Read Online Columbine by MIRANDA JARRETT - Free Book Online Page A

over Eunice’s chatter, and her back would stiffen with irritation. What cause did he have to be so merry? If he was the fine gentleman he pretended to be, he wouldn’t be here carousing with common sailors. Why didn’t he just go away, so she could forget she’d ever seen him? Crossly she bounced a bread crust off a gull’s head, wishing it were Kit’s instead.
    Suddenly a great clattering on the dock scattered all the gulls into noisy flight, and every man raced across to the starboard side, cheering and waving.
    Excitedly Eunice hurried to join them, and with an impatient sigh, Dianna followed.
    “Oh, Iud, ye know who it must be, don’t ye, Dianna?” exclaimed Eunice, her eyes round with wonder.
    “It must be Cap’n Jonathan Sparhawk his-self, what everyone feared were dead!”
    Dianna stared down at the man on the back of the black stallion, calling out to the crewmen as he swung his three-cornered hat over his head. He wore a scarlet coat laced with gold, the polished buttons winking in the late afternoon light, and his neck cloth fluttered over his shoulder as he expertly brought the horse to a halt at the water’s edge. His clumsiness as he dismounted surprised Dianna, until she saw how he favored his right leg as it touched the ground, and the brass-headed cane he untied from his saddle.
    And even if Kit had not leaped at him at once, nearly knocking him sideways with the fierceness of his greeting, Dianna would have known they were brothers. They were too much alike not to be, both pounding each other delightedly on the back, grinning and howling like madmen. Jonathan stood a shade shorter and his hair was black as the stallion’s coat, but he had the same green eyes as Kit, the same powerful build and easy physical confidence. And, decided Dianna instantly, he had the same damnable charm.
    “What a sight they be,” Eunice said with a sigh, “each one handsomer than the’ other! To think there be two such, oh!”
    “And twice the trouble to bedevil womankind,” said Dianna tartly. Yet her eyes still lingered on the brothers, just as Jonathan, over the first flush of re. union with Kit, had instinctively turned to find the two young women watching from the rail.
    “By all that’s holy, Kit, you’ve women in my sweet Prosperity!” he exclaimed with relish.
    “Delectable ones, too, from the look of them. And here I pitied you old Abraham’s company!”
    Kit scowled and made a disgusted noise deep in his throat.
    “The one’s a silly little maid with her whole clacking family behind her, but the other’s worse trouble by far.” Briefly he recounted Dianna’s past, carefully omitting himself.
    “A rogue gentlewoman!” Jonathan’s eyebrows rose suggestively.
    “She’s still a plump enough little chick with that cloud of golden hair.”
    “Nay, Jon,” said Kit too quickly.
    “It’s the beauty, the dark-haired one.”
    Jonathan scratched his jaw, considering. He had spent enough nights wenching side by side with his brother to know the scrawny little creature with the thatch of eyebrows was not to Kit’s usual taste, nor had his explanation rung quite true.
    “So Abraham expects to get ten guineas for her. She doesn’t look worth half that to me, but I’ll buy her for you if you wish.” He grinned wolfishly.
    “For those cold nights at Plumstead.”
    “Toss your gold in the river before you spend it on her!” exclaimed Kit, appalled at the idea.
    “I’d not have the little baggage within twenty miles of Plumstead!”
    Kit saw the gleam in his brother’s eye and realized he’d tipped his hand. Blast the girl for showing her face to Jonathan! Tonight, in some tavern, he’d likely spill the whole sorry tale, and Jonathan, the cocksure little whelp, would just as likely gloat and taunt him for being an old, worn-out fool.
    But then he recalled how close he’d come to losing Jonathan’s taunts forever. For the first time, Kit noticed how heavily his brother leaned on his cane,