Enemy In The House Read Online Free PDF

He mused for a moment again, his eyes dark now and faraway, seeing perhaps scenes of their childhood, peaceful and rich with living. He came to himself abruptly and gave her a flashing, teasing grin. “That’s really why I married you. You are your mother’s child. You look like her—except when you lose your temper as you are about to do now. Here—” He pulled something from under his coat. “Keep it well hidden. These are odd times.”
    He slid the heavy roll of gold into her hand. It was wrapped in a linen handkerchief, laced and embroidered, the handkerchief of a London dandy, one of a set her father had ordered in London and presented to Simon along with a gold watch, a sage-green velvet suit with a white waistcoat and Mechlin ruffles, and a blooded riding horse on his eighteenth birthday.
    She put the heavy roll of coins into the inner pocket of her cloak. “Thank you. I’ll use the gold for my passage money. I’ll see that you are repaid.”
    “Your passage money has been paid,” he said shortly.
    “I’m sorry, Simon, that was ungracious of me.”
    “Ours is not a gracious marriage. Still, it’s a marriage. It’s time for you to go.”
    He called for his reckoning and paid the landlord. He adjusted her hood over her black hair and gave her his arm. They left the warm little tavern and the wind blew cold on her face. She could barely see the privateer, which seemed to have the lines of a small sloop.
    The night seemed very dark, the sloop very small, everything about her strange, and the outcome of her journey sad perhaps and certainly doubtful. She heard the faint gurgle of water at her feet. A small boat, manned by one sailor, emerged at her feet, rocking in the lap of the water.
    She put her hand on Simon’s arm.
    He put his own hand over it for a moment; then unexpectedly he gathered her close in his arms and held her, warm and sheltered against his tall body. She felt the roughness of his greatcoat against her cheek. He lifted her face, kissed her full and long on the lips, said, with a little chuckle, “My good and faithful wife,” and released her.
    He handed her down into the dinghy. Immediately the boat moved, the oarlocks clicked. When she looked back Simon had already disappeared.
    Ahead of them the dim light of a shaded lantern grew stronger. A man carrying another lantern assisted her up a slippery ladder and onto the deck where he introduced himself. “Captain Boyce. Servant, madam.” She felt the very slight unsteadiness of the deck beneath her feet.
    “I’ve given you the great cabin, madam. I hope you’ll find it comfortable and roomy.”
    She followed him down the ladder of the companionway. The passage was so narrow that her cloak brushed the bulkheads. The lantern in the captain’s hand cast a glow up into his face, big and bearded with buttoned-up eyes and mouth. He nodded at a door, mumbled something to the effect that they were about to cast off and went up the ladder again, rather rapidly.
    She opened the door he had indicated. A single candle stood on a shelf. China was sitting on a bunk, in a blue silk peignoir, smiling.

3
    “AMITY, I THOUGHT YOU’D never come. Where have you been?”
    “How did you get here?”
    “I brought Jamey, too.”
    Jamey was in the upper bunk, red hair tousled, peering out at her with wide, excited eyes. She hugged him and he wriggled away and said, “Where have you been? We’re going to Jamaica!”
    “Did Simon know you were coming?” she asked China.
    “Certainly not. I just came to Savannah and—and inquired and took passage. I’ve got a right to find out—well, find out whatever has happened, haven’t I?”
    “It was the very best thing to do!” Amity wondered why she hadn’t thought of it herself. It also struck her that China had shown more enterprise in coming to Savannah and arranging passage for herself and Jamey than Amity would have expected.
    “Jamey will be seasick,” China said gloomily, veering like a pretty