Lady in the Mist by Laurie Alice Eakes Read Free Book Online Page A

knife, the only weapon he could get away with as an indentured servant. If his life depended on it, he could use the slender, Italian blade.
    But he couldn’t use it on a female.
    No, now that he knew more about the lady, Dominick Cherrett made other plans to ensure Tabitha Eckles, the mermaid midwife, didn’t speak out of turn where his activities were concerned.

    Tabitha crouched beside a bed of roses, breathing deeply of the heady scent. Weeds grew in too much profusion around her precious herbs, and she should be pulling them up to protect the stock that produced necessary medicines for her work and other ailments for which people came to her for help. But the roses held her attention with their deep red hues and fragrance like the oh-so-precious vanilla bean. Only the most perfect, most succulent petals would she pluck to create her favorite treat, the indulgence she allowed herself other than walks on the beach—candied rose petals. The previous month, she had plucked and preserved the violets. Already, she tasted the aromatic sweets on her tongue, the best medicine in the world for perking up the spirits.
    Except her spirits shouldn’t need perking up. God, apparently, had listened to her after all. Raleigh had come home. He was too late for their wedding, too late to comfort her through the deaths of her mother and grandmother. Yet not an hour earlier, he had stood in her parlor, as large as life.
    Larger than life. Years of hard labor aboard a British naval vessel had developed his physique. He stood no more than average height, but his arms and shoulders bulged beneath the confines of his coat as though the muscles strained for freedom. His skin glowed a healthy bronze, while gold streaks lightened his oak-colored hair. With his bright blue eyes, the entire effect pleased Tabitha’s eye.
    Her heart remained still, cautious, dried at the edges like a rose petal left too long in the vase.
    “I’ve come home,” he’d announced with his grin that created a dimple in one cheek.
    “To take up where you belonged?” She knew her tone held no warmth of welcome and didn’t know how to change it. “Were you not happy with a life of freedom, wandering the world?”
    His smile wavered. “I wasn’t happy with being alone on my travels. I thought of you every day. And aboard the man-of-war was worse. I wished I’d stayed behind. I plotted every day to get here, to you.”
    “I expect so.” The ice broke through, cutting with every word and the sharpness of her tone. She needed it to keep herself from laying her head on his broad shoulder, asking him to hold her.
    Of all days for him to return, this one was the worst. She needed companionship, a distraction. Yet if she succumbed to the relief of seeing her fiancé again, she would regret it in moments.
    He didn’t deserve a friendly welcome back into her life.
    “Life aboard a British naval vessel is unpleasant at best,” she said, pressing home her point. “Of course you’d regret leaving me then. Maybe you should have stuck by your commitments to avoid getting caught by the British.”
    “Once they learned my mother was from Canada, they wouldn’t let me go. They said I was English.”
    “But you changed their minds and finally were able to come back?” The weakness to seek his comfort fled. Tabitha straightened her shoulders and made herself meet and hold his piercing blue eyes. “You think you can dance back into my life after deserting me practically on the eve of our wedding and expect nothing to have changed?”
    “No, but I can hope for forgiveness and go on from there.”
    She read the hope in his face, in the way he leaned toward her with his hands clenched at his sides.
    “Will you forgive me for leaving?”
    “I . . . don’t know.”
    It was the only thing she possessed to offer him—the truth. She didn’t know, not this soon, not this easily. “You have had weeks, maybe months, to think about your return. This is a shock to me.