Secret Harbor by Barbara Cartland Read Free Book Online Page A

behind him the troubles and difficulties of the island and her personal worries.
    He looked very elegant standing there, his head silhouetted against the bougainvillaea.
    But she had the feeling that instead of a ship there should be a Phaeton waiting for him, drawn by two thoroughbred horses, and that he would invite her to accompany him and they would drive in Hyde Park bowing to their friends.
    Then there would be only the gossip and laughter of social London and no talk of revolutions and blood-shed or of marriage to Roderick Maigrin.
    She was thinking at that moment, although of course it seemed absurd, that the Frenchman stood for security in a world that had suddenly become for her horrifying and frightening, and in which she was completely helpless.
    “What time do you expect your father?” the Frenchman asked at length.
    She thought his voice had an edge on it, and it was a little louder than she expected.
    “I ... I have no idea,” she answered hesitatingly. “When I left in the darkness very early this morning ... they had ... been ... drinking all ... night and had not ... gone to bed.”
    The Frenchman nodded as if that was what he had expected and said:
    “Then we have time. For the moment I suggest you stop worrying about the future and instead perhaps you would like to visit my ship.”
    “Can I do that?” Grania asked.
    “I should be very honoured if you would do so.”
    “Then please ... may I change? It will soon be very hot.”
    “But of course,” he replied.
    Grania ran from the verandah and up the stairs.
    As she had expected Abe had already taken up her trunks and put them down in her mother’s room.
    He had undone the straps and opened them, and she suspected that later he would find one of the women who had served in the house before to come and unpack for her.
    For the moment, all she wanted was a dress in which, although she would not admit it to herself, she would look her best.
    Quickly she pulled one of the pretty gowns she had bought in London out of the nearest trunk.
    She had worn it last year, but its full skirt was still fashionable, and the fichu although a little creased from the voyage was crisp and clean.
    It took Grania only a few minutes to take off the clothes in which she had travelled and to wash in the basin. She was not surprised to find a ewer filled with cool, clean water.
    Then she dressed herself again and ran downstairs to where she was sure the Pirate would be waiting for her.
    She was not mistaken.
    He was sitting on the verandah having moved his chair into the sunshine, and she knew now that his skin was so dark because unlike the Beaux in London he had allowed himself to become sunburnt.
    It became him, and she thought that in a way the fact that his skin had been burnt by the sun had prevented her from being shocked when she saw him naked in bed.
    He rose at her approach and she saw a look of admiration in his eyes and a smile on his lips as he took in her appearance.
    It was so different from the way Roderick Maigrin had looked at her last night, when she had felt that with his eyes on her breasts he was seeing her not as she was, but naked.
    “Would you like me to tell you that you look very lovely, and like the Spirit of Spring?” the Frenchman asked.
    “I enjoy hearing you say it,” Grania replied.
    “But you must have heard so many compliments in London that they cease to be anything but a bore.”
    “The only compliments I received were for the work I did at School, and one or two from gentlemen who called to take my mother to a ball or to Vauxhall.”
    “You were too young to become a Society Beauty?”
    “Much too young,” Grania replied, “and now, as that is something I have missed completely, I suppose it will never happen to me.”
    “Does that distress you?”
    “It is disappointing. Mama used to describe so often the Balls and parties I should attend that I feel as if they are familiar and I have dreamed of them.”
    “I assure you