Ask a Shadow to Dance Read Online Free PDF

you to step away.” The captain’s expression broached no alternatives. In another moment, he would be on Andrew like a hawk on a mouse.
    Andrew released her, his lips drawing back over his teeth in a gruesome smile. His tone changed when he spoke to the Captain.
    “No need to worry. I was coming for … my step-mother … to tell her it’s time to prepare for docking.” He turned back to her. “Lisa, what must you be thinking? Everyone inside is waiting to tell us good-bye.”
    “Thank you, Captain, for your assistance. Sometimes my stepson forgets his own strength.” At home, she would shut Andrew out of her life forever. She clung to that thought; desperate to believe it could be true.
    The captain glared at Andrew, clenching one fist repeatedly.
    “I need to get my things from my quarters,” she said. “Everything is packed and ready. Captain, would you accompany me, please? Mr. Westmoreland can see to his own baggage.”
    “I would consider it a pleasure to escort you, Mrs. Westmoreland.”
    “Thank you.”
    Andrew didn’t like it, but had no choice in the matter. “Very well. I’ll wait for you on the dock. We’ll go directly home so you can rest.”
    “ I shall go directly home. You may go directly to a hotel.” She pronounced the words crisply and with as much venom as she could muster. Andrew strode off across the deck and down the opposite staircase at double his usual pace.
    The captain tipped his hat and followed Lisette down the steps.
    “Captain, I wonder if you remember a passenger, Doctor David Stewart. I spoke briefly with him earlier. In fact, he was here when you arrived just now.”
    “There’s no one on this boat with that name, Ma’am. I would have been alerted to the presence of a doctor. You say you were speaking to him?”
    “Yes, but it doesn’t matter. I must have been mistaken about his being a doctor.” She wasn’t, though. Another piece of the puzzle. If she could get home to her father and Aunt Portia, she would somehow make sense of this.
    After making sure the Chief Purser had everything well in hand, the captain insisted on escorting Lisette home to Adams Avenue. “Just to be sure you aren’t bothered on the way.”
    Aunt Portia met them at the door with a hug for Lisette and copious thanks for the captain. He handed her baggage through the door.
    “I appreciate your help and your kind concern more than you could ever know, Sir. Won’t you come in for some refreshments?” Lisette was weary to the point of exhaustion, but social etiquette dictated the invitation.
    “No, thank you. I’d best be getting back to the boat now. If you should have any further difficulty with … your stepson … I’ll be glad to help in any way I can.”
    She knew he was genuinely concerned for her safety. If Andrew had behaved himself on the boat, this offer wouldn’t have been necessary. It was embarrassing to have drawn such attention to herself while in mourning.
    “I’ll remember. Good night, Captain.”
    “Ma’am.” He tipped his hat and left.
    Only a few seconds passed before she was back in Aunt Portia’s arms.
    “Oh, child, I didn’t think you’d ever get here.” Her tears flowed freely down her softly lined face. “I’m sorry about James, and sorry you had to make this long trip, but, praise the Lord, I’m glad to have you home again.”
    “I’m glad to be here, Aunt Portia.”
    Her aunt hurried to the kitchen and bellowed at the top of her lungs. “Seth! Seth, where are you?”
    In just a moment, a tow-headed boy appeared. “Yessum?”
    “Carry Mrs. Westmoreland’s things upstairs to her room—you know, the one we cleaned yesterday.”
    “Yessum.” He grabbed what he could and promised to be back for the rest “in two shakes of a coon’s tail.”
    “I swear , that boy will be a hillbilly until the day he dies. Come into the parlor and sit down. I know you must be about to drop with weariness. I swear, I’ve wished a hundred times—no, a