The Countess' Lucky Charm Read Online Free PDF

fact, cared very much. It was so very, very improper of her to share a cabin with a man. Even the man who had saved her neck.
      “ Ohhhh ,” Temple moaned, interrupting her thoughts.
    She looked at him, the very picture of misery, and sympathy swelled within her. “Oh my, yer face is green. Maybe ye need something ta drink? I’ll get it for ye.” She wanted to help him but the ship’s surgeon had said the only thing that would help him was time to get his sea legs. Perhaps she could get his mind off his suffering.
    “Why did ye leave London? Ye were being chased but yer a lord. No one would listen to the likes of them, ye didn’t have to run.”
    He turned her way, his face twisted in agony. “It’s not a topic I care to discuss at this particular moment.”
    “As ye wish.” Simone looked out over the vast Atlantic for several moments before curiosity nudged her again. “Where is New Caledonia?”
    He groaned and pushed himself to standing, hands gripping the rail. “In the new world. Canada to be precise.”
    “Couldn’t ye find a closer place to hide?” She wrinkled her nose. The ton—who could make sense of them?
    “I am not hiding,” he retorted. “I thought to make my own way and find my fortune. To that end, I have become a partner in the North West Company.”
    “But ye already have money.”
    “Nay.” He shook his head. “My family may have means but I do not.”
    “ Yer a younger son, then,” she said shrewdly. “Ye got yerself in a spot of trouble and now yer shipping off for a bit to let things mend.”
    “It’s no concern of yours.” His voice was testy and he took several deep breaths in an obvious attempt to hide his annoyance. A muscle twitched in his cheek.
    She had hit a nerve. His comment on finding his fortune was not so far from the truth. Remorse surged through her at the realization her passage had cost him dearly and his demand for repayment had, in fact, had some basis to it. Her promise to repay him, an idle boast at the time, took on new meaning.
    “Keep your eyes on the horizon, young man.” The solicitous voice gave Simone a start and she turned to see Mrs Featherstone, the captain’s wife standing behind them.
    “The seasickness is nothing to scoff at,” the other woman continued. “Are you drinking your ginger tea?”
    “I am.” He nodded.
      “Good.” She tapped Temple on the shoulder with her fan. “You’ve kept Lady Wellington to yourself much too long. I came to claim her. May I?”
    “Of course.” Temple’s lukewarm voice clearly indicated he had reservations over the invitation.
    Simone glanced at him, half expecting him to blurt out the truth about her but he stood, eyes closed, clenching the railing as if his very life depended on it. Poor man, the voyage promised to be long and uncomfortable for him.
    “Oh, don’t fuss, I shall look after her.” Mrs Featherstone smiled, mistaking Temple’s trepidation for a young husband’s reluctance to lose his wife’s company. “I thought to fill our days with mending and such,” Mrs Featherstone remarked as she moved off, Simone in tow.
    “Mending?” She cast a frantic glance to Temple, who had now opened his eyes and looked their way. She didn’t know how to mend. Or sew. Or do anything a lady of quality would know how to do.
    Horror filled her. It wouldn’t take very long in the other woman’s company for Mrs Featherstone to realize Simone was not Lord Wellington’s wife.
     
    * * *
     
    Temple turned to give Simone an encouraging wink. She couldn’t avoid Mrs Featherstone’s company forever and as long as Simone followed his instructions, all would be fine.
    He watched until she disappeared around the main mast. It had been quite a battle to get her to bathe but it had been well worth the effort.
    Clean, Simone was pretty. There was no denying the allure of the rose pink lips, the creamy skin and pale blonde, curly hair. A bit too skinny for his liking, perhaps, but nothing a few