Katharine Ashe - How to Be a Proper Lady

“I anticipated nothing but your company, which I hope I may have with or without a sojourn at a hotel. And I have my quarters aboard the April to bunk in, of course.”

He drew her to a halt beneath a young palm. “I did not intend to insult your honor, my dear, or to demand any familiarity with you that you are not happy to give.” His voice was somewhat low, with an abrupt intimacy that made Viola’s stomach feel peculiar.

“I did not suggest that you had. And since when have you been concerned with my honor? Since when have you ever thought I even had any?”

His wide lips curved into a smile.

“Please stay at the inn at my expense tonight. I will be at the farm, of course, supervising the laborers until late. But it will relieve me to know you are comfortable here.” He squeezed her hand. “I recognize this packaging.” He gestured with her parcel. “You have shopped at the dressmaker’s.”

She nodded.

“Will you wear it this evening for dinner?”

“Yes, but for dinner with the harbormaster. He has invited Mr. Seton and me to join him and his wife.” Nerves jittered in her belly.

“What a great honor.”

“Well, he says we will have excellent pork pie, at least.” She screwed up her brow. “Aidan-”

“Then tomorrow. Will you wear your new gown for me tomorrow? I will drive you along the coast a bit and buy you lunch at the finest teahouse you could ever imagine. Better than in Boston, even London, I daresay.”

“What do I care about London teahouses? I have work to do tomorrow, of course. But more importantly, you must have a great deal to do as well. And your guests-”

He grasped her hand to him tighter. “None of that matters now that you are with me and we can again begin planning our future together.” His hazel gaze held warm entreaty. Viola’s heart thudded.

“Oh, Aidan, cease this.” She pulled her hand away. “I saw you kiss Miss Hat in the garden last night.”

His face went blank. “You saw that?”

“Yes, I saw that. I was on the veranda.”

“It was nothing, Violet.”

“It looked like something to me.”

His brow lowered and his shoulders seemed to tense.

“Well, if I did kiss her, it was because you had driven me to it.”

“I what? I have only just sailed hundreds of miles to see you!”

“I thought you had a cargo to deliver.”

“April Storm is a privateer, not a pack mule. I took on the cargo to make even on this trip. I must pay my crewmen, or have you forgotten those mundane details of my life?”

“Perhaps I have. But, Violet, have you forgotten mine? I have lived here for months alone. I had hoped when you arrived-” He broke off, ran his hand through his curls, then set a direct look on her. “When I bade you good night last night you were… distant.”

Her eyes widened. But all she could see was herself again standing at the base of a companionway, foundering beneath a man’s crystal gaze filled with heat.

“I did not know you expected that of me last night,” she managed to utter. “I supposed with your guests you would wish to be discreet. We are not wed.”

He shook his head. “I did not expect it of you, precisely, of course. Forgive me, I have misspoken. But Violet-”

“You should have been honest with me about your feelings for Miss Hat. To be met with such a sight on my arrival, well, I will tell you, it hurt.”

He grasped her hands.

“Violet, please. I am out of my head and behaving irrationally. Though her parents wish for our match and have come here to engineer it, I have no feelings for her. But I saw how it was with Seton, and it made me-”

She tugged away again, stepping back. “How what was with him?”

He looked hesitant. “When I spoke caution to you of him, you defended him.”

“I merely suggested that you might stay your judgment until you came to know him.”

“Have you come to know him?” His hazel eyes bored into her. “How well, Violet?”

She could not halt the flush that rose to her cheeks. She was not proficient at lying, but she did not know if she must now. Aidan had not been faithful to her. Last night she truly believed he no longer wanted her as his wife. But she did not wish to hurt the man she had loved for so long, her friend for years before he was her lover. He seemed to understand so little of the truths of her life now. He did not need to know this one.

“He is a good man.” She believed this, despite her confusion and Jin’s past. His life now showed it, and his behavior with her crewmen-never cruel, always respectful and just. Even with her, now that she knew his purpose in seeking her out, he was honest. He made her no false promises. He told her only the truth, and very clearly he told her his intentions. “I trust him.”

“Trust.” The corners of Aidan’s mouth were pinched. “You look at him as though…”

“As though?”

“When you look at him, I don’t recognize you.”

“How can you recognize anything about me? You know me very little now. A handful of letters and one visit over the course of four years amounts to little familiarity.”

He grasped her hands so tightly this time she could not free herself without a struggle.

“Then perhaps you are correct and we haven’t sufficient knowledge of one another any longer. But allow us to regain that familiarity we once shared. Remain here for a time with me. You will want for nothing.”

“You’ve just said yourself that your house is barely habitable.”

He smiled warmly. “We will fix it up together, just as we spoke of years ago.”

“And what of Miss Hat and her parents?”

He bent his head. “They are to leave the island shortly. But even if they were not, it would not matter. Dear Violet, I beg your pardon for that minor infidelity. Please forgive me. It will not occur again, I promise.”

His infidelity had not felt minor to her. In an instant that single kiss had cracked her world open. Or perhaps it had only widened the fissure that already existed. And Jin Seton had filled the void. For a time, in his arms, the loneliness that was her constant companion had abated.

Yet here was the man with whom she had dreamed of spending her life insisting that she could now live that dream.

She shook her head. “I don’t trust you.”

“But can you learn to trust me again?”

“Do you still wish to marry me, Aidan?”

“Of course, dear Violet. You are the best thing in my life. You always have been.” The same words he had spoken before, numerous times. She could not look at his face now, but stared at his thick hands circled around hers. Still so familiar, in truth, and yet this familiarity seemed wrong now.

“Please release me.”

He did so immediately.

“I’ve work to do, a new cargo to negotiate so that I can pay the April’s journey home. We may encounter unfriendly craft along the way and take a prize, but I cannot count on it, of course.”

“But this will be your home now, Violet.”

“I must have time to think.” She had not considered returning to Boston so soon. Not until the words formed on her tongue. “I know it was only a kiss. I assume it was only a kiss-”

“It was.”

“But it has changed much for me.” She was not the same naïve girl she had been. And now she was withholding the entire truth from him too. “Perhaps you could return here tomorrow, or the day after, and I will be able to speak of this with you then. But not yet.”

He nodded. His hand reached for hers again, but then drew back.

“Tomorrow, then.” He leaned forward and pressed a kiss onto her cheek beneath the brim of her hat. She did not lift her head, and after a moment he walked away.

As the sun dipped low over the mouth of the harbor, the harbormaster’s wife sent Viola a written invitation. She was drawing her new gown from the packaging, its fabric stiff from pressing, when the note arrived with another. By the light of a lamp she perused it, her palms damp against the paper. Joining them to dine that evening would be six other guests, including two naval officers and their wives.

She unfolded the other message, from Aidan.

A knock came on her cabin door. She opened it, and felt like a perfect fool. How could it be that she could simply look at Jin Seton and her knees weakened?

He wore a coat of simple, elegant cut that fit him as though tailored for him. His shirt, cravat, and waistcoat were white and neat, and his handsome face clean-shaven.

His gaze flicked over her. “You are not yet dressed for dinner?”

“I am not going,” she blurted out, clutching her hands behind her, the letters crunching together. “I-I…”

He lifted his brows.

“I have another appointment this evening,” she said. “With-”

He held up his palm to halt her speech, the wounded palm she had insisted on doctoring so she could touch him again. In her hurt and indignation after he made his intentions clear to her that morning, she had not realized why she insisted. But she understood herself somewhat better now. And she knew that she could not accompany this man to a dinner engagement with strangers and acquit herself properly. She did not remember how to. In point of fact, she had never learned it. But she knew, simply by looking at the easy set of his shoulders and his stance, that somehow this former pirate did know. He would have no trouble making himself an equal of the harbormaster’s other guests, if not indeed their superior in dress and manners.

“You needn’t explain,” he said. “Your business is your own. I will make your apologies for you.”

“Thank you.” She chewed on her lip. “I think.”

The corner of his mouth lifted slightly and Viola’s whole heart turned over, colliding with her stomach and making her a little nauseous.

“I don’t know what ‘make your apologies’ means,” she admitted.

“I will invent a plausible story so as not to insult my host and hostess with the announcement of your untimely absence. I suspect you wish to remain in his good graces.”

“I am sorry. I had a prior dinner engagement with… with Mr. Castle, at the hotel. I hadn’t the opportunity to tell you earlier.”

He nodded. “I wish you a good evening, then.”

“He has arranged rooms at the inn for us all, you know.” She gestured with the wadded up letters. “For the Hats and me. And you. He hopes that you will accept his invitation for a comfortable chamber, since he cannot offer us hospitality at his house as we-as I expected.”

He tilted his head. “Am I to understand that if I refuse and remain aboard, you will consider it mutiny on the wager?”

She couldn’t resist a grin. “Most certainly.”

“Then rest assured, I will be at the inn tonight.” He turned, then paused. “But not as Mr. Castle’s guest. I will hire my own room.”

Her pulse skittered. “You carry a great deal of pride along with that arrogance, don’t you?”

He regarded her for a steady moment. “Pride has little to do with it. Good night, Viola.”

She stood for a silent minute in her doorway, listening to the creaking sounds of her ship, largely quiet in the absence of most of her crew. Then she packed a small bag. She had no plans to dine with Aidan. His missive only begged her to take up his offer to rest in comfort tonight at the inn while he tried to clean the house sufficient for her return to the farm shortly. She suspected the Hats would be at the hotel too, and probably dining there as well. But she doubted Aidan would call upon them, not after his promises this afternoon. He had seemed so sincerely sorry for his mistake and so ready to make a fresh start of it with her.

She would go to the inn, indulge in a bath, and wash her hair with soap. Then she would sleep in clean linens on a dry mattress and in the morning wake refreshed. For with the morning came the end of the wager, and she must be fully prepared to argue again with Seton when he demanded she return to England.

This time, she intended to win.

At the dress shop she had also purchased a new shift, one that cinched around the waist with a thin cord and laced up the front with ribbons. In her small, simply appointed bedchamber at the inn, she bathed, then donned the new garment. She combed her wet hair and it sprang into loose curls, but refused to dry completely in the humidity that rose at nightfall on the tropical island. Tendrils stuck to her brow and clung to her neck.

She went to the window and opened the shutter. Breeze stirred in her hair and against her shift, brushing the crisp linen over her breasts. The sensation of Jin’s mouth on her, sending heat through the fabric of her shift, came to her with a sudden weakening of her limbs, then warmth between her legs. She was still tender there, but abruptly the tenderness throbbed. With only the slightest suggestion, her body was eager for him again.