Read Online This Perfect Kiss by Melody Thomas - Free Book Online Page B

instant the words spilled out.
    He cocked his brow as if his thoughts mirrored hers. This was his ship; he could go where he chose. “Red Harry told me you had changed cabins.”
    She dropped the blankets on the berth and proceeded to fold them, not believing for one moment he’d come to see to her welfare. “There is no reason I should have remained in the master’s chambers alone.”
    â€œYou have an aversion to sleeping alone?”
    She whirled to face him. But he was not even looking at her. He was looking at the comforter on the top berth.
    â€œTell me you are not planning to re-stuff that thing,” he asked.
    Her startled gaze swung to the berth where she had laid the tick, suddenly worried he might order it tossed overboard simply because it lacked perfection. She had salvaged the tick and most of the feathers. “And if I do?”
    Smoothing her fingers over the fabric one last time, she carefully folded and placed it at the foot of the berth. Indeed, she had created a wedding gown less costly than this bed covering. But that wasn’t why she wanted to save it.
    â€œI would tell you ’tis not necessary, Christel.”
    Sitting forward with his elbows on his knees, he made no other comment, as if unwilling to argue the point, because either it was unimportant to him, or he sensed its importance to her. She was responsible for its destruction. She would see it repaired. She paid her debts. She would keep it that way.
    â€œDo you have a place to stay once we are in Ayr?” he asked after a moment. “Have you been in contact with your grandmother?”
    â€œYou need not worry about my accommodations,” she said. “I am returning to Seastone Cottage.” The place where she had been born. Where she had lived for twelve years before her mother had died and Papa had sent her to stay with Grams at Rosecliffe. “I know the family my uncle hired to care for the place.” Without looking at Lord Carrick, she said, “I am not returning to Virginia. My decision was made before I left Boston.”
    â€œYour uncle has been dead a year. Have you considered that you will owe taxes?”
    She did not argue his point. His conclusion was true. Accepting employment with Lord Carrick had been as much a matter of economics as any other reason she had for returning to Scotland, but this too remained unsaid. Lord Carrick had wanted answers as to why she would accept a position as a governess for his daughter. He was intelligent enough to discern that her motivations were monetary without making her demean herself by spelling it out. Except now that she had met the child, even that point was no longer accurate. Anna was Saundra’s daughter. Christel wanted to know her.
    â€œI have no intention of remaining at Blackthorn Castle,” he said. “Any governess I hire will have to accompany me back to London.”
    â€œI am sure you will find one in London to suit your needs, my lord. My home is Seastone Cottage.”
    He unfurled from the chair, his size shrinking the room by half in her mind. A wayward perception that she immediately decided was incongruous, for he was no taller or broader of shoulder than other men in her life had been.
    She returned to folding blankets, listening as he walked past her to the port window, touching a hand to the washbasin as he bent at the waist and peered outside at the pewter sky. A quick glance and he continued his examination of the room, his restless pacing beginning to wear as her senses followed his movement to the cupboard. She could hear a limp in his step and caught the faint scent of liniment.
    â€œYour hair is short,” he said from behind her, giving her a start.
    She shrugged a shoulder, indifferent as to whether her hair was short or long, and set the last blanket on the bed. “I sold the length to a wigmaker before leaving Boston. Better to salvage the coin than waste it on louse. Hair grows