Full Tide by Celine Conway Read Free Book Online

heaving sea and the forging vessel.
    Lisa’s face, as she stared, was small and palely lit, her eyes large and her hair white and satiny. Her mouth, as she turned to him, was parted and sweetly curved. “It’s beautiful,” she said softly. “Beautiful as a promise after such a wild day. ”
    “Yes, isn’t it.” His voice had gone as cool and stinging as the sea spray. “It’s nippy and your shoulders are bare. I’m sure the doc. wouldn’t care to have a pneumonia case on his hands. Run along inside. Goodnight.” He went at once. She saw him swing round the foot of a companion-way and mount towards the bridge, and she quivered with the chill he had left behind. Slowly, she made her way into the tempered warmth of the cabin deck, and along to her cabin, where a tiny electric night-light glowed on the dressing chest near the lower bunk. Undressing, she recalled word for word the Captain’s comments. Though, factually, he had told her nothing about himself, what he had said had been slightly revealing.
    His devotion to his job was unremarkable, for a man doesn’t become the master of a luxury liner until he has proved himself. But his convictions about women showed him maddeningly casual on the subject of marriage. It was, one gathered, a condition to which he would not take easily, and if he ever did consider tethering himself he would choose a woman of intellect who had much to occupy her besides his well-being. A woman whose preoccupation with herself would keep her from interfering with his way of life.
    She recollected his face in the dimness of the deck; the strong, high cheekbones and his eyes which had lost some of the ice and become ki nder, even if the kindness had to be tinctured with mockery. It would be dreadful, she thought soberly, to fall in love with such a man. Dreadful, but dangerously exciting, so long as one roused some sort of response in him. Altogether too devastating; though, for one so innocent about men as Lisa Maxwell.
    Thank goodness she was level-headed, Lisa reflected drowsily. Another girl might lose her head at being singled out for a few minutes’ talk by the Captain, but not she. She did not intend to lose any sleep over Mark Kennard.
    Nevertheless, all had been quiet for a long, long time before Lisa at last slipped from the state of drowsiness into her first slumber.

 
    CHAPTER THREE
    Jeremy was first at the breakfast table, but contrary to his custom he ordered only coffee and rolls. He was unsettled; a condition to which his ego did not take kindly. He tried very hard, though, to forget Astra’s allure and remember only the facts of their long tete-a-tete last night. After all , she had merely suggested a private test in her cabin. He might turn out to be a complete dud, and if that were the case Astra had promised that no one need be any the wiser. Sporting of her, really, to take so much trouble .
    During a somewhat unquiet night he had regretfully decided not to take Lisa into his confidence till after the session with Astra; she could be disconcertingly candid, and she might easily come out with some good-humored remark which would completely put him off. Perhaps later they would be able to laugh together at his foolishness. He almost hoped so, though failure to please Astra would be a spear to his pride. It was the deuce to want two opposing things so badly.
    Despondently, he ate a small piece of roll with a large wad of butter. The butter reminded him of home, where all good things were plentiful, but one must needs have a vast supply of cash to procure them.
    On their few, farmed acres outside Durban his mother had kept fowls and a couple of cows so that the three boys should be well-nourished. They had always come first with her, and when his brothers had perished all her love had become concentrated on Jeremy. He couldn’t tell the old lady that he didn’t want it. Had it been a selfish love he c ould have shrugged her out of his thoughts, but it was a gentle,