Loving Sarah (17 page)

Sarah wiped the last of her tears shortly before leaving the cabin and reached the deck just as the crew dropped the anchors. Ian commented that he didn’t think any of the boats in the harbor were race participants but Lucky’s. “When I return from reporting to the race steward, I will take you over to
Avenger
, and we can speak with Lucky.”

She nodded. “Until then I will try to be helpful in the galley.”

Sarah knew she had a narrow window in which to escape, and she waited until Ian and three men left in one of the gigs. She and Seamus climbed into the second gig with Goran and the others who were charged with replenishing the stores. No one had known of her plans to leave except Seamus, who reluctantly agreed to come along as her protector when she threatened to leave without him.

Goran and the other men gave looks of surprise as they took their seat in this gig when the one that left minutes earlier had much more room.

“Does the captain know yer leavin’?” Goran asked.

“I didn’t decide until the captain left that I wanted to go into the town,” she lied. “I’d been thinking of it, and even mentioned it to him, but wasn’t certain until just now.” She gave the men what she hoped was her most convincing smile. “Believe me, he’ll be happy I went when he realizes I don’t look and smell like the rest of you. You see, I plan to purchase scented soaps and a few dresses.”

There a few grumbles about the captain not knowing, and one man commented on the captain’s anger when he learned of her trip into town.

“I’ll be fine, gentlemen. Don’t worry,” she assured them with a grin. “Seamus will be with me to carry all of my packages and boxes.”

S
arah was adorable when she stuck out her bottom lip and pouted. It made Ian want to do all manner of erotic things with that mouth of hers. Beginning with a sweet, nibble of a kiss and ending with….

He growled in frustration. Were all women such frustrating contradictions? He wanted her so badly, he ached every moment of every day. Yet he wished he was better able to read her. Women had always confounded him, and Sarah was no different. Except with Sarah, he was learning, his exasperation was often triggered when she expected to have her girlish whims catered to. And those whims usually arose when he had work to do.

There were times when he thought he could perhaps be a bit more understanding of her situation, and it was when those ideas entered his mind that he reminded himself he did not invite her aboard. So he felt no remorse for not granting her every impulse and fancy.

Except in bed. There he did grant her every wish because more often than not, they were what he wanted as well. He had lived the past nearly four weeks in a perpetual state of arousal. No sooner had he finished loving her than he felt himself needing her again.

Sarah had proven she was not a typical woman. How many of those same ladies had the courage and spirit to do what she had done to feed her need for adventure? Not many, he’d wager. Sarah volunteered to help Seamus cook and serve meals to the entire crew of salty veteran sailors. She never feared a single one of them, called most of the men by name, and remembered the names of their families at home.

Truth be told, he’d never met anyone like her. She was often assertive, initiating their sexual play, though he knew for a fact that she’d never been with another. Sarah was everything a man wanted in a woman—desirable and willing, virtuous and wanton. Surely, no man could be luckier than he.

Of course none of that changed the fact that he was not yet prepared to support a wife and family, but he had no choice in the matter. She was a lady of noble birth, and by her actions and the mistake of the lad who’d brought her to his ship, Ian now found himself saddled with a wife and quite possibly a family in the near future.

He would marry her right away so she would not have to face the ostracism of society for her reckless behavior. And he reminded himself once again that this was for her own good. He was doing this because he cared for her and wanted the best for her.

So she wanted to see New York. It wouldn’t hurt to take a little time and bring her to a mercantile to let her purchase some necessities before taking her to meet her brother aboard
Avenger
.

C
HAPTER
E
IGHT

S
arah had never seen anything like this in her life. This bustling port of New York was enormous, stretching for as far as one could see in all directions. A forest of masts bobbed gently around them as the gig rowed closer to the pier. Brick and stone facade buildings, which appeared newly built, lined the docks, and the wharves teemed with laborers. And that pungent aroma of tar and dead fish, those scents distinctive to a busy, working port of call, was the same as in London and Liverpool. The cry of seagulls begging for any scrap of food was almost as constant as the wind. The heat was not something she’d counted on, though she wore her jacket for modesty’s sake. The warm weather and humid air made her uncomfortably sticky with perspiration.

Seeing Lucky’s boat nearby, Sarah smiled. She took in everything around her, the sights, odors, hustle and bustle of the hundreds of people on the wharf moving about in their daily jobs. It was like home, but it wasn’t. For though it didn’t look or smell much different than the ports of London or Liverpool, this was America. She was in New York harbor.
America
.

She could now tell her grandchildren one day, should she be so fortunate, that she had actually been to a country other than England or Scotland.

Their gig tied off to the pier, Seamus exited first and extended his hand to her. He assisted her to the lower platform. He then looked down into the gig at the two men who rowed them out.

“Meet us back here in three hours,” Seamus said. The other men nodded.

He then turned a piercing dark gaze at Sarah and said again, “Ye have three hours.”

She nodded and they went up the steps and onto the dock where Seamus hired a hack on the bustling wharf. It took a great deal of pleading with the old salt to get him to agree to this excursion before taking her over to the
Avenger
. The entire ride into the city, the old man swore over and over that if Ian and Lucky didn’t string him up, the duke would flay him alive.

“Ye know how protective his grace is of his family,” Seamus said. “The man would skin me alive if I let anything happen to ye. So it’d be in my best interest to make sure ye get what yer wantin’ within reason and get ye safely over to Cap’n Lucky.

The hack rolled to a stop in front of a row of shops. “I know my brother well,” Sarah said, “and I’m willing to bet my entire inheritance that he’ll be so happy upon my safe return that he’ll not flay anyone, especially you, Seamus. Though I cannot say I’m as positive about Ian’s safety. Ren will be upset if he learns of some details. But I shall take the blame, for truly it was not Ian’s fault. I…It’s all my fault. Everything that occurred between us was my doing. All of it.”

The driver held open the door for them as they disembarked, and Seamus paid the man to wait for them as they shopped. She dropped her voice to a whisper as they walked toward the door of the shop. “And for that I am willing to accept my fate.”

Seamus waited outside near the door as Sarah went in the establishment. Once inside, she found she needed more than just the two or three items she originally intended to purchase, and when the shopkeeper gave her the total, she paid the woman. Before she could lift the tied package, a boy appeared and carried it to Seamus, who tucked it under his arm and escorted her to the hack.

She asked the driver to then take them to a dressmaker who might have a few ready-made dresses and other lady’s clothing. Minutes later, they rolled to a stop in front of a shop, and she entered alone while Seamus and their driver waited outside.

After first enduring the stares and whispers of the
modiste
and her staff, she was sure due to her outlandish and unladylike garb, Sarah left nearly an hour later with enough purchases to make the women regret their original opinion of her. When they’d asked her to please come back again, she promised she would indeed visit them again if she ever returned to America. One of the younger seamstresses went out to fetch Seamus so he could carry her packages. Then the young woman recommended the cobbler next door for a pair of well-made boots.

Two pairs of practical shoes and one pair of boots later, she’d finally had everything she thought she would need, then discovered she needed a trunk to carry it all. So the cobbler recommended a shop down the street, and Sarah purchased an embossed leather trunk with polished brass accents.

“Americans really are an accommodating lot,” she commented to her companion. “Everyone here has been very pleasant and helpful” She smiled at the cab driver.

“They’re bound to be pleasant and helpful, as ye say,” Seamus muttered, “when ye spend a small fortune in each shop ye go into.”

Sarah pretended to be taken aback. “You mean they’re only after my coin?”

“Aye lassie,” her protector replied. “You’re not having some bloke billed for your purchases, so they likely think you’re a member of the oldest profession having a really good week.”

She felt the heat rise to her cheeks. “Surely they don’t think that I…that I…?”

“Oh, I’m sure they do. But it doesna matter, does it? They don’t know who ye are.”

She exhaled a deep sigh. “You have a point. It doesn’t matter.”

They returned to the waiting hack, and Sarah asked the driver to carry them to a respectable, clean hotel. Preferably a very nice one, as the food was sure to be better there. After arriving, Seamus procured a room for her, then tipped an attendant to carry her packages and trunk up. The first thing she did was order a hot bath to be sent up, then she and Seamus waited in the public room, feasting on fall-apart-tender roasted ham, fresh warm bread, and plates piled high with summer vegetables.

“Please do not take offense, Seamus,” Sarah said through a full mouth, “but this surpasses anything you’ve made on the boat. I wonder if I could hire this cook for the return voyage.”

“When cookin’ on board a boat, lassie” —he stressed his pet name for her, obviously insulted— “it’s not the talent o’ the cook that makes the meal—though it doesn’t hurt ta have a skilled cook. It’s the supplies ye have on hand and the limited use of fire. Ye know there’s only the one flame. So naturally the biscuits will be cold before the main course is done. And that, too, is why yer meals are usually slopped into a bowl and eaten wit’ a spoon.”

Just then a maid entered the dining parlor of the main floor in the hotel, informing the lady that her bath was ready. Sarah smiled as she stood, eager to get clean. “I will see you in a bit, as I plan to make up for a month without a tub.”

She followed the maid to her room and bolted the door, then spent the next hour soaking in the most luxurious hot bath she’d ever had in her life.

Well, at least since she left London.

I
an stepped onto the dock surveying the boxes of foodstuffs and crates of marine supplies being loaded onto his longboats for delivery to
Revenge.
Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Lucky heading his way.

His friend obviously hadn’t heard yet about Sarah or he wouldn’t be wearing a smile. Ian had planned to go over to
Avenger
with Sarah as soon as the items on this dock made it onto
Revenge.
And if he were honest with himself, he almost expected Lucky to have heard something from the crew gossip as the men congregated on the dock while working on transferring goods and materials. He didn’t want to speak in such a public place, so he motioned for Lucky to follow him off to the side a few feet away from the working men.

“Do you have everything you requested?” Lucky asked.

“Aye,” Ian replied. “Though once this boat is loaded, you should come with me to
Revenge
. We had an incident that you should be aware of.”

“What happened?” His friend’s expression grew sober and intent. “Is everyone well? Did anyone get injured during the storm?”

“Everyone is well,” he replied. “We had a stowaway that no one discovered until we were miles from home.”

“Hopefully you put the lad to work,” Lucky said with a chuckle. “I’d make him earn those three meals.”

“Umm…. You will need to come with me. This guest is not your average stow away.”

Lucky looked at him rather oddly, his face then going pale. Ian knew him so well, he could see his friend’s thought process, and it was as though he knew at heart, but didn’t want to believe. “Tell me” —Lucky ground out, his voice so deep and threatening Ian actually feared for Sarah— “it is not who I think it is, and if it is tell me she is alive and in once piece so I can throttle her.”

“She has occupied my cabin the entire trip,” Ian said, right before a flood of curses in both English and Italian poured from his friend.

“Impossible! Sarah’s here?” Lucky hissed, not wanting to yell in front of his sailors. “How on earth…? No, I know how. When I get my hands on her, I’ll wring her scrawny neck.”

Ian’s voice took an uncharacteristically hard edge when he replied, “She’s a lady, and you’ll not be harming a lady, sister or not.” At Lucky’s look of surprise, he added, “Much as I have wanted to over the past month, I’ve managed to restrain myself. I think you can as well.”