Lady in the Mist - Laurie Alice Eakes [56]
But was she strong enough to withstand the turmoil the next few weeks would bring upon her? Afterward, if she could no longer practice her profession, she would need even more strength to carry on.
Or a husband.
Baiting a hook, Raleigh smiled to himself. Yes, that was it. He would complete his commission and marry her.
Heart as light as the breeze, he handed her the rod. “Do you remember how to cast, or shall I do it for you?”
“I said I haven’t been out on a boat.” With a flip of her wrist, she sent the line spinning over the rail to land as light as an insect on the waves. “I didn’t say I haven’t been fishing. Remember that inlet near my house? I’ve caught a few things there.”
“Alone?” he couldn’t help asking as he baited his own line.
“Yes.” She gave him a quick glance, then returned her attention to the bobbing cork on her line. “There hasn’t been anyone else, Raleigh. I told you that.”
What about that Englishman?
He clenched his teeth until the question dissolved on his tongue.
“The men of Seabourne are fools,” he managed instead.
“If I agree with you, I’ll sound rather self-centered, won’t I?”
He smiled. “I suppose so. But Tabitha, please talk to me about what happened.” He followed her along the side of the craft. “You used to always tell me about your troubles and dreams.”
“Yes, I did.” She turned on him so abruptly her pole collided with his, entangling the lines. “I told you I wanted to have a family, lots of children, at least one daughter to teach my trade. I told you about the way I would want to make the house bigger for my family and how I’d teach them from my father’s books. I told you about wanting to sit with my husband by a fire on cold winter nights and read and talk and just be together. But you never told me you wanted to run away.”
“I didn’t run away.” The pain on her face tore his heart in two. “I just wanted to see a bit of the world before I settled down to that hearth and—”
“You could have told me.”
“I was afraid you’d end things between us.”
“So you simply left me to mourn.”
“Yes.” He dropped the hopelessly snarled rods on the deck and rested his hands on her shoulders. “Yes, I did,” he repeated in a voice no louder than the hiss of the waves against the hull. “I was a fool and a coward, and I want to spend every day of the rest of my life making that up to you. Please, give me a chance.” He raised his hands to cup her face in his palms. “If you’ll let me.” He lowered his head.
An instant before his lips met hers, she twisted out of his hold and strode across the deck to the opposite gunwale. She grasped the rail, her back to him, her knuckles white.
She hadn’t twisted away from the Englishman when he’d kissed her. She hadn’t collapsed in his arms, but neither had she given him the slap he deserved.
The image of that contact burning in his mind’s eye, Raleigh demanded, “Do you prefer an English bondsman who’ll leave here in four years to a man who wants to spend the rest of his life with you?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Her spine was stiff, her voice tight.
“I think you do.” Raleigh joined her to face the nearly invisible shore. “You let him kiss you.”
“I didn’t let—”
“I saw it, Tabitha. You were on the beach with him at dawn, and he kissed you.”
“I . . . he . . .” She sighed. “Yes, he kissed me. I didn’t expect it.”
“You didn’t seem to dislike it.”
Between collar and hairline, her neck turned rosy pink. “I was taken aback, is all. I suppose you’d be happier if I’d slapped him.”
“I would be, yes.”
“I’ve never slapped anyone in my life. I bring life into this world. I don’t do anything that could lead to ending it.”
“Which is why I love you so much.” He braced his legs against an increase in the pitch of the deck and clasped his hands behind his back. “And if it were any other