Her Favoured Captain by Francine Howarth Read Free Book Online Page A

evil influence.” Again, the shadow fell
upon him. “I fear it, Emerald, fear its power over me. I fear a curse cast upon
me by a man I neither knew nor cared about.”
       She paused in the doorway, turned to face
him. “Curse, what curse?”
       “I had to do a terrible thing, and in doing
it a man spat in my face and babbled some foreign gibberish. I naturally
laughed off his rant as soldiers do. Then a sergeant, who had a grasp of the
man’s tongue, warned me to be careful and to guard against letting loved ones
come to any harm. He said I had been cursed, and the worst possible curse. A
curse of death, shame and destitution, and I have, have I not, brought all
three upon us.”
       “Ned, I think I understand the torment you
are in, but father’s death was an accident, a riding accident, and mother’s
death due to ill health and fever. As for your gambling, you always were
inclined to carding games as a child, and perhaps it was inevitable that you
might take carding more serious as a grown man.”
       “I shall never understand, you, Emerald,
for you excuse my every sin . . . Well, almost every sin, and so willingly at
that. You truly humble me.”
       “Then humble brother had best away to
London and try to fix this sorry mess we find ourselves in.”
       “I shall, dearest sister, I shall.” He drew
her hand to his lips. “Away to Lincoln’s Inn methinks and find us the best
lawyer we can afford.”
       “Ned, I’m putting my faith in you, for once
the jewels are gone, as you rightly stated, we shall have nothing.”
       “The sooner I go, the sooner we shall know
our fate.”

Chapter Five
    ~
     
    Seven weeks in London and
only one letter from Ned in all that time. It was so brief as to merely impart
knowledge of a lawyer secured. With no sleep for the last few days in worry of
thinking it rash to have allowed him to go to London alone, she did not want to
think the worst of him. But, with jewels in his possession might he have been
tempted, tempted to gamble their value in hope of gain sufficient to be rid of
Moorby?
       On such a lovely June day she had thought a
walk as far as the bridge would do her good. After all, four days and nights of
endless rains, and a chill fever the like she had not suffered since a small
child had befallen her. Once the bridge was reached her strength and will to
stroll further ebbed, as though she had run all the way to the beach and back,
when she had not even descended the steps nor walked along the creek. She
leaned over the parapet; the waters below swirling and gushing beneath the
stone structure as evening tidal swell rushed upstream.
       Might her buccaneer return some day? She
might never know, and it pained still to think him gone. The not knowing where
and what he might be embroiled in was quite upsetting. How foolish to have
thought of him as hers, for she knew nothing about him and no time to make
subtle enquiry through Ned as to old acquaintances before he too, departed
Penhavean.
       Her favoured captain, as he was and always
would be, had made it plain he was no friend of Ned’s. Why was that, what had
Ned done or said, when both had served aboard the same ship? And what of Ned’s
confession: “I had to do a terrible thing.” What had he done? And had
her buccaneer witnessed Ned’s terrible deed? So many questions remained
unanswered, and Ned was away far longer than anticipated.
       Chill shivers rippled down her spine, and
despite warmth from the sun she hauled a silk-tasselled satin shawl from loose
rest of arms and snuggled it tight about her shoulders, the rustle of her gown
was a terrible reminder of her imminent fate. It was, after all, the very gown
worn the evening the earl had abused her trust in him, but new gowns were quite
out of the question. She had to make do as best she could with what she had.
       She glanced along the creek toward the bend
heart aching for something that could never be, and so turned