Upon Your Return by Marie Lavender Read Free Book Online Page B

to pay his servants so we were left behind.”
    “So you were indebted to the captain for his interference.”
    “Perhaps, but there was more. He kept coming back around to see if conditions improved. He kept telling me he would help. He promised he would. And he did.”
    “What happened after your master left?”
    “ Capitaine Hill told me I could be a free man if I wished it. He could find a better position for me if I wanted it. I told him I had nothing to go back to. My family had all passed on years before and I couldn't see myself as a wealthy man, or apprenticing for a long period of time, or some such nonsense. I had no idea what I was suited for either. I had always served under someone. He said if I wished, I could shadow him for a while to see if anything caught my interest. There were many positions with the crew, or even in trade there were possibilities.
    “On one occasion, the merchant we were dealing with tried to cheat us out of our share. He pulled a gun on Grant and would have killed him had I not intervened. Capitaine Hill would make me out to be the hero if he told it, but it was simple. He had become a good friend and I feared for his life. That's all.
    “Afterward, he told me I'd earned all of his trust and respect and that I could leave if I truly wanted my freedom. For the first time in my life, I was allowed to choose for myself the kind of life I wished for. It was the hardest thing I'd ever done. I decided to stay though, and I don't regret it. I made my choice based on my own desires.
    “When the captain gained greater status in society, he presented me with the option of being his valet. He said regrettably a gentleman must have an aide to do the things he'd rather do himself. Of course, a lot of things Capitaine Hill still does for himself. He defies society to a point always.”
    She'd already noticed that about the man. “It is honorable that he allowed himself to befriend you as well.”
    “There was more to it than it seems, petite . I like to think that fate had a hand in it, that destiny brought us to that point in time and forged the bond we now acknowledge as friendship, not unlike the same power that drew you and the captain to one another last night.”
    “Oh, such idealism, Eric. Capitaine Hill was simply in the right place at the right time.”
    He smiled, but it did not reach his eyes. “There are no accidents in life, Mademoiselle . Only fate.”
    She did not reply, but part of her agreed with him. She had always believed in destiny, certain a stronger force existed that controlled the universe and its occurrences. Had something caused her to meet Grant Hill, or was it simply chance? She didn't know.
    As the sun rose high, blessing her face with its splendor, she thought of the unbreakable bond of friendship she'd not only witnessed but heard Eric speak of in reference to his employer. What would it have been like if she had formed a true affinity with a servant in the same manner as Grant and Eric's?
    Her relationship with Rosalie was the closest she had ever come to such a thing. Propriety and social awareness had prevented her from showing anything more.
    She had felt more, much more for Rosalie. Indeed, she would describe it as something very akin to friendship, but she could not express such due to their different positions. Friends were made within the same social circles. That's how it was.
    Deep down she knew otherwise. True emotions were not bound by social hierarchy but forged through connections. Eric and Grant had been lucky in forming such a bond. Custom might dictate that a person's title carry more importance than true and honest feelings. However, love -- either romantic or platonic -- wasn't subject to such custom. If love was real, it could not be broken. She'd always held out this hope for herself that no matter what happened, despite the obstacles, she would find that affinity with another human being. Love would prevail because it was beyond status,