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She felt hiain, and chuckled breathlessly as she wriggled againsthily
"Aye, " he murmured suddenly"Four more tihed happily, her heart soaring as she leaned forward tokiss him Shefeltat that ewould not be so bad after all
Marriage washell
It o ht in the isolated cove in the CaribbeanThey were only a warlike thattie was veryoverher life as if she were a child
Oh, it hadnot startedout thatwayIt had been a gradualturn
They hadreturned tothe ship with One-Eye and Skully, then sailed back to PortRoyale to load upon goods andsuch, then had endedupstayingthere teeks Valoree had decidedthe men should havesoeMeg had spent that tiold friends on the island, so Valoree and Danielhad spent the teeks almostexclusivelyin each other’s arms Oh, they had left the shipseveral tiofor picnics But always they had ended up in each other’s arms It had been almost asblissful as the two days in the cove, except that now there were occasional interruptions by Henryor one of theother un to noticethedifferencethen
The first tiaze going froain, asif he wasn’tsure who to ask In the end, he had addressedit tothe roo orders as alwaysBut the trendhad continued So long as Daniel was present, the men all seemedat a loss as to whom toaddress
The matterhad bothered hersomuchthatwhenthey had finally set sail for London, she had been careful to go on deck to give her orders only when Daniel was sleeping Therestof thetithe heir requiredby her father’s and hisgrandmother’s wills Very hard Extremelyhard
Between Daniel’s determination to learn every inch of her body, andherneed to check on her ive out orders whilehe slept, Valoree had hardly gotten any sleep atallthat first week of the journey Ah, butit hadbeen worth it - until she had comedoith asu worn out
Daniel had coddled her then, bundling her in blankets and fetchingher hotspicedrum Valoree hadslept nearly aroundthe clock for over a week Bythe tiain, it was to find that he had taken her place
Oh, themen still calledher captain, but it was to hiave anorder it was only to seethe it out
Valoree’sfirst instincthad been togo intoarage and deht better of it The men were traditional, andshe knew they wouldbelieve it was afor her to becaptain when they had thought her a as she was seeking the husband they neededto retire But now that she was married and hada husband, by laas her ruler, and therefore theirs
Thus, she had bitten her, tongue and returned to the cabin, deterent man Heeven hadnatural leadership qualities But he had not spent the last thirteenyears aboard ship with these men Hewould slip up, and shewould be there to show hi a lord did notmake hilandin the cabin, clai undertheweather and desired the rest In truth, she had been pacing the floor and waiting - so, sheshiftedin her chair andtried to concentrate onthe chapbook she had sat downtoread Chapbooks hat she hadfilled hertio - tales of banditry, terror on the high seas, and adventure One-Eye had sneaked them to her There were romancesin the stack, too, but sheavoided thehromance to last a lifetime, anditwasn’t all that it was chalked uptobe She had found that it lost some of its appeal quickly whenthe rest of one’s life was e to resent Danieland the effect hehad had on her life
Time had seeed likean anchor along the botto his touch andcaresses, but soreat clatter and crashing from below hedPetey and the Thurbornes’ cook, Eleni were going at it again, no doubt
Those terehavinga battle overwho ranthe kitchenEleni hadbeenheadcook here for several years andwasdetermined to keep it that way Petey hadalways been "the captain’s" cook and was deter pots around and having shoutingo
Instead ofgoing to London, they had sailed the Valor tothe Thurborne estate, anchoring off the point that the castle itself stoodon and reachingshore by dinghy That had been Daniel’s decision He clais to tend here, but she suspectedhe was keepingher awayfrom societysoshewouldn’t e instructors to teach her "what she needed to know to get by"She supposed she couldn’t bla-out Added to that was the factthat she just wasn’t like otherwomenShe supposedhe would rather keep her here, outof the wayof the ton Mayhap he was even beginning to regrether
Daniel had wantedthe men all to wait on the Valor, butthey had had oneof theirvotesanddecidedthat the same men who had accompanied them in London wouldco, One-Eye, Skully, Bull, and Pete were allhangingabout the castle so Henry inThurborne’s gardens, wherethe old tar spent his tiardener crazy with questions and opinions Skully, One-Eye, and Bull divided their tiirls and hanging out around thestables The three ood horseflesh
It all left Valoree alone, feelinglike a fish outofwater inthis fancycastle with self-effacing servants, andwith a husband as foreverbusy runninghisestate Valoree had spent most of the lastteeks cuddled upwith chapbooks in the chair she now sat in She had notevenreally looked around much She had discoveredthis room and stayed putIt wastheroomwiththe least numberof breakables in it There had not been a lot of fancy little delicate thingsin Valoree’s life At least not since living ontheValor
Fancy breakables had no place on a ship that dipped and rolled on the high seas, and the Beecham town house had been furnished, but with just the essentials such as furnishings and cooking pots There had been no easily destructible things there
HereatThurborne, Valoree was almost afraidto walk around, lest she knock over and smash one of the fancy and delicate ite, sheset the book down on her lap and peered around the small, sunny roo did nothappen soon The days stretched out before her, an unending paradeof hours spent sitting here, staring off intospace, miserable, asshe waited for mealtime, when her husband would reappear froGood Lord, how did otherwomen stand it? Her life hadbeen fullof tasks up to now Therehadalways been some chore or other to accomplish aboard ship: sails to ive
Even as achild hertime had beenfull of lessons and chores But Valoreehad no idea omen did once they weretodo atallbesides stare around?
The only good thing about it was that, if she wasbored, herquarters and lack of entertain by nowShe was positivethattrouble would break outsoon, and then they wouldsee as the real captain
"My dear girl!"
Valoree’s head snapped around, her eyes widening in a into the roos thechapbook she had been reading down under the cushion she sat on, Valoree stood, and felt her body stiffen as she wasengulfed in a cloud of rose-scented taffeta
"Oh, irl!I wanted to tell you how happy I ahter-in-law, " the woaily, then pulled back to s to think that Daniel would never marry I feared even the requirements of Mother’s ould not irl! Comesitwithme; wemustchat"
Valoree allowed herself to be drawn over to the settee, her expression bemused"Whendid you arrive? How didyou knoere here? "