A Woman's Heart Read Online Free PDF Page A

same."
    Jann's smile wavered. With a muffled cry, she turned and ran down the path.
    She didn't know if Peter followed or if he was still standing there scowling. She only knew she had to get away, had to rid her head of all talk of courts. Rightly or wrongly, the courts had all the power. They could give, take away, even sometimes set you free. Or they could lock you behind stone walls so thick no sound could penetrate.
    Footsteps sounded behind her and hard fingers grabbed her arm.
    "What's the matter?" Peter growled, whirling her around.
    "Nothing," she lied. She glared back at him, realizing she had to face him. Fight him. Win!
    "How far is it to your house?"
    "I live over there." She extended her free arm and pointed, willing her hand to cease its shaking.
    "Where?" he demanded irritably, staring across the water. "There's nothing there but boats."
    "I live on one of them," she said, shrugging her arm free. Turning, she continued on down the path.
    His longer stride caught him up with her in seconds, his disapproval washing over her in near tangible waves. Tightening her lips, she didn't look in his direction. Her boat was her home and she wouldn't have it any other way. Claire's brother could pack up his disapproval and take it back with him to Boston. As long as when he left, he didn't take Alex with him.
    Her heart lurched at the thought. She pulled her sunglasses from her pocket and jammed them on to her nose. In just a few minutes this man would scrutinize her home. She was damned if she was going to let him look into her soul as well.
    "A boat's no place for a baby," he began, as soon as they stepped onto the pier.
    "You're wrong," she disagreed softly. "Just stop for a moment and listen." She shut her eyes and did just that. Couldn't he feel it? Hear it? The slapping of the waves against the pilings. The movement of the pier. She opened her eyes again and stared straight into his. "It's soothing. Like being rocked in a cradle."
    "He'll fall overboard."
    "He's only six months old. He's not going to fall overboard."
    "He'll be crawling soon."
    "And I'll be watching him. Millions of people live on boats. You must know that from your travels."
    "My nephew is not millions of people. But never mind." He shrugged. "By the time Alexander is crawling, he'll be living with me in Boston."
    Jann's palms grew damp. She turned left onto a smaller pier and hurried along it. Peter's footsteps echoed behind her, so loud, so... unbeatable.
    She walked faster, needing now to feel the deck of her own boat beneath her feet, needing to know that below that deck Alex still safely slept.
    Relief shafted through her at the sight of her sailboat's pale yellow bow poking out from between two white ones. Sunlight glinted off its smooth surface in rays filled with vitality and strength.
    It had been six years since she had taken the money her parents had left her and made a down payment on the boat. Only two years more and Heart's Desire would be completely hers.
    A home of her own. Where no one could tell her it was time to move on, or force her to stay, either, locked behind metal mesh windows with other children who had no one to love them, surrounded by people who took care of them for money.
    "Jann."
    She stared blankly at Claire's brother, had almost forgotten he was there.
    "Who's taking care of Alexander?" he demanded.
    "My—"
    "Thank God, you're back," a voice growled from the cockpit of Jann's boat. A bald-headed old man with a salt and pepper beard scrambled to a standing position and stepped nimbly across the narrow expanse of water from the deck to the pier. "And not soon enough!" he went on, his voice blustering down the dock toward them. "The little beggar's been howling all morning."
    Peter turned an accusing gaze on her.
    "Peter Strickland," Jann sighed, "meet John Miller."
    "Call me Capt'n," the older man instructed, thrusting forward one gnarled hand, while his sharp gaze ranged curiously over the younger man's face. "You