Bound by the Heart Read Online Free PDF

are you awake?"
    A crusted, bleary gray eye opened and sought the
source of the disturbance.
    "I am now," she said, shutting off the sight
of Michael's disgustingly cheerful face.
    "Jolly well time, I should think. You've been off
in another world for two days now."
    "Two days?" The eye opened again and slowly
blinked into focus. Summer sat upright, wincing as each movement brought an
introduction to muscles she had never met before. Her legs and arms were
knotted tight, her stomach ached hollowly, her tongue felt glued to the roof of
her mouth . . . and Michael was grinning.
    "What do you find so amusing?" she demanded.
    "You. You look positively dreadful."
    "Thank you very much, Master Cambridge. I feel
positively dreadful."
    "Not at all the way you looked on the wharf in
New Providence," he said pertly. "I thought, 'Oh my gosh, she's come
back a real snob. She'll walk about with her nose in the air and not share the
time of day with any of us anymore.' That's what I thought."
    "Was it indeed." Summer regarded her brother
narrowly. "You seem to have changed faces yourself overnight, little
brother. What happened to the shy, reserved, young gentleman who was so proper
and stuffy he made me cringe?"
    "Oh, he's still there, but I rather think you
need cheering up at the moment. After all, we have been kidnapped, and we have
been forced to join the company of a crew of renegade smugglers."
    "You don't know for certain we've been
kidnapped," she sighed. "And you don't know that the Chimera is smuggling anything."
    "Oh, yes, I do. I've had a peek in her cargo
hold."
    "What?"
    "It's true. And she's loaded to the gun deck with
rum and coffee, English wool and even tea! Those were only the crates I could
see. We're in for a jolly good show if the Chimera crosses paths with one of our
revenuers."
    "But tea and coffee . . . there's nothing illegal
in that."
    "There is if you intend to sell it to the French
or run it through a blockade line ... or if the crates you've got the goods packed in are stamped with the imprint of
the Reliant."
    "Michael—" Summer pressed her fingers to her
temples.
    "The Reliant," he explained patiently,
"is a schooner that went missing about two months ago. She was
transporting a large cargo of guns . . . among other things."
    "Guns? But you said tea and coffee."
    "Haven't you ever heard of false-bottom crates?
Smugglers use them all the time."
    Summer was not overly impressed. "And what do you
mean by missing?"
    "I mean missing. Sunk by pirates. Captured and
taken as prize by American privateers, or French privateers, or Spaniards. I
mean missing."
    "And you think Captain Wade was involved?"
    "Well, I don't think he wasn't, in some way or
another."
    Summer groaned and leaned back on the bed.
"Michael, you are giving me a headache. How can you possibly look at this
as some kind of an adventure? We're miles from home and heading in the opposite
direction. Goodness only knows when we'll ever be put on the right track again.
You heard that miserable little man say it could be a month or a year. As for
crossing paths with a British ship—"
    She was cut short by an abrupt tapping on the cabin
door. It came in advance of a large wooden tray balanced in the hands of Mr.
Thorntree.
    "Ahh! Glad ter see ye up, lass. Feelin'
better?"
    "Some," she admitted, craning her neck to
see what was creating the delicious aroma on the tray.
    "Steamin' 'ot biscuits an' a b'iled capon,"
Thorny announced proudly. "I told Cook I wanted sum'mit special ter stick
good 'n fast ter yer gizzards. Tea's in the crock 'ere, an' a rice duff with a
nice bit o' raisins tucked in."
    "That's very kind and thoughtful of you, Mr.
Thorntree."
    "Bah, no bother. The lad 'ere told me 'bout yer
fits. Ye never mind n'owt, ole T'orny'U see yer well done by."
    "My . . . fits?"
    Michael coughed loudly. "Yes, indeed. You were
thrashing about something awful in your sleep. Talking all sorts of nonsense as
well. Oh, this does look splendid, Thorny. And the