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She set to work on her sketch, keeping Quinn occupied with questions about his childhood, his ho a man to recall his past invariably caused hi the horizon And while Quinn focused on that far-off ti him ill at ease She noted the small divot between his eyebrows that appeared likely to become a furroith tiernails and in the creases of his palms; stains that would likely never wash off And when he spoke of his nephew, she caught the faintest hint of a smile at the corner of his eyes
How different it was, to draw people-- real people with lives of sweat and labor, each a unique challenge A far cry fro the sareataain their confidence When they sat down before her, they trusted her to collect all their weathered features and tiny imperfections and commit them to paper, to assemble them into likenesses for their wives, their sweethearts, themselves It felt somehow iave the of value that came from her talent, not from her fortune or her pretty face
Of course, it also helped pass the time And it kept Sophia, for those few hours a day, fro of hi him Even if she reht was always open, and through it flowed steady streams of sunshine and fresh air and his voice Mr Grayson, as she’d learned from the first, was not a quiet man He spoke often He spoke loudly And when he spoke, people listened Including her
The coarse shouts of the sailors, theirof the ship’s bell, the scrape of chains across the deck, the creaking of the ship’s wooden joints … All these sounds had blended into a flotsam of sound that now floated beneath Sophia’s consciousness But never his voice Mr Grayson’s baritone rang out over all, assailing her at thein her chaained efficiency, and Mr Grayson would choose that particularDavy Linnet with a ribald joke It irritated Sophia beyond reason, that he could bring her nipples to tight peaks without even occupying the sa he did so
At least, she prayed he did not know he did so Soht have been the sole person Mr Grayson aroused with a sih or phrase, but she certainly wasn’t the only one he affected When the crew fell idle on a calrew thick, those were the ti for Nature herself to grow still in anticipation of his perfor--so with all the reverence of a hymn--and by the time he’d reached the end of the first verse, the entire creould have joined hi from every mast, and down in the cabin, Sophia would smile despite her best efforts not to
At other tiu tone Or his casual comment about the ould be followed by swift adjust baritone, Mr Grayson directed the crew just as surely as the rudder steered the ship
"I knohat you’re thinking, Gray" O’Shea’s brogue lilted down through the skylight one war, while Sophia was hard at work Mr Grayson responded, a raw longing in his voice "Aye It would be so easy to take her"
Sophia nearly dropped her quill
"We’ve the advantage of the wind," O’Shea said
"And a faster ship," Gray replied "We’d be on her stern in no ti of ships
"Those were the days" O’Shea gave a lohistle "One cannonball to the rudder …"
"Wouldn’t even need that She’d accept our ternal shot and a smile"
She could hear that smile in his voice
He continued, "Cannons are for a a ship intact … it’s all in the approach From the h it’s already yours All that remains is to inform the other captain"
Now Sophia smiled with him She knew exactly what he meant It was the same attitude she’d carried with her into the bank that day A half-hour later, she’d walked out with six hundred pounds She wished she could tell Mr Grayson that story He would find it ah he’d give when she described the red-faced clerk and the way she’d …
How curious
She’d barely spoken with Mr Grayson in over a week How could she have done, after that horrid night? But soh these overheard conversations and stray remarks, she’d come to know him quite well She’d come to like him
She’d come to think of him as a friend He’d savedit now, after the conversation she’d just overheard She had to face up to the truth she’d been avoiding
He could have had her that night, so easily Conquest was his specialty, as he’d just said Ships, women … what ever Mr Grayson wanted, he took And he had wanted her, at least in the carnal sense, despite all his protests to the contrary When she’d pressed up against him so shamelessly, she’d felt his un, and he had walked away
Of course, he wasn’t the first person to guard her virtue Her family, her schoolmistresses, her companions--even her own betrothed--all her life, she’d been surrounded by a fortress of people, all devoted to keeping her untouched Because her virtue was currency, a token to be bartered for social connections Would any of those sainity, had Sophia been a lowborn, penniless orphan? She doubted it But Mr Grayson did He thought her a poor, friendless governess, with no connections worth uarded her virtue when, in a moment of drunken foolishness, she would have thrown it away