his employer to bring the passengers food. He had promised to find her a decent place, and she was confident he would, and she thanked God once again that her future did not depend on a man as unpredictable as Kit Sparhawk.
News of the Prosperity’s safe return had raced through Saybrook, and already a crowd was gathering-wives and mothers with new babies, children hopping with excitement, friends and neighbors calling greetings across the water, their words frozen into clouds in the cold air. As soon as the ship bumped alongside the uneven cob dock, the welcomers swarmed on board, the joyful reunions began in earnest.
The happiness was infectious, and Dianna couldn’t help grinning herself. She had come this far without harm. What worse could lie ahead?
Across the heads of the jostling crowd, she spotted Kit, hatless, his long hair blowing wildly in the wind.
Against her will something inside her gave a little lurch. He was laughing, his flashing smile brilliant with the pleasure of homecoming. But his eyes seemed joyless as he scanned the faces around him, and curiously Dianna wondered whose he sought.
Then abruptly his grin vanished and his expression grew solemn. Effortlessly he dropped over the side and hurried to meet a young woman with auburn hair who blushed shyly as Kit took both her hands in his.
She was pretty, noted Dianna miserably, very pretty, indeed and even the heavy cloak she wore was un, able to disguise her obvious pregnancy. Seven months the Prosperity had been away, but time enough.
,
“Ah, so he’s found Patience Tucker already,” said a sailor softly to his wife.
“Poor lass!
“Tis well she’ll have Master Sparhawk to watch after her now.”
“Not before the young ones, mind,” murmured his wife, cocking her head toward the two boys who tugged excitedly at their father’s coat.
“They’ll learn such things soon enough.”
The chill that passed through Dianna had nothing to do with the wind. Too well she remembered the scandal when one of her friends had let herself be seduced by a handsome favorite of the Queeh’s, an earl he was. He’d gotten the girl with child, killed the girl’ sbrother in a duel, and then Dianna’s friend had drowned herself. The earl, along with the rest of London society, had merely shrugged it all away as unfortunate unpleasantness and been back again at court the next week as if nothing had happened.
So Kit Sparhawk was kinder than that, but still there seemed no likelihood of him wedding the girl.
Perhaps he, too, was already married to another.
Dianna watched the pair walk slowly away, her arm in his for support.
Dianna shivered, all pleasure in the morning now gone. What would have become of her if she, too, carried Kit’s child? She’d come so close, so dangerously close, to lying with him, Lord help her! She had been weak and Kit had been strong, and his kiss and touch had brought a fire to her blood that she hadn’t known existed. She had been willing. He had been the one to stop. Again she heard her uncle’s taunting voice and his bitter accusations. New England or old, some things would never change.
For the next week Dianna continued to live on the Prosperity, waiting while Captain Welles sought a buyer for her indenture. From the way he avoided her, she suspected this had not proved as easy as he’d hoped, and she hated not knowing what would come next. But steadfastly she ordered herself not to worry and tried to fight back the insecurity that gnawed at her. She still had the company of the Penhallows, who also remained on board. Soon they would begin their journey westward, by wagon, to their new land.
It was late one afternoon when Dianna and Eunice stood together on the deck, idly tossing biscuit crumbs to make the gulls wheel and dive. Dianna had been careful to choose the larboard side, away from the dock, and away from Kit, who was supervising the men unloading the hold. Every so often she could hear his laughter
News of the Prosperity’s safe return had raced through Saybrook, and already a crowd was gathering-wives and mothers with new babies, children hopping with excitement, friends and neighbors calling greetings across the water, their words frozen into clouds in the cold air. As soon as the ship bumped alongside the uneven cob dock, the welcomers swarmed on board, the joyful reunions began in earnest.
The happiness was infectious, and Dianna couldn’t help grinning herself. She had come this far without harm. What worse could lie ahead?
Across the heads of the jostling crowd, she spotted Kit, hatless, his long hair blowing wildly in the wind.
Against her will something inside her gave a little lurch. He was laughing, his flashing smile brilliant with the pleasure of homecoming. But his eyes seemed joyless as he scanned the faces around him, and curiously Dianna wondered whose he sought.
Then abruptly his grin vanished and his expression grew solemn. Effortlessly he dropped over the side and hurried to meet a young woman with auburn hair who blushed shyly as Kit took both her hands in his.
She was pretty, noted Dianna miserably, very pretty, indeed and even the heavy cloak she wore was un, able to disguise her obvious pregnancy. Seven months the Prosperity had been away, but time enough.
,
“Ah, so he’s found Patience Tucker already,” said a sailor softly to his wife.
“Poor lass!
“Tis well she’ll have Master Sparhawk to watch after her now.”
“Not before the young ones, mind,” murmured his wife, cocking her head toward the two boys who tugged excitedly at their father’s coat.
“They’ll learn such things soon enough.”
The chill that passed through Dianna had nothing to do with the wind. Too well she remembered the scandal when one of her friends had let herself be seduced by a handsome favorite of the Queeh’s, an earl he was. He’d gotten the girl with child, killed the girl’ sbrother in a duel, and then Dianna’s friend had drowned herself. The earl, along with the rest of London society, had merely shrugged it all away as unfortunate unpleasantness and been back again at court the next week as if nothing had happened.
So Kit Sparhawk was kinder than that, but still there seemed no likelihood of him wedding the girl.
Perhaps he, too, was already married to another.
Dianna watched the pair walk slowly away, her arm in his for support.
Dianna shivered, all pleasure in the morning now gone. What would have become of her if she, too, carried Kit’s child? She’d come so close, so dangerously close, to lying with him, Lord help her! She had been weak and Kit had been strong, and his kiss and touch had brought a fire to her blood that she hadn’t known existed. She had been willing. He had been the one to stop. Again she heard her uncle’s taunting voice and his bitter accusations. New England or old, some things would never change.
For the next week Dianna continued to live on the Prosperity, waiting while Captain Welles sought a buyer for her indenture. From the way he avoided her, she suspected this had not proved as easy as he’d hoped, and she hated not knowing what would come next. But steadfastly she ordered herself not to worry and tried to fight back the insecurity that gnawed at her. She still had the company of the Penhallows, who also remained on board. Soon they would begin their journey westward, by wagon, to their new land.
It was late one afternoon when Dianna and Eunice stood together on the deck, idly tossing biscuit crumbs to make the gulls wheel and dive. Dianna had been careful to choose the larboard side, away from the dock, and away from Kit, who was supervising the men unloading the hold. Every so often she could hear his laughter
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