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Chapter One

1766

ALEXANDER Montgos across the carpeted floor of the captain’s quarters of The Grand Duchess and watched Nicholas Ivanovitch berate one of the servants Alex had never seen anyone with quite as ance as this Russian

“I’ll have your head if you misplace my buckles a second time,” Nick said with his heavy accent and husky voice

Alex wondered if in Russia grand dukes were still allowed to behead people who displeased them

“Go now Out of ht,” Nick said as he waved a lace-encased wrist toward the cowering servant “You see what I have to bear,” he said to Alex as soon as they were alone in the cabin

“It’s a great deal, yes, I can see that,” Alex agreed

Nicholas raised one eyebrow at his friend, then looked back at the charts spread across the table “We’ll be docking about a hundred and fifty miles south of this Warbrooke of yours Think so to take you north?”

“I’llhis hands behind his head and stretching even o he’d schooled his handso Nicholas knew so, but Alex didn’t allow anyone to see the depth of his concern

Months ago, while Alex was in Italy, he’d received a letter fro him to come home She had said that he was desperately needed She had told Alex what their father had forbidden her to tell: that he, Sayer Montgomery, had been badly injured in an accident aboard a ship and his legs had been crushed They hadn’t expected him to live, but he had and he was confined to his bed now, a cripple

Marianna had gone on to say that she had lishman, the customs inspector for the little town of Warbrooke, and he was…She hadn’t gone into detail of what her husband was doing, probably because she was caught between loyalty to her husband and loyalty to her family and the townspeople she’d known all her life But Alex could sense that there washim

She’d given the letter to one of the many seamen in Warbrooke and hoped that it would reach Alex and that he could come home Alex had received the letter soon after he’d docked in Italy The schooner he’d sailed out of Warbrooke on over four years ago had gone down three weeks before and he’d been waiting on Italy’s sunny coast, not trying very hard to find another position as ship’s officer

It was in Italy that he’d met Nicholas Ivanovitch Nick’s family in Russia was first cousins with the tzarina, and Nick expected people the world over to be aware of this fact and to treat hiave him

Alex had stepped in and saved Nick’s thick neck fro sailors who didn’t like what Nick had said about them Alex had pulled his sword, tossed it to Nick, and then drao knives, one for each hand, froht back

It had taken them an hour, and when they were finished, they were covered with blood, their clothes were in shreds, but they were friends Alexander was treated to the Russian hospitality that was as generous as the Russian arrogance Nick took Alex aboard his private ship, a lugger, a ship that was so fast that it was illegal inon the seas But no one bothered the Russian aristocracy since they followed no laws but their own

Alex settled down on the opulent ship and for a couple of days enjoyed being waited on, his every wish anticipated, his every wish fulfilled by the arht with him from Russia

“We’re not like this in A of ale He talked of the independence of Americans, of their ability to create their own country froht the French, the Indians, we’ve fought all the world and we’ve won!” The lories of A of ale, Nick brought out a clear liquid he called vodka and they started on that Say nothing else about the Russians, Alex thought, they can drink with the best of them