Lucky's Lady (The Caversham Chronicles Book 4) Read Online Free PDF Page B

loved dreaming up composite material designed to reduce weight and allow for more cargo. That was her life's work.
    There were only a handful of shipyards in the area that built these ships, though it seemed each year one or two more got into the business. Especially since the demand for the speedy cargo carriers was increasing almost daily. The only other shipyard out on the point with them, Barlowe Marine, focused solely on military-type vessels, heavy and armed from stem to stern, as the owner had a previous career with the government as a naval architect. Though well-constructed and of different design, they were military ships designed for the navy, and not true clippers.
    Watkins specialized in cargo carrying clipper ships, where the amount of goods transported and the speed in which you got your cargo to the owner, determined how much money you made. Speed. It was important, but not the primary consideration in her designs. Optimizing the cargo space and making the loading and unloading of cargo easier and more efficient was as vital to turn-around time and profitability as speed.
    Safety, speed, optimization of space. That's what she wanted to give this client. And hopefully he would give her a babe in return. Even as she wanted to cry for baby Emily and her brother, Rowan, she smiled and placed her hand over her womb and imagined the possibility of having a child growing within her soon.
    Mary-Michael returned her attention to the drawing and tried to remember everything the Englishman said. She began to draw a hull, a bell bow, the jibboom, knightheads, keel, and stern. Her pencil flew across the sheet, as she added deckwork and masts and rails. Spanker to flying jib, she gave her new creation full sail. She marked the hull for copper sheathing and for drama she added waves and clouds against a stormy sky. The deck arrangement was a basic deck house with rear cabin, as she was still unsure which actual layout he'd prefer. He mentioned two full cabins on each as a preference, but Mary-Michael didn't know if he wanted them separated or side by side.
    She stared at her creation, her heart swelling with pride. She loved drawing ships under full sail. For her, they came alive on the page. When she began drawing ships as a child, she could imagine herself standing on the fo'c'sle deck looking out into the ocean and watching the waves as they parted under her bow. Even now, she could almost feel the wind in her hair and the spray on her face as the bow sluiced through the water.
    She could imagine it, just as much as she could imagine a babe in her arms this time next year. And both this drawing and that child of her dreams might become reality if Mr. Watkins sold the deal to the Englishman.

C hapter T wo
     
    T he following morning at precisely eight, Lucky entered the offices of Watkins Shipbuilding resolved to never again think the inappropriate thoughts he had the day before about the wife of the shipyard owner. The village church was empty when he'd gone in the night before. Seeing no priest with whom to speak with, he'd lit a candle and said a prayer for Maura, the little babe he'd wanted to raise as his own until learning of his sister's loss, then begged God for strength and wisdom in dealing with this attraction to a married woman, and went on his way. He'd then spent the rest of the night thinking about it, and concluded that no dalliance with this woman would be easy. His business was at stake here, and an affair with this particular woman could cost him and his partner their ships.
    No matter that the desire to be near her was almost painful, no temporary affair was worth so high a price.
    Which meant he was not to focus on her perfectly symmetrical full lips nor the expressive golden-brown eyes under her perfectly arched brows. Nor her round face which dimpled adorably when she smiled. Yesterday, she'd had her auburn hair tied back and coiled under a net, which led to at least one hour of contemplation last