Happily Ever After Read Online Free PDF Page A

against his portrait,
then replaced the back once more. Like everything else in her life, his
imperfection was hidden behind an unblemished facade.
    She would take the picture with her... to bolster
her when she wavered.
    But now, it was time to pack! It would behoove her
to pack only the most necessary items because she was certain space aboard the
Miss Deed would be limited. For money she would sell the necklace Harlan had
given her as an engagement present. She might have felt a trifle guilty were it
some precious heirloom, but it was merely an expensive token he had purchased,
gaudy and ugly. Sophie had never liked it. She could admit that now.
    It wasn’t as though she didn’t have funds at her
disposal, but she refused to allow her father to bear the burden of this, when
it was Harlan who deserved the responsibility. He had taken quite enough from
her father—and from her already. Although Sophie couldn’t do anything
about the grants or the money, she certainly could recover something of her
own!
    Pride.
    But first things first... she had to find this
Jack MacAuley... he held the key to her plan, and she wasn’t about to let him leave
harbor without her—even if it meant she had to stow away on his ship! But
he wouldn’t turn her down, of that she was certain because Sophie fully
intended to give him an offer he couldn’t refuse.
    She removed from her drawer a few sheets of paper
and a pencil, then sat on the bed. But this time, instead of drawing, she wrote
a letter to Harold, explaining to her faithful old servant what she was
compelled to do. She’d place it somewhere where he was sure to find it later,
after she was gone. Next she wrote a letter to her parents, hoping her sarcasm
wouldn’t cause them too much concern, and she felt considerably better when she
was through.
    It read simply:
     
    Dearest
Father and Mother,
    Please don’t
fret; I’m off to the Yucatan to murder Harlan. Will tell you everything when I
return! My love to you both!
     
    And she signed it.
     
    Love and
kisses, your devoted daughter Sophia.

     
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER 2
     
     
    “Did you find out who was nosing about the
university?”
    Jack MacAuley tossed a neatly bound bundle of newly
repaired sailcloth from the pier onto the ship’s deck, eyeing his friend
irritably. Kell was his best friend and a damned good sailor, but he was worse
than an old woman with his gossip.
    “No, and I couldn’t care less who or why!” He
lifted up another bundle and hurled it after the first. “I quit caring a long
time ago about that damnable institution. It would seem to me you would’ve,
too!”
    “So you don’t care who’s sniffing about asking
questions about you?”
    “No.”
    Jack had, by stubborn will, earned his degree,
while Kell had been forced to withdraw during his second year. He hadn’t been
university material, so they’d claimed, though Jack hadn’t met many men more
qualified than Kell Davenport. A few barroom brawls weren’t enough cause to
deprive a man of an education. Kell had earned his way into the university
through scholarships and hard work, but his background was as ordinary as could
be, and when pressure came to throw scholarship money elsewhere, elsewhere it went.
    It was that simple.
    Despite that fact, Kell’s mathematical genius was
off the charts, and that, more than his sailing ability, made him indispensable
to Jack in this particular venture. It worked in his favor that Kell had been
forced to resign his studies so early, and that he’d taken up odd fishing jobs
on old schooners to make his living, but it was a damn shame he’d been reduced
to using good brainpower on idle gossip. Jack fully intended to put the boy’s
noggin to good use again.
    “Think maybe it was one of Penn’s lackeys nosing
about again, eh?”
    Ignoring the question, Jack tossed another bundle
aboard the ship’s deck. Sweat ran in rivulets down his temple and face, and he
swiped the beads away with the back of