Embrace the Day Read Online Free PDF Page A

up, Angela. If she's as fine a person as you say—"
    "Let's just say Miss Moon and I have had our differences. Now, what say you, Roarke? Will you refuse me, and return to the docks, or will you agree to my plan? I'll send you to Virginia in grand style, with a wife by your side, so you'll have a proper start. Where's the harm in that?"
    Roarke narrowed his eyes at her. "I don't know," he said slowly. "But I'm sure it exists. What prompted this change of heart, Angela?"
    "Really," she sniffed, "you're questioning an extremely generous offer, Roarke. Let us just say that I suddenly realized that as your only living relative, I owe you this chance."
    Roarke sat silent for a long time, certain there was more to his aunt's scheme than she was saying. But something inside him strained with impatience and warned that a chance like this wouldn't present itself again.
    "I'll speak to Miss Moon," he said at last. "If she is agreeable, then we'll make arrangements."

    Roarke glared at the clock in the Brimsbys' drawing room. Its ticking measured twenty minutes with maddening regularity. Unpleasantly, he was reminded of his mother's clock. What an irony that he needn't have sold it in the first place. He'd never get the timepiece back, now that he'd given the claim slip to Angela, who had undoubtedly recovered it from Pembroke's shop at the first opportunity.
    His thoughts fled as Prudence Moon appeared soundlessly. Pale faced and somberly dressed, she kept her eyes averted. The hand she extended was icy cold.
    "Good day, Mr. Adair. Mrs. Brimsby has informed me of your offer."
    "Then you'd best accustom yourself to calling me Roarke."
    "As you wish." Prudence seated herself tensely on a straight-backed chair.
    Roarke frowned. Her manner made him feel more like an executioner than a man come to claim a woman for his wife.
    "Prudence," he said, trying not to frown anymore, "I know the circumstances of our courtship—if you could call it that—are unusual, but I believe you'll like Virginia. By all reports, it's a veritable paradise." He watched her hands twisting in her lap. "Prudence, what is it? Angela told me you were eager to go, having no family here and no source of income—"
    "I'll go, Mr… Roarke. I'll go with you to Virginia."
    She looked so small, so fragile. But when she raised her china-blue eyes to Roarke, he was surprised to see a glitter of determination.
    "I won't lie to you, Prudence. Life won't be easy in Virginia."
    "It can't be any worse than here," she countered, her voice growing stronger with each word. "Let us be married, Roarke."
    His face broke into a grin. Prudence knew then that she'd never regret her decision. The piece of her heart that had been ravaged by Edmund Brimsby would never mend, but she vowed not to think of that once she was wed to a man so fine as Roarke Adair.

    "I'm told the crossing isn't bad in springtime," Roarke said to Prudence as a hired coach bore them into town, to a magistrate's office.
    Prudence regarded him expressionlessly. Despite her willingness to marry him, an air of melancholy clung to her, evident in her eyes and in the hand that reached up unconsciously to smooth the already perfect lace at her collar.
    Roarke scowled, then brightened, remembering something. "You'll find a companion on the
Blessing
. There will be another young woman aboard, by the name of Genevieve Elliot."
    For the first time a spark of interest lighted Prudence's eyes. "Genevieve!" She smiled at Roarke's amazement when he learned of the unlikely but precious friendship that had grown between a West End governess and an East End washerwoman. Roarke suddenly felt a slight and welcome lessening of guilt over what had happened in the tavern the night before.
    "Roarke, how did you manage this?" Prudence asked.
    He looked down at his hands. "I'm not terribly proud of how it came about," he admitted. "I don't know what possessed me to do it—I was deep in my cups at the time—but I suggested her father wager