Humbled by Renee Rose Read Free Book Online Page B

a man with a rowboat and paid him to take him out to the ship, calling for a rope ladder to climb aboard.
     
    * * *
     
    She had been blinking back tears all evening. She should not feel the loss of Jean-Claude so strongly. She had only known him little more than two weeks. She should mourn her parents, her friends, even her servants from Gramont. Not him.
    She could even concede he might have been right about her plan to go to Louisiana. England would have been safer. Now she was trapped on the ship for two months with a captain who knew her secret and planned to make her suffer for it. Not to mention that she had to live and sleep in dirty, crowded surroundings, working as a servant.
    She had been given the task of serving at dinner, and as she left the kitchen now, exhausted and morose, one of the sailors grabbed her around the waist.
    “Hello there, sweet thing! You look good enough to eat.”
    She struggled in his grasp. “Let go of me!” she snapped, twisting to free herself. “Get off, you swine!”
    A deep voice boomed, “Get your hands off my wife!”
    She spun around, her heart fluttering like a bird.
    Jean-Claude gripped the sailor by the throat, looking more menacing than a bear roused from hibernation. The sailor released her, holding up his hands in surrender.
    “You came!” she said, blinking in happy confusion, then corrected her mistake. “It is about time you returned, husband!” she snapped, her hands at her hips.
    Jean-Claude still looked furious, though he released the unlucky sailor. “Do not touch her again,” he growled.
    “I did not know she was married!” the sailor protested.
    Jean-Claude stalked to her side and took her arm, tugging her toward the servants’ quarters.
    “Do not speak so disrespectfully to your husband in front of others,” he growled without any hint of teasing.
    She stopped in her tracks, resisting his hold on her. All gratitude at his timely rescue dissolved into ire. “May I remind you, I did not beg your escort for this leg of the journey. I am no longer subject to your orders,” she challenged, throwing her shoulders back.
    The tension in Jean-Claude’s face eased, and a trace of humor returned. “Yes, but we are known as man and wife here, and a husband has a right to discipline his spouse when she offends him.”
    She took a step back, taking advantage of his eased grip on her arm.
    “Again, I did not ask for your companionship. You have no right, imaginary or otherwise.”
    “Who will stop me?”
    She ground her teeth, realizing he was right. If she protested a spanking, at best she would gain an audience, at worst one of the sailors like the one who had just accosted her would “rescue” her, leaving her vulnerable to his sexual demands. She would rather choose the known evil of discipline at Jean-Claude’s hands than the unknown fate of another man’s will.
    She swallowed. “You mean to punish me now?” she asked, cursing the waver in her voice.
    He did not miss it. His lips curved around the edges, but he surprised her by saying, “No, ma cherie . I had not intended to chastise you. I was angry with the lout who had his hands on you, that is all.” He closed the distance she had put between them, cupping her chin in his large hand. “But I meant it when I said not to speak disrespectfully to me in front of others. It was one thing to make a show for the official in Rennes. But you will not make a henpecked husband of me on this ship, no?”
    Her face warred between a smile and a scowl.
    Jean-Claude pulled her closer with the hand at her jaw, reaching behind to slap her backside. “Understood?”
    She stomped her foot, then caught the merriment in his eye and exhaled with a little giggle.
    “There are no switches here, but there is plenty of rope. I will not hesitate to thrash you with a loop if you goad me, woman.”
    “Just so long as you do not exercise your other husbandly rights.”
    She had no fears of such, as she had just traveled