Cast Love Aside by Flora Speer Read Free Book Online Page A

overboard.”
    “You wouldn't!”
    Magnus didn't answer. He stopped rowing and
sat very still. Braedon and William stopped rowing, too. Alice
temporarily ceased retching and leaned her head on Lilianne's
shoulder. An eerie silence descended as the fog wrapped ever more
closely around them.
    At first Lilianne heard nothing. It was so
quiet that she was aware of William drawing a long breath and of
the slight creak of the bench he was sitting on when he turned to
look at Alice. Then a low voice sounded across the water. Someone
was singing a decidedly off-color sailor's chant that was similar
to a tune Lilianne had occasionally heard French fishermen sing.
She also caught a faint whiff of fish. Finally, she heard Magnus's
soft laugh of relief.
    “I believe we’ve found the ship,” she said.
“Is the song a signal? What a clever idea; anyone who is pursuing
us won’t suspect they are calling to you.”
    Magnus didn’t respond. He and the other men
began rowing once more, quickening their strokes until the rowboat
seemed to fly across the water.
    Still with one arm on Alice's shoulders,
Lilianne turned to peer through the fog ahead. The soft chanting
grew louder and soon she could discern a dark shape looming before
them. The fishy smell became stronger.
    “Captain Piers has apparently taken advantage
of the fog to move the Daisy closer to shore,” Braedon
announced after a quick look over his shoulder. “The ship is
directly ahead.”
    “Good,” Magnus said, never breaking his
steady, stroking rhythm on the oars.
    “We're almost there,” Lilianne reported a few
minutes later.
    Magnus just grunted in reply.
    By the time the rowboat drew alongside the
larger vessel the smell of fish was almost overwhelming even to
Lilianne, who possessed a strong stomach. Alice was groaning
repeatedly. It was obvious that the owner of the ship had a wry
sense of humor. The Daisy was anything but fresh.
    In the thick fog Lilianne could see little of
the ship except that her sides were draped with nets against which
the rowboat bumped when the men shipped the oars. Someone above
hailed them in a muted voice, to which Magnus responded with equal
softness. A line was thrown down to them, which Braedon seized and
used to secure the rowboat.
    A second line appeared, and this Magnus
fastened around Erland's chest under his armpits. Erland moaned as
Magnus shifted him around, but otherwise he gave no indication he
was aware of what was happening.
    “He will be hoisted aboard,” Magnus explained
to Lilianne. “It's easier and safer than trying to carry him. He
won't be harmed. There's a bunk waiting for him, where he'll remain
until we reach England. Can you climb the net?”
    “Yes, of course,” she answered, not wanting
to reveal that, for all her years of youthful play on the water,
she had never boarded a ship by way of a net.
    “I can't,” Alice whispered. Meeting the hard
look Magnus sent her way, she revised the statement. “I mean, I've
never tried. Perhaps, I can.”
    “I'll help you,” William offered.
    “It's easy,” Lilianne assured her friend.
Grabbing her shoes, she stuffed her stockings into them, used the
laces to tie them together, and secured them to her belt. With the
purse already fastened to her belt and her damp skirts still tucked
up, the weight around her middle was growing heavy, but she wanted
her hands free.
    “Braedon will go first,” Magnus instructed.
“Alice will go next, with William behind her in case she needs
help. Then Lilianne. I'll go last, so I can watch over Erland and
make sure he isn't injured on the way up. We need him healthy and
able to talk,” he said to Lilianne.
    Braedon scrambled up the net as if he’d been
doing it all his life. William sent Alice immediately after Braedon
and a little to one side of him. When she froze halfway up the net,
Braedon reached down his hand for her to clasp, while William
gently urged her onward from below. Alice gave voice to just one
terrified sob