Pleasures of a Tempted Lady by Jennifer Haymore Read Free Book Online Page A

get my shoes and cloak off. By the time I rose to the surface, they had traveled some distance away.”
    “Thank God you knew how to swim,” Will said with feeling.
    “Yes.” She and Serena had often played in the ocean when they were younger. Swimming was not a common skill among people of their class, even among sailors, although she remembered that Will also knew how—long ago, he’d told her that his older brother used to take him swimming in the nearby creek when they were young.
    “I called out… but the ship had turned in the wrong direction and was traveling farther away by the minute.”
    She took a deep breath, remembering her desperation,how her voice had grown hoarse after she’d screamed and screamed, and the despair she’d felt when the ship had disappeared into the fog.
    She’d wanted to live. Her sister had needed her. And she’d been so in love with the man who now knelt before her.
    “They didn’t hear me,” she continued. “The sea was rough, the wind was strong, and the fog was thick. But I knew they would arrive in Antigua that afternoon. I didn’t know what else to do but try to swim in that direction. It was unlikely I’d be able to swim that far, yet I had no choice but to try.
    “I swam until the sky cleared and the ocean calmed. I was exhausted, but I thought I could see land. It was too far. I knew I couldn’t swim that far. And then I saw something bobbing on the surface of the ocean, not far away.” She smiled, thinking of the elation she’d felt when she’d seen the rotting piece of wood. “It was a long, heavy log. Using the last of my strength, I swam to it and draped myself over it.
    “I think I lost consciousness. The next thing I remember was opening my eyes to a calm dusk. There was a ship bearing down on me. Certain they would rescue me, I called out in my weak voice. But they’d already seen me. They drew alongside me and brought me on board.
    “The men were rough, very unlike the friendly sailors on the ship I’d taken from England. I was taken before the captain.”
    “Who was this captain?”
    Here was where things became difficult to describe without revealing too much. She looked Will directly in the eye and didn’t answer his question. “He kidnapped meand threatened me with dire consequences should I try to escape. Those threats never subsided. I am finally free of him, but if I went to my sisters now, he’d find us easily, and he wouldn’t show mercy to me or my family. I cannot risk their safety. I won’t.”
    Will’s face darkened, and his hand pressed over her knee, squeezing with more power than was gentle. “Who is he, Meg?” His voice vibrated with some emotion she didn’t dare name.
    She shook her head.
    “Did he hurt you? Did he… or any of those men… touch you against your will?”
    Her face went instantly hot, and she jerked her gaze away from him.
    “No,” she breathed. “No, it wasn’t like that. The captain wouldn’t let any of the men touch me or his wife, on pain of death.”
    Caversham was obsessed with decorum and politesse. Even though he could be violent to the point of madness, nothing was more important to him than the portrayal of himself as a proper English gentleman—no, more than a gentleman—as good as, if not better than his half brother, the Marquis of Millbridge. Any of his men touching Meg or Sarah would soil the image, and he wouldn’t have that. Though she could hardly forget the leers the men made at her behind Caversham’s back, nor the lascivious touches. Not once in eight years had she failed to remember to lock her cabin door at night.
    Will gestured in the direction of his quarters. “Then… the boy…?”
    “The captain had a young wife, a year younger than me. She was American and baseborn, and beyondanything, he wanted her to be someone he could present as a lady. As soon as he heard me speak, he knew I was educated, and he pressed me for my pedigree, which I—stupidly—revealed to him.