Lynna’s first day at sea dawned clear and bright with white fluffy clouds prancing across the sky. Dressed in a fashionable day dress of aqua silk with a matching ribbon in her hair, she strolled the deck after a light breakfast of fruit and coffee. Leaning against the mahogany rail, she closed her eyes and breathed deeply of the salty sea air.
She glanced up at the wheel deck to find Captain Jordan, devilishly handsome in the bright rays of morning sunlight, watching her closely. His lips curved into a sensual smile, a knowing smile, as his tongue flicked out to wet his lips.
The sight caused her to suddenly, and quite vividly, remember when a tongue had drawn circles around her taut nipple…
A tongue… on her nipple?
She remembered her erotic dream from last night and felt a blush stain her cheeks. It had seemed so… real. She remembered each and every sensation of the ecstasy of having his mouth on her breast so… vividly.
It couldn’t have really happened.
It …had been a dream.
But what if it wasn’t?
Her stomach tightened into knots just thinking about his lips on her breasts and then his hand had moved down….
Dear Lord, had it really happened?
Just the memory of his lips and… hands… caused her lady parts to throb.
While the captain resumed his duties Lynna returned to the railing, ignoring the kiss of the warm ocean breeze on her face and the water that splashed against the hull of the ship to spray her with tiny droplets.
What had she done?
What had he done?
Pelicans dipped in the ocean scouting for their midday meal, and seagulls cawed, swooping around her head. Deck hands were busy hoisting sails and scouring decks as the tempting smell of fish frying drifted from the ship’s galley. She closed her eyes and held onto the rail, deep in thought as her glorious mane fanned out behind her.
“What a lovely day it is with blue skies, calm seas, and a gentle morning breeze,” a woman startled her by speaking close beside her.
“Oui, it is a glorious day,” Lynna agreed, absentmindedly.
“I fear that I shall miss the sea when I return home, for I am certain that this will be my last voyage. Oh, but where are my manners? My name is Natalie Johnson,” said a heavyset lady with a ponderous stomach and hair of the brightest orange that Lynna had ever beheld. “And your name is…”
“Bridget,” she answered cheerily, already becoming accustomed to the fictitious name.
Natalie Johnson loved nothing more than juicy gossip. Glancing around to be sure that no one was eavesdropping, she whispered, “Tell me, Bridget. I can’t help but notice that you are traveling alone without the benefit of a husband or companion. Why is this?”
“I am not married and the captain is my only traveling companion,” Lynna answered dutifully. “He is allowing me the use of his cabin during the voyage.”
“The captain?” Natalie gasped, seeming to take umbrage at her words. “And where is he sleeping.”
“In his cabin,” Lynna unwittingly offered and then clamped her lips shut. The woman could probably guess from her blazing cheeks exactly what had transpired last night.
“Well, I honestly never…” Natalie spluttered indignantly, turning her back on Lynna to converse with the… seagulls. “No unmarried young lady of decent breeding would even consider entering a gentleman’s cabin without a chaperone. Why it is simply beyond the realm of decency. What is to become of this younger generation? No morals. No morals at all.”
“Excuse me?”
“What…oh nothing,” Natalie snapped. “I was but clearing my throat.”
Lynna had never before heard anyone use practically the entire alphabet while clearing their throat, but at the moment her eyes were once again drawn to the tall figure at the ship’s wheel. “Oh, there is the captain now.”
Natalie smirked. “And how long have you been acquainted with our illustrious Captain?”
“Not long,” Lynna answered truthfully. “He is escorting me to visit relatives in America.”
“How nice of him, I’m sure.” The woman breathed a dramatic sigh, gazing out across the rolling swells, unwilling to discuss anything other than herself for very long. “As for myself, I am returning to America. Virginia actually, after a rather upsetting first visit to France.”
“I’m sorry that you did not enjoy your stay in my country,” Lynna replied, feeling personally responsible for the woman’s distress.
“Oh, it was not the country,” the woman mumbled. “It was my ill bred niece.”
“I see,” Lynna said, although she honestly did not. Ill bred?
“Perhaps I shouldn’t repeat this,” Natalie continued with her scuttlebutt. “Although I am sure you would never repeat it to a living soul.”
“Not if you do not wish me to,” Lynna answered truthfully.
“Definitely not,” Natalie gasped. “Why, it would be positively scandalous.”
“Scandalous?”
“Yes, the whole sordid affair is rather onerous for me to even discuss. But you see, one of my unmarried nieces was foolish enough to fall for the oldest ruse in the book.”
“The oldest ruse?” Lynna asked, confused.
“Of course, Bridget. Men have used the trick forever,” the lady huffed. “The simple ploy is to get a woman drunk and then have his way with her.”
A ruse?
Had Joshua intentionally gotten her drunk?
To have his way with her?
Dear Lord, what had she done?
Apparently, Natalie Johnson was just getting started. “Anyway, the scoundrel got my niece in the family way, back in the states. Horribly ashamed, as they should be, her parents asked me to accompany her on a voyage to France to live with her grandparents until the child is delivered and can be placed in an orphans’ asylum.”
Using her lacy handkerchief, the woman wiped at invisible tears. “My niece did not wish to leave her lover, one of the lower dregs of society I assure you, and cried incessantly the entire voyage until I was concerned for my sanity.”
The woman paused for a quick breath and continued, “Quite frankly, I was glad to be rid of her. And if my friends back home ever found out that I, Natalie Johnson, had a niece who would behave so immorally, why the shame would be outside the constraints of toleration. I can only pray that they never learn the disgusting and shameful truth.” Then she glanced toward Lynna, waiting for a response to her tale of doom and gloom.
“I am so… sorry,” Lynna murmured as her entire world proceeded to shatter around her.
“Anyway,” Natalie continued, “as you well know, that is precisely what happens when a young lady allows a man to take advantage of her. And even the most uneducated imbecile realizes that it takes only one night of illicit pleasure to create a baby in a woman’s womb.”
One night of pleasure?
To create a baby?
Of course, she had learned that from the books Gertrude had slipped her, but…she hadn’t been thinking clearly at the… time.
Because of the wine.
Natalie bristled before continuing with her diatribe. “I am mortified that a niece of mine succumbed to such indecent liberties.”
Lynna shuddered as the warm, sunny day suddenly lost most its cheer.
Sighing forlornly, Natalie laid a limp hand across her forehead. “It has been so humiliating for the entire family. And her poor, dear father. He was always so proud of her, and now this? A disgrace. That is what it is, a disgrace. Any man who would seduce an innocent young girl does not give a fig about her to begin with.”
Lynna was going to be sick. Clutching the rail, she inhaled deep gulps of the salty sea air.
“Are you feeling well, dear?” Natalie asked. “You seem awfully pale of a sudden.”
“I…I’m… fine,” she lied. Feeling terribly lightheaded, she wished the sea would open up and swallow her. Lynna excused herself and hurried to her cabin, unable to endure another word of the woman’s vit
riolic tirade against her poor niece and other young ladies of questionable virtue, such as herself.
Joshua watched Lynna’s every movement as she raced across the deck until her slim figure could no longer be viewed. Why was she in such a hurry? She had been chatting with that tongue wagging Natalie Johnson. Who wouldn’t flee at the first opportunity? But even the sight of Lynna fully clothed caused his blood to race in his veins. How he wanted her, yearned to feel her velvety softness beneath him, caress every silken inch of her lovely body all over again. Therein lay the problem.
The little lady was dangerous and posed a very real threat to his life.
It would be best for all concerned if he kept her at a safe distance until they docked in Charleston.
Not an easy task due to the fact that they shared a cabin.
Chapter 7