Surrender Read Online Free PDF Page B

pan-seared with citrus wedges,” she offered. “Bread beneath the warmer, tomato salad, and Key lime pie made from Belamar’s very special little lime trees. And, oh, Jerome left you the white wine, insisting it was best with this fish.”
    “Can’t you join me—” Risa began, but broke off, hearing a sudden, shrill cry.
    “Oh, dear, I’m afraid not!” Jennifer said with a laugh. “That was Anthony. My son. Do enjoy your dinner.”
    Jennifer offered her a warm smile, as if Risa were truly a guest here, and disappeared out the door.
    The door was left open. Risa hurried toward it.
    She faced the same young seaman. The door closed.
    She stared at it, swearing beneath her breath. So much for helping friends! She kicked the door, turned, and leaned against it, then tempted to take the dinner tray and throw it across the room.
    But she realized suddenly that she was famished. She sat on the bed, stared at the tray, then tasted the fish. It was delicious. She ate half of it before her thirst brought her fingers curling around the wineglass.
    She hesitated. Jerome’s hospitality. She’d like to drown the man in the wine. She took a sip, then another. The wine was good. Really excellent. The Reb had a definite taste for fine wine. Well, he was a McKenzie—even if he was from the more
savage
side of the family tree.
    She finished eating, telling herself that it was importantthat she do so; she’d need strength to escape her current situation.
    When she finished, she set the tray on the dresser and started pacing again. What she had overheard tonight was important. She had done what she could for Alaina; now she must reach her own countrymen. There had to be a way to stop the attack on the
Maid of Salem
.
    She continued to pace, worry about what to do plaguing her relentlessly.
    Then, quite suddenly, she realized she was dizzy. She moved quickly back to the bed, thinking she was just barely going to make it. The world was fading, going dark.
    As she collapsed on the mattress, she thought irritably that she couldn’t possibly escape if she was going to be so dizzy she couldn’t stand.
    Exactly. She couldn’t possibly escape.
    She had been drugged. It had to have been the wine.
    From somewhere in the distance, she thought she heard the door opening. She struggled to open her eyes.
    “Ah … she’s sleeping,” said a soft, feminine voice.
    “Indeed,” a voice replied. Deep, husky, low. Jerome McKenzie. He was back.
    Risa fought to awaken. She needed to know what had happened. And still, she couldn’t force her eyelids to open. She couldn’t speak, couldn’t find the strength to move.
    “She’ll be leaving with me as soon as she awakens.”
    “Poor dear. She’ll be unhappy on a Rebel ship.”
    “She understands the situation.”
    “Must you leave so soon?”
    The door closed. Risa could hear no more. She struggled to awaken again, but the effort was futile. She drifted.
    Noise again. Voices. Coming from somewhere down the hallway. She willed her eyes to open, and this time they obeyed. She tried to sit up. Her head felt like lead.
    “She seems to be doing very well.”
    She wasn’t doing well at all, she thought, but then she realized they weren’t talking about her.
    Jennifer was speaking, and then the older woman withthe soft, gentle tones spoke again. Then Risa heard a low masculine voice, and her heart began to thunder.
    Ian was here. The voice was
really
Ian’s. He was here!
    She didn’t hear Alaina’s voice, but then she heard the older woman speaking again in her soft, richly accented voice.
    “Boys, she’s going to be fine, the wound is clean, her pulse is strong. Ian, you can see for yourself. Her breathing is deep and steady. She received a surface wound, no more.”
    Relief flooded through Risa as she realized from the conversation that they discussed Alaina. Jerome had found both Ian and Alaina, and they were all back here. And others were here as well. His Yankee family members. He