Unconquered Read Free Page A

whole American merchant interests prospered extremely well, Jared Dunham among them.
    By the beginning of the year 1807 he owned five trading vessels. One was off in the Far East seeking spices, teas, ivory, andjewels. The other four he kept plying the Atlantic and the Caribbean. Fat bribes usually silenced any overzealous French officials, for the French were no longer as strong in the Caribbean area.
    Jared Dunham saw the handwriting on the wall, however. War was coming as sure as spring, and he had no desire to lose his ships to anyone else. So far he had managed to keep the good will of the English, evade the French, and, by running his Baltimore clipper at his own personal expense, to rescue enough impressed seamen to appear an obvious patriot and mask his far more dangerous missions. If governments were run, he thought irritably, more like businesses, there would be fewer problems; but alas, egos and personalities were always taking over governments.
    Jared Dunham’s carriage pulled up before the Abbott town house. Telling his driver to wait, he entered the mansion. His cloak taken, he was escorted upstairs by Gillian’s maid.
    “Darling!” Gillian greeted him from her bed with outstretched arms. “I didn’t think you were coming tonight.”
    He kissed her hand, wondering why she seemed so nervous, and noted the artful way in which she clutched the silken sheets to her naked breasts. “I came to say good-bye, my dear.”
    “Why are you joking, Jared?”
    “I am returning to America shortly.”
    She pouted adorably, and shook her dark red curls at him. “You can’t! I won’t let you go, my darling!” He let her pull him onto her bed, inhaling the musky perfume she always wore. “Oh, Jared!” she whispered huskily. “Abbott cannot last much longer, and when he is gone … Oh, darling, we are so good together!”
    He untangled her from his neck, and said in an amused tone, “If we are so good together, Gillian, then why do you find it necessary to take other lovers? I really do insist on fidelity from my mistresses, at least while I keep them. And I have kept you very well indeed, Gillian.”
    “Jared!” She tried looking hurt, but as she realized that she was having no effect on him, her topaz eyes narrowed dangerously and she hissed at him. “How dare you accuse me of such a thing!”
    His mouth twitched. “Gillian, my dear, your rooms stink of bay rum. It is certainly not your scent, nor is it mine. Therefore Iconclude that you have been entertaining another gentleman. Since I came only to bring you this token of my admiration, and to bid you farewell, you are quite free to continue as before.” He casually flipped the jeweler’s case at her, stood up, and turned toward the door.
    “ Jared! ” Her voice held a pleading note.
    He turned back, and saw that she had lowered the silk sheet to expose her magnificent breasts. He remembered the pleasure they had given him. Seeing him hesitate, she murmured, “There really is no one but you, my darling.”
    Vanity urged him to believe, but then he caught sight of a rumpled gentleman’s cravat lying on the arm of her chaise lounge. “Goodbye, Gillian,” he said coldly.
    Striding purposefully down the stairs, he called for his cape, and left the Abbot town house.

    Chapter 2    
    “O H , P APA! ” A MANDA D UNHAM’S CORNFLOWER-BLUE EYES filled with tears, and her blond ringlets quivered. “Must we really leave London now?”
    Thomas Dunham regarded his younger daughter with amusement. Amanda was so predictably like her mother. As he had been dealing successfully with Dorothea for the past twenty years he felt little challenge in dealing with Amanda now. “I’m afraid so, puss,” he said firmly. “If we don’t leave now we will be forced to either stay the winter in England at a time when things are not good between our countries, or else make an uncomfortable, very likely stormy crossing.”
    “Oh, let us stay for the winter!