Lisbon: Richard and Rose, Book 8 Read Online Free PDF

left after the man’s injury. The Magistrate of Health stared at us while he spoke, the man at his side translating rapidly. “The city of Lisbon is honoured to receive you as its guest, my lord. If you wish for any care or have any concern, please do not hesitate to contact me. Please go ashore at your leisure.” Another man handed him some papers, but Richard waved them aside. He didn’t handle such trivialities. The ship’s captain took them.
    As a statement of reconciliation, it lacked a little finesse, but I was only too glad to see the official gone.
    He took his time, his stately passage irking me further. A sudden gust of wind took me off balance. I staggered a couple of steps under the onslaught.
    I recovered myself almost immediately, but not quickly enough. Richard was there, his arm around my shoulders, his firm hold supporting me as he had so many times in the last three months. And before that, but I hadn’t needed it as I did now. I bit down on my lip to stop a snappy response he didn’t deserve, and instead spread my feet a little wider to ensure my stance.
    “We’ll go ashore soon,” he said. “We’ll have you ensconced in Lizzie’s parlour with a pot of tea before you can think twice.”
    It sounded heavenly.
    “But you will,” Richard continued, “come down to your cabin now.”
    Not a request, but I wasn’t averse to this command. Fatigue tugged at me again, although I hadn’t felt it while I was tending to the sailor.
    Richard didn’t touch me on the way there, a short journey but a solitary one. With the door to my bedroom closed, Richard helped me to sit before he turned to his valet, who had followed us down at his signal.
    Carier’s rugged features took on an even sterner aspect than usual. Few people knew that a soft heart lurked under that tough hide, but I had seen it more than once. He removed his hat and held it in one hand, using the other to run through his grizzled hair. “It could be nothing, my lord, my lady, but we should consider a possibility arising from this event. A few things disturbed me, and I would be neglectful if I didn’t bring them to your notice.”
    Richard touched my shoulder, very lightly this time. “You should rest, Rose. I could tell you later.”
    Or, if he thought it too upsetting, he wouldn’t tell me at all. I stiffened. “I’m sure I can bear it.”
    “Very well.”
    Carier regarded us both with the calm neutrality of a well-trained servant, but his iron-grey eyes saw more than we allowed most people to witness.
    “Will the boy recover?” Richard asked.
    “He should,” I told him. “We didn’t find any complications.”
    “Your help was invaluable, ma’am,” Carier told me.
    A tinge of happiness warmed me before cold shame washed over to take its place. I shouldn’t be pleased that a boy was hurt. I should be glad that the boy had escaped with the use of his leg and little chance of complications. But I was so avid for something to do, so tired of being treated like an invalid, I welcomed the diversion. It was a measure of how desperate I was growing.
    Richard crossed the room to the bed and then back again, restlessly pacing. Although luxurious for a seagoing vessel, it wasn’t a particularly large room. Six paces and he turned. “The boy might be young, but the captain made sure to employ no beginners. And that man in the rigging—I saw what you two did not. He didn’t fall. He dived overboard and swam for shore.”
    “Several of the crew were ill.” By his tone, Carier intimated what he thought of the illness that had occurred two weeks before. It had driven Richard into a raging fury of concern. An illness aboard ship could wipe out crews, and with infants on board, it could be fatal. From the day the first man had fallen ill, the babies had been kept in one area of the ship, and only named people had permission to touch them. We’d alighted at the next port and spent several days in an inn close to the shore until the