Touch Me

"Miz Thea, you be delaying Mr. Drake?"

Thea shook her head vehemently. "No. I can be ready to sail in two hours."

Drake laughed. He could not help it. No lady of his acquaintance could prepare for an evening at the opera in that amount of time much less an ocean voyage. Most women took months to prepare for such a journey. Even two weeks would seem short. Two hours was absurd.

"I'm afraid Miss Selwyn is not being realistic."

Thea glared at him.

He returned her glare with an easy smile. "The Golden Dragon will be weeks out of the harbor by the time you are packed and ready to go. You have more chance being ready for one of your own ships sailing in the month."

"You be going without your boiler, sir?"

Dread snaked up Drake's spine and, along with it, fury. "No." If he had to do the damn repair himself, he'd have the boiler and be sailing out of the harbor before nightfall.

Jacob nodded as if Drake had confirmed his belief. "It won't be ready for…" He let his words trail off and turned to Thea for guidance.

"Two hours," she said firmly.

"Two hours," repeated the big blacksmith.

Drake knew when to fight and when to allow his opponent to believe he, or in this case, she had won.

He fixed Thea with his gaze. "The Golden Dragon will sail in two hours with her boiler. If you wish to sail on her, you and your luggage will be aboard."

He would have reiterated that she would be left behind otherwise, but in a swirl of bright muslin, she was gene.

Jacob grinned at Drake. "She be aboard, sir. You can be counting on it."

Drake shrugged as if his heart had not increased its rhythm at the very thought of Thea sailing on his ship. Not to mention that other parts of his anatomy sat up and took notice as well. "If she wants to sail, she will be."

"I be finishing the boiler now, sir."

"Excellent."

Thea's bedroom looked like a blue northerner had blown through it. Clothes lay strewn across the counterpane of her bed. A nearly full trunk and valise reposed on the floor near the wardrobe.

"I don't understand this unseemly haste, dear. Surely you could have waited to sail on one of our ships after taking proper time to prepare for the voyage."

Thea gritted her teeth as she answered the complaint from her adopted aunt for what felt like the tenth time in less than an hour. "You always said that if I were to attend the Season, I would have to buy a whole new wardrobe in London. Therefore, it would be silly to take the time to prepare and pack gowns that I will not wear."

Aunt Ruth sighed. "Yes. There is that. But, dear, I could wish that you would make a better impression on your great-aunt than to show up with a meager trunk and valise. Are you sure Mr. Drake won't wait just one more day?"

Thea almost laughed. "Quite sure, Aunt Ruth. In fact, if we don't hurry, I'll be left behind as it is."

Aunt Ruth resumed her packing. "If you say so, dear."

She muttered something about Ashby and his plans that made no sense to Thea, but she did not have time to puzzle out the older woman's meaning.

Thea handed her maid, Melly, the stack of her mother's journals. "Please pack these in the trunk with utmost care, Melly."

The older woman took the journals with reverent hands. "You can be assured of that, miss."

Thea smiled at her maid. Melly had insisted on traveling with her mother to the West Indies. She had served Anna loyally, choosing to remain and care for Thea after Anna's death. Thea had wanted to give Melly her own cottage and an allowance in thanks for her loyalty, but the maid would not hear of it. A lady's maid she was and a lady's maid she would remain, she insisted.

"Melly, are you sure you don't mind traveling with me on such little advance warning like this? I could make the journey alone."

Aunt Ruth gasped. "No such thing. You are a lady, Thea, for all your business dealings. Your mother would turn in her grave were you to even contemplate such a journey alone."