met hers.
     
     
He cleared his throat, and sat up straight. “Very well, I tell you
    what we're going to do, son. We're going to eat this fine meal,
    including dessert. I adore