Read Online Once Upon a Midnight Sea by Ava Bradley - Free Book Online
Authors: Ava Bradley
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Preston's greasy smile shattered her thoughts. Even being close enough to him to smell the horrible tonic he used in his thinning hair made her recoil.
She could not discuss such things with Mrs. Bailey. The matronly woman was single-minded in her focus to see Adriana married off to a respectable young man. In her eyes, nothing else mattered.
"Perhaps," she answered simply.
* * *
Christian quickly decided searching for the necklace was futile. The fore hold possessed a million nooks and crannies. Adriana could have hidden it anywhere on the ship.
He returned to his cabin and poked through Edmund's things. The man had exquisite taste, and had furnished the cabin with all the items necessary to live comfortably aboard the ship almost indefinitely. Christian smoothed his nails with a steel file, then brushed his hair while standing before the large mirror in the toilet. With its copper tub long enough for him to stretch out his legs and a plumbed latrine, the privy was more extravagant than many people possessed in their homes.
He moved idly about the lower deck, examining the sections of Lady Luck he hadn't been able to investigate last night. Beside the galley was a small captain's office filled with charts, maps, and a handsome bookcase filled with leather-bound volumes. An elegantly carved wooden barrier latched across the front of each shelf, keeping the books tidily in place in rough seas. A gigantic book the size of a pastor's bible sat on a pull-out drawer shelf, flipped open to a blank page. The ship's log.
Voices from above called his attention through the hatch leading to the rear section of the deck. He went to the foot of the ladder and peered up into the dazzling blue sky. It was Adriana and her chaperone. He stood quietly and listened. Perhaps he was an eavesdropper, but those were the tools of the trade of a successful thief.
The story Adriana recounted surprised him. Christian never would have suspected the great Edmund Montague was considered a mushroom by the pretentious company he kept.
A peculiar sensation slid over him. Could it be that the man he'd imagined a giant for his wealth and influence was really just an ordinary nobody? Did Edmund find difficulty achieving the acceptance he so desperately sought? He never imagined Edmund Montague was a man at whom the upper classes stared down their noses, as they had always done to him.
Christian shrugged the feeling away. Edmund Montague was still the monster who had turned on his partner and abandoned him as though he were vermin. That proved he fit in perfectly with the rich.
But Adriana continued to be a confusing story. She was engaged to the heir to the biggest steel empire in New York, destined for a life of opulence, yet she claimed to not want any of it.
Was it just because she was so used to having money she had no idea what it was like to live without it? Was her aversion to homely Preston Weiss merely spoiled vanity? Christian doubted it. In the brief encounter at the pub in Baltimore he'd detected something decidedly unsavory about the man.
Just as in his brief encounter with Adriana, he'd perceived something unquestionably upright about her.
Her small dog meandered over, sniffing dark corners for some hidden treat. The fuzzy little thing really was cute, when it wasn't snarling at him as though it wanted to tear strips out of his flesh. That she would own this scruffy terrier mutt instead of a prized purebred was just another delightful surprise in the unfolding mystery that was Adriana Montague.
"Hello, boy," he said kindly. "Chauncy is your name, is it? I am Christian. I'm told we have a rather long voyage ahead of us. I see no reason we can't be friends."
The dog looked up at him and chuffed, then trotted away. No, friends–perhaps not. The dog was loyal to its mistress. As her enemy, there was no room in that for him. But was it loyalty, or did the dog merely depend upon Adriana for its food, as so many people had to grovel
Preston's greasy smile shattered her thoughts. Even being close enough to him to smell the horrible tonic he used in his thinning hair made her recoil.
She could not discuss such things with Mrs. Bailey. The matronly woman was single-minded in her focus to see Adriana married off to a respectable young man. In her eyes, nothing else mattered.
"Perhaps," she answered simply.
* * *
Christian quickly decided searching for the necklace was futile. The fore hold possessed a million nooks and crannies. Adriana could have hidden it anywhere on the ship.
He returned to his cabin and poked through Edmund's things. The man had exquisite taste, and had furnished the cabin with all the items necessary to live comfortably aboard the ship almost indefinitely. Christian smoothed his nails with a steel file, then brushed his hair while standing before the large mirror in the toilet. With its copper tub long enough for him to stretch out his legs and a plumbed latrine, the privy was more extravagant than many people possessed in their homes.
He moved idly about the lower deck, examining the sections of Lady Luck he hadn't been able to investigate last night. Beside the galley was a small captain's office filled with charts, maps, and a handsome bookcase filled with leather-bound volumes. An elegantly carved wooden barrier latched across the front of each shelf, keeping the books tidily in place in rough seas. A gigantic book the size of a pastor's bible sat on a pull-out drawer shelf, flipped open to a blank page. The ship's log.
Voices from above called his attention through the hatch leading to the rear section of the deck. He went to the foot of the ladder and peered up into the dazzling blue sky. It was Adriana and her chaperone. He stood quietly and listened. Perhaps he was an eavesdropper, but those were the tools of the trade of a successful thief.
The story Adriana recounted surprised him. Christian never would have suspected the great Edmund Montague was considered a mushroom by the pretentious company he kept.
A peculiar sensation slid over him. Could it be that the man he'd imagined a giant for his wealth and influence was really just an ordinary nobody? Did Edmund find difficulty achieving the acceptance he so desperately sought? He never imagined Edmund Montague was a man at whom the upper classes stared down their noses, as they had always done to him.
Christian shrugged the feeling away. Edmund Montague was still the monster who had turned on his partner and abandoned him as though he were vermin. That proved he fit in perfectly with the rich.
But Adriana continued to be a confusing story. She was engaged to the heir to the biggest steel empire in New York, destined for a life of opulence, yet she claimed to not want any of it.
Was it just because she was so used to having money she had no idea what it was like to live without it? Was her aversion to homely Preston Weiss merely spoiled vanity? Christian doubted it. In the brief encounter at the pub in Baltimore he'd detected something decidedly unsavory about the man.
Just as in his brief encounter with Adriana, he'd perceived something unquestionably upright about her.
Her small dog meandered over, sniffing dark corners for some hidden treat. The fuzzy little thing really was cute, when it wasn't snarling at him as though it wanted to tear strips out of his flesh. That she would own this scruffy terrier mutt instead of a prized purebred was just another delightful surprise in the unfolding mystery that was Adriana Montague.
"Hello, boy," he said kindly. "Chauncy is your name, is it? I am Christian. I'm told we have a rather long voyage ahead of us. I see no reason we can't be friends."
The dog looked up at him and chuffed, then trotted away. No, friends–perhaps not. The dog was loyal to its mistress. As her enemy, there was no room in that for him. But was it loyalty, or did the dog merely depend upon Adriana for its food, as so many people had to grovel
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