Stormy Persuasion Read Online Free PDF

more specifically.”
    “You always say that. And it never helps because I can’t. We have to go back, Warren.”
    He tsked, helped her straighten, and turned her around so he could hold her in his
     arms. “You’re not thinking clearly. We’d miss half the family that are already heading
     this way. Even James and Georgie will have departed with Jack long before we could
     get back.”
    “I wish there was a faster way to travel,” she growled in frustration against his
     wide chest.
    He chuckled. “That’s never going to happen, but we don’t sail with cannons anymore—”
    “You still acquired a full cargo that’s weighing us down.”
    “Of course I did, that’s my job. And despite the cargo, we’re making damn good time.
     Another week, give or take a day or so, and we’ll be in Bridgeport.”
    “If the wind holds,” she mumbled.
    “Naturally. But you know, no matter what your feeling portends, you can lessen the
     blow and make sure it isn’t devastating. Do it now. Say something to relieve your
     mind, sweetheart. Make a bet. You know you always win.”
    She glanced up at him and gave him a loving smile for the reminder. “I bet nothing
     is going to happen that my family can’t handle.”
    “Are you sure you want to be that vague?”
    “I wasn’t vague. That covers everyone in my family, everyone in your family, all wives,
     husbands, and children.”

Chapter Five

    T he holding cell, one of many, was the only one currently in use. The cell wasn’t in
     a jail or a prison, although it certainly felt as if it were to the men detained there.
     Underground, no windows, the prisoners would have no light at all if a single lantern
     weren’t kept burning day and night. That light was for the guard, not the prisoners.
    The revenue base had been built toward the end of the last century when the Crown
     got more aggressive in patrolling her southern waters, mainly along the Cornish coast.
     The base had started out as no more than a dock and a barracks halfway between Dorset
     and Devon. As it had expanded over the years, a community had grown up around it.
     Shops, a stable, taverns, but the main business was still the apprehension of smugglers,
     and they were dealt with severely. Sent to the colonies in Australia or hanged. One
     or the other with trials that were a mockery.
    Nathan Tremayne had wished more than once that he’d been born in the last century,
     before the revenue men got organized. Then, smuggled cargoes could be unloaded right
     on the docks of a village with everyone helping. Even the local nabobs would turn
     a blind eye on the illegal activities as long as they got their case of brandy or
     tea. It had been a simple way to get around exorbitant taxes, and the long expanse
     of rocky Cornish coastline made that section of England ideal for bringing in rum,
     brandy, tea, and even tobacco to otherwise law-abiding citizens at reasonable prices.
     With so few revenue men patrolling back then, the smugglers faced little risk. Not
     so anymore.
    These days the few smugglers still operating were running out of places to hide their
     cargoes. Even the tunnels built into the cliffs were slowly being discovered and watched
     by the revenuers. Smugglers had resorted to storing their cargoes farther inland,
     away from the revenuers, before their cargoes could be distributed. But the goods
     still had to be unloaded onto shore for transport—or loaded back onto a ship if a
     smuggler suspected his hiding place had been discovered by a meddlesome wench who
     would likely inform the authorities. That’s how Nathan had been caught last week.
     His crew had gotten away, scattering like rats in a sewer. He and his ship hadn’t.
    It had been a setup. The revenuers had been lying in wait. He just couldn’t prove
     it unless he could escape. But that wasn’t happening from a cellblock such as this.
     Chained hand and foot with the chains spiked to the wall behind him, he could barely
     stand