Stormy Persuasion (7 page)

Chapter Eleven

“I
hope you are no’ going tae prove as stubborn as your cousin,” Nettie MacDonald said
as she entered Judith’s cabin to help her prepare for dinner.

Roslynn had insisted on sending her own maid on the trip to see to both girls’ needs.
Nettie was more a member of the family than a servant, so Judith was delighted that
she was accompanying them. Nettie was the only maid aboard. Since
The Maiden George
didn’t have an abundance of cabins Georgina and Katey, Judith’s older sister, had
elected to just hire maids when they reached Bridgeport, but then they both had husbands
who could help them dress on the ship if they needed assistance.

“Jack is always stubborn,” Judith replied with a grin. “But what’s she being stubborn
about tonight?”

“Wouldna let me touch her hair. Wasna going tae concede on wearing a dress either
till I put m’foot down. Told her I wouldna be washing those breeches she loves sae
much if she didna at least dress proper for your dinners.”

Jacqueline had also had ship togs made for Judith, not that Judith planned to wear
them if she didn’t need to. She’d rather deal with her skirts whipping about in the
wind than feel self-conscious in sailor’s garb. But Judith had already braided her
hair for tonight, quite in agreement with Jacqueline that putting her hair up in her
usual coiffure on a ship was just asking for it to be blown apart by the wind. However,
she moved straight to her little vanity and sat down, just to make Nettie happy, and
the old girl did smile as she unbraided Judith’s hair and started arranging it more
fashionably.

Although Judith’s cabin was a decent size, it was still rather cramped with a full-size
bed, a wardrobe, and a comfortable reading chair, a little vanity, even a small, round
table for two, and her trunks, which had been pushed up against one wall. But she
didn’t plan to spend that much time in her cabin. Today had been an exception. With
most of the family unpacking and recovering from the party last night as well as the
early-morning departure, she’d spent most of the day reading and resting. And getting
her sea legs, as Jack called the adjustment to the constant motion of the ship.

Judith didn’t mind that at all. In fact, she was exhilarated to be on a ship again.
Possibly because she liked sailing even more than Jacqueline did. It was too bad Judith’s
mother and sister didn’t, or she might have had more opportunities to sail with her
uncle over the years.

She was looking forward to joining her family for dinner tonight in her uncle’s much
larger cabin and seeing their new cousin again—well, she assumed Andrássy and his
stepsister would be invited to dinner. And Nettie made sure Judith looked as if she
were going to a formal dinner at home. Her gown, sheer white over blue silk and embroidered
with lilacs, wasn’t new, but her new wardrobe for the Season hadn’t yet been finished
because her mother hadn’t expected her to need it for another month. She’d still brought
all of it along, which was why she had twice as many trunks as Jack did, clothes to
wear on the ship and for the first few days in Bridgeport, and a full wardrobe that
still needed a seamstress to put the finishing touches on it.

“There, you look lovely as always, lassie,” Nettie said when she had finished putting
up Judith’s hair. “I’ll get a sailor in here tomorrow to dig out your jewelry box.
I’m no’ sure why it’s packed wi’ the unfinished gowns.”

“Because I didn’t think I would need it until we get to America and I don’t, not just
for family dinners, so there’s no need to unpack it.” Judith hurried out of her cabin
before Nettie disagreed with her.

Closing her door, she jumped in surprise when a woman behind her said much too sharply,
“Move out of my way!”

Judith immediately stiffened and turned to see stormy gray eyes pinned on her. The
woman’s brown hair was bound up tightly, and the angry expression on her face prevented
Judith from determining whether she was pretty or plain. The woman was angry because
her way was blocked for mere moments? Judith couldn’t imagine who she was, and then
she did. Andrássy’s stepsister, Catherine?

She opened her mouth to introduce herself, but Catherine was too impatient to let
her get a word out. “Nearly knocked me over and now you just stand there gawking?
I asked you to move!”

She was about to shove Judith aside when Jacqueline yanked her own door open behind
them and snarled into the narrow corridor, “No screeching on the ship! Learn the bloody
rules before you embark or get tossed overboard.” And Jacqueline promptly slammed
her door shut again.

Trust Jack to say something outlandish when she was annoyed. The woman’s face turned
red. Judith had to get out of there before she burst out laughing, which would only
make the situation worse. But poor Andrássy! He hadn’t been joking last night when
he said they didn’t want to meet his stepsister, and now she knew why.

She squeezed past Catherine and ran upstairs to the deck before she did in fact giggle.
She waited there a few minutes for Jacqueline to join her.

“I suppose that was the stepsister?” Jack said as she came up the stairs.

“That red velvet she was wearing doesn’t bespeak a servant from the galley.”

Jack huffed, “If she was heading to her cabin, let’s hope she stays in it permanently.
I heard every word. Rudeness like that—”

“Usually has a reason.” Judith put her arm through her cousin’s as they headed up
to the quarterdeck. “Her face was pinched. It could have been from pain, rather than
a horrible disposition.”

Jacqueline tsked. “You always see the good in people.”

Judith laughed and teased, “And you always try not to!”

“I do not! Besides, more often than not, first impressions are accurate. However,
I’ll reserve judgment this once, but only because I know you want me to.”

A few minutes later they entered the captain’s cabin. Accessed from the quarterdeck
with only a few steps in front of the door that led down to it, they didn’t knock.
James and Georgina were on the sofa, his arm around her shoulders. Anthony and Katey
were already present and sitting at the long dining table.

The large room resembled a parlor. A long sofa and stuffed chairs with two card tables
were on one side, and a desk long enough to hold the charts was on the other side
by the dining area. An intricately carved partition in one of the back corners closed
off the bed from the rest of the room. The long bank of windows in the back had the
drapes open, revealing the ocean behind the ship and the moon shining down on it.

That was Judith’s favorite place on the ship. She loved to stand and gaze out of those
windows. During the day the windows offered a wonderful windless view of the ocean,
and at night, if the moon wasn’t hidden behind clouds, the view was almost breathtaking.

After giving her father and sister quick kisses in greeting, she moved to the windows.
She couldn’t actually see the moon with the wind currently taking them on a southwesterly
path, but its light was reflected on the waves.

Jacqueline had joined her parents on the sofa, and Georgina, glancing at the pale
green gown Jack was wearing, teased her daughter, “I’m surprised you’re not in breeches
yet.”

“The Scot wouldn’t let me,” Jack grumbled. “I’ve a mind to bar my door.”

“Nettie means well, so why don’t you try a reasonable approach instead.”

“Reason with a Scot?” Jack said, looking directly at Anthony as she did.

Anthony burst out laughing. “Ros would box your ears for that slander if she were
here.”

“Only if she could catch me.” Jacqueline grinned.

“I really wish Roslynn and Jaime were better sailors so they could have joined us.”
Anthony sighed, but his spirits were too high to dwell on it. “But with the Yank indisposed
for a few days, I intend to make the most of this rare situation. After all, how often
do I have my two eldest daughters to myself?” He raised his glass of brandy high.
“Here’s to seasickness!”

“That’s not funny, Father,” Katey said, quick to come to her husband Boyd’s defense.

“I thought it was,” James remarked.

Andrássy arrived a few minutes later. He knocked. James merely called out for him
to come in. Their new cousin was formally dressed in black with a short cape with
a pearl clasp and snowy cravat under it, and he was still wearing his sword. Even
his greeting to everyone sounded a little too formal, or perhaps he was merely nervous.

With a smile, Georgina got up to lead him to one of the chairs, inquiring, “Is your
sister coming?”

“No, she feels uncomfortable joining the family for dinner because she is not one
of ‘us’ and doesn’t want to interfere or be a burden. In fact, she insists on repaying
you for your generosity in allowing her to travel with you by working for her passage.
Perhaps in the galley or—”

“That’s highly irregular and certainly not necessary,” Georgina said.

“Actually, it is. Catherine can be quite mercurial”—Judith and Jacqueline looked at
each other and rolled their eyes—“and she will be calmer if she keeps busy.”

Was that really Catherine’s idea, Judith wondered, or was it Andrássy’s? If it was
his, that might be why his stepsister was so angry tonight. Put her to work like a
scullery maid?

Georgina must have had the same thought because she sounded a little annoyed when
she replied, “She’s not a servant and won’t be treated as one.”

“I tried to tell her exactly that,” Andrássy said. “I just worry if she is too idle—I
wish we had thought to bring material she could work with on the ship. She’s highly
skilled with a needle, even makes all her own clothes, she loves sewing so much. So
if any of you ladies need any clothes repaired, Catherine would be delighted to help
in that regard at least.”

“I could rip a few seams, I suppose,” Georgina replied with a grin.

A few people laughed. Judith held her tongue and shook her head at Jack to keep her
from mentioning that Judith could use a seamstress. She wasn’t about to saddle herself
with Catherine’s company before she had a chance to form a better opinion of the young
woman—if a better one could be had.

But the subject changed with the arrival of Artie and Henry announcing dinner. They
got stuck in the doorway, both trying to enter at the same time. Which didn’t surprise
anyone other than Andrássy. Those two old sea dogs might be the best of friends, but
a stranger wouldn’t figure that out with all their bickering. Part of James’s old
crew from his ten years on the high seas, they had retired when James did to become
his butlers, sharing that job and this one, too, both acting as his first mates for
the voyage.

They all moved to the dining table as the many platters were brought in. Andrássy
was quick to pull a chair out for Jack and then sit in the one next to her. A little
too quick? Judith wondered if she was going to have something to tease Jack about
later.

Judith wasn’t hungry because she’d already had samples of tonight’s fare when she’d
visited the galley late that afternoon. She noticed that Katey, seated beside her,
was also picking at her food, but for a different reason.

“Worried about Boyd?” Judith guessed.

Katey nodded. “I hate seeing him so miserable. You’d think after so many years at
sea he would have conquered his seasickness by now.”

“I don’t think it can be conquered.”

“I know.” Katey sighed. “I just wish—you know he used to have his ship’s surgeon make
him sleeping drafts so he could just sleep through it. I offered to do the same for
him, but he refuses because he wants to stay awake and talk to me. Yet he’s usually
too sick to say a word! So I end up sleeping too much, like I did today. I’m not going
to be able to sleep tonight now, while that is the only time he
does
manage to sleep.”

“At least his seasickness only lasts three to four days. But didn’t you bring any
books to read while you keep him company?”

“I didn’t think to, no.”

“I did and I just finished a very good one. I’ll go fetch it for you in case you do
have a sleepless night.”

“Eat first,” Katey insisted.

Judith grinned. “I did this afternoon.”

Telling her father she’d be right back, Judith slipped out of the captain’s cabin.
A few lanterns were lit, but they weren’t needed with the deck currently bathed in
moonlight. She caught sight of the moon in the eastern sky and paused. She wished
it were a full moon, but it was still lovely. After she got the book, she decided
to go to the rail for an unobstructed view of the moon before returning to her family.
But as she hurried back upstairs, she dropped her book when she slammed smack into
a ghost. And not just any ghost, but the Ghost.

Chapter Twelve

A
ll she could do was stare at him as light from a lantern on deck illuminated him.
Hair as white as she remembered and floating about his shoulders. His eyes a deeper
green than she remembered. And tall. No, taller than she remembered she realized now
that she was standing next to him, six feet at least. He was too close. She realized
he’d grabbed her shoulders to keep her from tumbling backward down the stairs. But
he should have let go of her now that she had steadied herself. Someone might come
along and see them. Someone such as her father.

With that alarming thought, she stepped to the side, away from the stairs, and he
let go of her. All she could think to say was “You’re dead.”

“No, I ain’t, why would you say so?”

“You don’t remember?”

“I think I’d remember dying.”

“We met a few years ago in that old ruin in Hampshire, next to the Duke of Wrighton’s
estate. I thought you were a ghost when I found you there. What are you doing here?”

It took him a moment to connect the when and the where, but when he did, he laughed.
“So that’s why you seem familiar to me. The trespassing child with sunset hair.” A
slow grin appeared as his emerald eyes roamed over her, up, down, and back up. “Not
a child anymore, are you?”

The blush came quickly. No, she wasn’t a child anymore, but did he have to look for
the obvious evidence of it? She shouldn’t have left her evening wrap in the cabin.
Her ghost was a common sailor. She shouldn’t be talking to a member of the crew for
so long, either. Devil that, he was fascinating! She’d wanted to know everything there
was to know about him when she’d thought him a ghost. She still wanted to.

To that end, she held out her hand to him but quickly pulled it back when he merely
stared at it. A bit nervous now that he didn’t know how to respond to her formal greeting,
she stated, “I’m Judith Malory. My friends and family call me Judy. It would be all
right if you do.”

“We aren’t friends.”

“Not yet, but we could be. You can start by telling me your name?”

“And if I don’t?”

“Surly for an ex-ghost, aren’t you? Too unfriendly to be anyone’s friend? Very well.”
She nodded. “Pardon me.” She walked over to the railing. She gazed at the wavering
reflection of the moon’s light on the pitch-dark ocean. It was so dramatic and beautiful,
but now she couldn’t fully appreciate it because she was disappointed, much more than
she should have been. She almost felt like crying, which was absurd—unless Jack had
been right. Had she really fancied herself in love with a ghost? No, that was absurd,
too. She’d merely been curious, amazed, and fascinated, thinking he was a ghost, that
there really were such things. Even after Jack and she were older and admitted he
couldn’t
really
be a ghost, it had still been more fun and exciting to think of him that way. Yet
here was the proof that he was a real man—flesh and blood and so nicely put together.
Not as pale as she remembered. No, now his skin was deeply tanned. From working on
ships? Who was he? A sailor, obviously. But what had he been doing in that old ruined
house in the middle of the night all those years ago? The ghost had told her the house
was his. But how could a sailor afford to own a house?

She was more curious about him than ever. Unanswered questions were going to drive
her batty. She shouldn’t have given up so easily on getting some answers. Jack wouldn’t
have. Maybe she could ask Uncle James . . .

“Nathan Tremayne,” said a deep voice.

She grinned to herself and glanced at him for a moment. He was so tall and handsome
with his long, white hair blowing in the sea breeze. He was standing several feet
from her and staring at the moonlight on the ocean, too, so it didn’t actually appear
that he had spoken to her. But he had. Was he as intrigued with her as she was with
him?

“How do you do, Nathan. Or do you prefer Nate?”

“Doesn’t matter. D’you always talk to strange men like this?”

“You’re strange?”

“A stranger to you,” he clarified.

“Not a’tall. We are actually old acquaintances, you and I.”

He chuckled. “Telling each other to get out of a house five years ago doesn’t make
us acquainted. And why were you trespassing that night?”

“My cousin Jack and I were investigating the light we saw in the house. That house
has been abandoned for as long as anyone living can remember. No one should have been
inside it. But we could see the light from our room in the ducal mansion.”

“And so you thought you’d found a ghost?”

She blushed again, but they weren’t looking at each other, so she doubted that he
noticed. “When we saw you there, it was a reasonable assumption.”

“Not a’tall, just the opposite.” Was that amusement she heard in his tone? She took
a quick peek. It was hard not to. And, yes, he was grinning as he added, “You drew
a conclusion that no adult would have come to.”

“Well, I wasn’t grown yet. That
was
quite a few years ago. And you were holding your lantern so that its light only reached
your upper body. It looked as if you were floating in the air.”

He laughed again, such a pleasant sound, like a bass rumble. It shook a lock of hair
loose over his wide brow. His hair wasn’t pure white as she’d thought. She could see
blond streaks in it.

“Very well. I can see how your imagination could’ve played tricks on you.”

“So why were you there that night and looking so sad?”

“Sad?”

“Weren’t you?”

“No, not sad, darlin’.” But instead of explaining, he said, “Do you really believe
in ghosts?”

She looked up and saw his mouth set in a half grin and the arched eyebrow. Was he
teasing her? He was! She also noticed his green eyes were gazing at her intently.
Quite bold for a common seaman if that’s what he was. Quite bold for any man, actually,
when they’d only just met—that first time didn’t count.

In response to his teasing she said, “Jack and I admitted to ourselves a few years
ago that we’d been mistaken that night. But we continued to refer to you as the Ghost
because it amuses us. It was our special secret that we only shared with our younger
cousins. It was much more fun to say we’d found a ghost than the new owner of the
house. But you can’t be the owner of the house. What were you doing there?”

“Maybe I like secrets as much as you do.”

On the brink of discovery and of clearing up a mystery that had intrigued her for
years, she was more than a little annoyed by his reply. “You really won’t say?”

“You haven’t tried convincing me yet, darlin’. A pretty smile might work. . . .”

Judith went very still. So still she thought she could hear her heart pounding. She
couldn’t believe what had just become crystal clear to her. She
knew
who he was. It was that second instance of his calling her
darlin
’. She’d been too flustered to pay much attention to it the first time he’d said it,
but this time she remembered where she’d heard it before. A mere two weeks ago from
a man who she suspected was far more dangerous than a vagrant.

The moment it had struck her that night of how odd it was for a vagrant to be drinking
French brandy, she had known he wasn’t what he’d first seemed to be. But that wasn’t
all. He claimed to know the abandoned house better than she did, so he’d either been
staying there a long time or had visited it more than once. His putting a lock on
a door that didn’t belong to him. His coming out of a hidden room where he could have
been storing smuggled or stolen goods. And his warning her to tell no one that she’d
seen him there. All of it pointed to his being a criminal of one sort or another.

Of course she’d told Jacqueline about him in the morning, and of course Jack had agreed
with her conclusion and suggested she tell Brandon, who could prevaricate a bit and
warn his father without revealing that Judith had had a run-in with a criminal in
the old ruin. Before they’d left for London, Brandon had told her he’d spoken to his
father and assured her they’d catch the smuggler red-handed that very day. So what
was he doing here, on
The Maiden George
?

He appeared to be waiting for her to answer him. She did that now, hissing, “You deserve
to be in jail! Why aren’t you?”