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She veered right, and with a tre the rahtly and zipped away, impressed with herself, only to skid badly on the looser dirt of the proed to stay on four feet, wondering how er she would have them It was very dry in India so her tether to Uncle Lyall was er than the equivalent in London But she was about to test those limits

It turned out to stretch pretty far She almost made the ship before the tether snapped

Then poor Quesnel found hi on top of a very naked, very human Rue in the middle of mudflats

Rue said, the instant she recovered her voice, "You aren’t shot?"

Quesnel seemed to be less concerned by bullets than by decency He proved hi hi away Then remembered manners and returned to help her stand Then clapped one hand over his eyes

Rue started to laugh He looked as near to nervous hysteria as she had ever seen "Stop You’ll do yourself an injury"

He faced away and began backing towards her, breathing deeply "Mon petit chou, it is not that I am not impressed, but I seem to lack the resources to cope with this particular situation"

Rue’s laughter turned to snorts "Give me your coat, silly man"

Rue had hoped it would be under more romantic circumstances that Quesnel would rip off his jacket with enthusiasm and speed Truthfully, she had hoped to be naked with hi And not covered with foul-s mud Sadly not the case

Heads poked over the rails of her ship

She could tell, even in the di Percy too, probably

She pulled on Quesnel’s frock coat and stood with as s were showing like a French dancer’s but – and Rue could be proud of this – she had rather nice legs, even covered in mud She felt a certain satisfaction in the way Quesnel’s breath hitched and the sain she was practically naked – perhaps any rake would do the same in a similar position Rue chose to be flattered

Spoo ran down the gangplank and over to the shoved one of Rue’s voluminous robes into her hands "Lady Captain, that was aces! I didn’t know you could be all over wolf and such"

"Thank you, Spoo" Rue pulled on the robe over Quesnel’s coat

Spoo said, "Can you teach me?"

"Afraid not You have to be born this way"

"Well, can I ride soet-up, was Spoo "I’ all over the place and falling off like that"