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the companionway.
    The space she shared with the other passengers was nothing more than the orlop deck usually reserved for cargo. By hanging quilts and lashing their trunks to the bulkheads, the women had managed to divide the area for the three families travelling together.
    “Ah, there now, I told ye the’ wind would bring the color back to your cheeks!” declared Mary Penhallow as Dianna slowly made her way through the clutter toward the older woman. From the first day, Mary had adopted Dianna into her own large family.
    She had been the one who held Dianna when she’d been seasick, and dosed her with peppermint oil to ease the quaking in her stomach. Plump and pink-cheeked and always slightly out of breath, Mary reminded Dianna of the nurse she’d had as a baby, and she couldn’t help but warm to her.
    But although Dianna’s mattress was now a part of the Penhallows’ circle, she still felt shy around them.
    She had no experience with the boisterous give and take of a large family, and she could not quite sort out the six younger children. But the eldest daughter offered no such problems. Eunice Penhallow had latched on to her with the instant devotion of a shy, dreamy fourteen-year-old, who found Dianna just old enough to be fascinating, but not so old as to be lumped among her mother’s friends.
    Even now the girl rushed forward eagerly to greet Dianna.
    “I’d have stayed with ye, Dianna, but Mam said it weren’t proper to be so long before the’ sailORS.”
    “Nay, child, ye put the’ words crossways,” scolded her mother.
    “I said ‘twasn’t proper for ye to be ogling the’ sailor-men, not tother way ‘round. Come sit by me, ye silly goose, and leave Dianna to settle herself.”
    Eunice tossed her head smugly.
    “Nay, Mare, ‘tweren’t no common sailor caught my eye, but Master Sparhawk, what owns this very ship. Isaac says that where we’re bound he owns farms an’ a great manor house an’ acres an’ acres of’ land that jus’ sits fallow, he’s so much of it!”
    Dianna whipped around.
    “What is the man’s name?”
    “Christopher Sparhawk.” EuniCe’s eyes grew dreamy.
    “An’ a more comely gentleman never lived!
    His smile alone would fetch you, Dianna, an’ the’ span of’ his shoulders, oh, lud!”
    “Christopher Sparhawk!” Dianna wailed.
    “By all that is holy, how could I land on the same wretched ship with that—that rogue!”
    “Ye know the gentleman then, miss?” asked Mary curiously.
    “There could be more than one man by the’ name.”
    “A great, blond, green-eyed ox who begs you to trust him even as he lies? The worst kind of colonial oaf, so long among the savages that he can hardly speak the Queen’s English?”
    “Aye, Master Sparhawk is a large gentleman, and very fair,” answered Mary cautiously.
    “But for lying and the’ rest, I cannot say. Captain Welles spoke most winningly of Master Sparhawk as a Christian gentleman?”
    “What else could he say when he owes the man his livelihood? A scoundrel of the first order, that’s your fine Master Sparhawk!” Just’ in time, Dianna stopped, in her frustration nearly forgetting that the Penhallows knew nothing of her trial. Angrily she pounded her fists across her knee. Once again she’d been the foolish, trusting innocent. How Sir Henry and Christopher Sparhawk, and likely Captain Welles, too, must have laughed at her naivette!
    The boy, Isaac, came clattering down the companionway.
    “Dianna Grey yer wanted for’ard
    Dianna stood, her hands on her hips.
    “Oh, I am, am I? Dare I ask by whom?”
    “Master Sparhawk himself, that’s whom,” said the boy scornfully, “an’ you’d best move yer tail, for he be in a righteous temper!”
    Mary laid her hand gently on Dianna’s arm.
    “Go with the’ lad, miss. Whatever the’ quarrel, yer pride’s not worth the sorrow ye could bring t’ us all if ye cross Master Sparhawk.”
    “Oh, yes, I’ll go to lordly Master Sparhawk,” Dianna