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At least that produced a slare from a beak-nosed e being swung on board Obviously she didn’t like the look of his face He shrugged mentally He hadn’t liked hers much, either

At first it was easy to keep Tess’s s to look at, the kitten needed tending to and, even when they cast off, the vieas entertaining enough, the water sufficiently sheltered Alex was rewarded with smiles and the colour in her cheeks and found hilow of satisfaction

The chit would have hirihts was sufficient to stop hier than he was, then so be it Tess Ellery was an innocent and he was not, which left him back exactly where he started—as an escort to a respectable lady

She had fallen silent while he brooded Alex glanced sideways and saw that the greenish tinge was back, the roses had gone and, from the set of her h, isn’t it?’ Tess ventured

Not as rough as it is going to get was the honest answer ‘A little lively, yes,’ Alex agreed ‘Tell me about your ideal e children?’ So, not that he had ever encountered any for any length of tis He and Matthew had scrapped and bickered, and his sisters had been, by definition, girls, whichto a youth as females could be He supposed he’d felt affection for them, he just didn’t feel he knew them

‘I do notas it is a family’

‘Otherwise you will ested as he shook out his boat cloak and put it around her shoulders Spray was beginning to blow back fro responsibly, but at least he wasn’t being treated to the kind of spoiled tantrums his most recent mistress would have thrown under these circuer in his keeping

‘Thank you’ Tess snuggled into the heavy ith a wriggle that re itself co lonely in a crowd than by yourself, don’t you think?’

Alex tried to remember when, if, he had ever felt lonely Alone, yes, but he was comfortable in his own company and always had been When he wanted human contact he had a wide social circle; when he needed close friends he had them, the other three e had referred to bitterly as the Four Disgraces

‘I suppose so,’ he agreed ‘But in the convent, all those Sisters must have been like sisters, as it were’

Tess gave a little shrug as though the cloak had developed uncoed The sisters treat everyone the sao horoup They all coood families’

‘And you do not?’

‘I am anorphan with no connections But everyone was very kind,’ she added brightly

Alex was conscious of a sudden and startling urge to box the ears of the unknown Mother Superior He had no trouble translating very kind into impersonal, remote, efficient, cool Tess had been fed, clothed, educated, kept healthy and respectable Her body and her morals had been cared for; her heart and her happiness, it seemed, could look after theh that was not so very different fro in any aristocratic family He was sure his mother had loved him, but it had never occurred to her to play with hied for dinner

‘I’ for a life of respectable drudgery, neither a member of a family nor an upper servant But she seemed to realise already what her position was, even if she had rose-coloured ideas about the joys of family life It would be no kindness to tell her that and, he supposed, a ht happen and she would find herself in the household of her dreams He looked at the cloudy sky, then fished out his watch ‘Have some bread and ale, best to eat a little, often’

‘Thank you In a ot up and folded his cloak one-handed, clutching at the mast with the other ‘I needI mean, I assume that the’