Kissing Comfort by Jo Goodman Read Free Book Online Page A

curiously. “What is it?”
    â€œNothing. That is, nothing that matters. A stray thought, is all. My mind wanders.”
    â€œYes, it does,” she said.
    Bram heard no accusation in her tone, only acceptance. Was that how she did it? he wondered. Did she make a man better by embracing who he was until he expected something more of himself?
    â€œYou’re really very lovely, Comfort,” he said, and realized he meant it.
    â€œPretty compliments?” she asked, her indifferent tone at odds with the creeping color in her cheeks. “Save them for someone who will truly have you, Bram. You know I am not that woman.”

Chapter Two
    Bode stood back from the mirror and regarded his reflection critically. Travers had done what he could to make the evening clothes presentable, but a thorough brushing had not removed all of the mud spatter from the trousers or erased the dark droplets of blood near the collar of his starched linen shirt. Travers had also drawn a hot bath for him, and while the soak and scrubbing helped revive him to a near human state and eased the stiffness in his back, it couldn’t erase the swollen and blackening eye or the scalp wound.
    â€œGet me one of Bram’s shirts,” he said. “I can’t wear this.” He started to shrug out of his jacket, grimaced, and murmured his thanks when Travers stepped forward to help him. “You don’t think I should join the party, do you?”
    â€œIt’s not for me to say.”
    There was no mistaking that it was a tart reply, and Bode noticed that Bram’s valet was careful to avoid eye contact. That was answer enough. “I imagine I’ll never be forgiven for leaving you behind when I moved out.”
    â€œNo, sir.”
    Chuckling, Bode began unbuttoning his shirt while Travers placed the jacket over the back of a chair. “That’s more like it. I value your opinion, you know.”
    A proper valet might have offered a haughty sniff. Travers snorted. He was a small, wiry man who had once moved through the rigging of the majestic Black Crowne clippers with the agility of a monkey. The collapse of a burning mast had crushed his right leg some fifteen years earlier, and while there were those who said he’d been fortunate not to lose it, he still chafed at the brace that helped support his weight and often wondered if he’d have been better off with a peg. He knew men who still worked the ships with a peg. The brace made him ungainly. Worse, it made him rattle. He remembered what it was like to move with the stealth of fog. Now his comings and goings were announced by creaks and clanks, and no amount of oil to the hinges silenced all that racket at once.
    Bode’s fingers paused on the last button. “You heard Bram’s engaged?”
    â€œI heard.”
    â€œWhat do you think?”
    Travers lifted an eyebrow. “I think you might have left it to too late. That’s what comes of taking care of everyone but yourself.” He pointed to Bode’s swollen eye. “Look at what you have to show for it. Bram’s stealing Comfort and you’re getting none.”
    Bode supposed he deserved the opinion he asked for. “She loves him.”
    â€œOf course she does. Bram wouldn’t have it any other way.”
    Bode shrugged out of his shirt. “She might even be good for him.”
    â€œNo doubt about it. Still, I had it in my mind that you need her more.”
    It wasn’t a new idea to Bode either. He said nothing.
    â€œAnd would be better for her, too.” Grinning widely, Travers held out one hand for Bode’s shirt. “This is for the rag bin.” He swung around, dragging his leg slightly.
    â€œI have a plan, Sam.”
    Samuel Travers paused and rubbed his bony chin with his knuckles. “Never occurred to me that you didn’t. You always were a real good thinker, Bode.”
    Bode gave him a pointed look and gestured toward