Ransome's Crossing (34 page)

“Captain Ned Cochrane.” He stopped and leaned over, panting for breath. Another figure took the lantern from him.

Julia stepped out from behind William. “Jeremiah? What—” But before she could complete her question, Ned stood. The light fell on his face and revealed a stream of blood coming from a gash on his temple. She yanked her handkerchief from her sleeve and moved forward, pressing the cloth to the wound, and then she noticed the pistol in Ned’s right hand. “What happened?”

He took the handkerchief from her and wiped the worst of the blood from his face with it. “Pirates.” He spat the word. “They attacked me from behind. The blow disoriented me. By the time I could see straight, they were gone.”

Ned locked eyes with William. “They took Charlotte.”

About the Author

Kaye Dacus
lives in Nashville, Tennessee, and holds a master of fine arts degree in writing popular fiction from Seton Hill University, is a former vice president of American Christian Fiction Writers, and currently serves as the president of Middle Tennessee Christian Writers. She loves action movies and British costume dramas, and when she’s not writing she enjoys knitting scarves and lap blankets (she’s a master of the straight-line knit and purl stitches!). To learn more about Kaye and her books, visit her online at
kayedacus.com
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B
OOK
1
OF
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HE
R
ANSOME
T
RILOGY

W
hen young Julia Witherington doesn’t receive the proposal for marriage she expects from William Ransome, she determines to never forgive him. They go their separate ways—she returns to her family’s Caribbean plantation, and he returns to the Royal Navy.

Now, twelve years later, Julia is about to receive a substantial inheritance, including her beloved plantation. When unscrupulous relatives try to gain the inheritance by forcing her into a marriage, she turns to the only eligible man to whom her father, Admiral Sir Edward Witherington, will not object—his most trusted captain and the man who broke her heart, William Ransome. Julia offers William her thirty-thousand-pound dowry to feign marriage for one year, but then something she could never have imagined happens: She starts to fall in love with him again.

Can two people overcome their hurt, reconcile their conflicting desires, and find a way to be happy together? Duty and honor, faith and love are intertwined in this intriguing tale from the Regency era.