“Don’t tell me you’re tiring of the sea.” She studied him unblinkingly. “Ah, I do believe you are. I see it in your sun-weathered face, those honest eyes of yours.”
He smiled at her sharp appraisal. “I’m no longer the wee lad you fed kissing comfits to, but you still know me.”
“Of course I do. A man is merely an overgrown boy. You are wanting change. This place suits you. You could raise a family and be a man about town. Here there are no shadows to dodge.”
Shadows.Did she suspect him of being a pirate? Or sense his personal safety was in question on the mainland?
“Fare thee well, Captain Lennox.” She moved away, her gait slow yet graceful. “I do hope to see you again soon.”
CHAPTER
nine
The shop door jangled shut at noon, and finding herself alone, Esmée drifted toward the Dutch door separating the chocolate shop from the coffeehouse. Shipowners and merchants, politicians and literary men gathered in the spacious, beamed room that hummed with hearsay, headlines, and other matters whatever the season. Newspapers and broadsides were scattered about, theVirginia Gazetteforemost.
This was how Esmée kept track of the captain after a fashion. Discreetly. Privately. Without involving anyone else. Once the ire of their parting had cooled, she was beset with an insatiable curiosity time could not dim.
How did such a man handle a failed love affair? By wintering in the Caribbean. Intercepting pirate ships preying upon merchant vessels. Testifying at the admiralty court in Boston. Recovering an abandoned Spanish wreck near Madagascar. Trading the aptly namedBachelor’s Delightfor the more enigmaticRelentless. If she had a shilling every time she read “Taken by theRelentless, Captain Lennox,” she’d be a wealthy woman.
And now she knew how he handled a loathsome reunion. Stoically.Handsomely. With nary a trace of trepidation. As if he’d forgotten all about her and recovered unscathed from their liaison of old.
While she herself was a tangle of tarred rope.
“Sister! Why on earth are you loitering at the coffeehouse door? Father forbids it!”
Eliza stood behind her, winking in merriment. The truth was, Father did forbid it, but Eliza cared not a whit. It was how she’d kept the attention of Quinn, a regular at Shaw’s coffeehouse back then. Even now he was at his preferred corner table, one of their male indentures replenishing coffee and chocolate as he and his highborn friends talked taxes and tariffs.
“What is it you’re clutching to your chest?” Eliza peered atThe Complete Confectionerwith a sharp eye.
“Anna found it on the shop steps this morn.” Esmée had hardly set the book down. “The giver is a mystery.”
Eliza’s smile curled expectantly. “A secret admirer, perhaps?”
“Secret, aye. Admirer, nay.”
“A gift from Captain Lennox is my guess. I saw the two of you at supper. Quite cozy after so long a separation.”
“Cozy?” Esmée rolled her eyes. “You’re in need of a pair of spectacles. We were simply thrown together quite unexpectedly and spent an excruciating supper, followed by dancing, trying to be polite while wondering what on earth we ever found attractive about each other in the first place.”
“Ha! He’s still a remarkably gallant devil, you must admit.”
“A tattooed devil.”
“Most mariners are.” Eliza laughed and took the book from her. “I recall you and Mama trying to find this very volume with no success. Till now.”
“’Tis so hard to come by, printed in England. The York and Williamsburg booksellers have not been able to obtain a single copy of it.”
Eliza paged to the flyleaf with gloved hands. “I do wish he’d signed it. But of course, you might have burnt the book if he had.”
“Shush. ’Tis too valuable a tome. I would simply have torn out his signature.”
“Hmm. How long has it been since you two were enamored with each other?”
“It matters not. You’ve already asked me. ’Twas a foolish infatuation.”
“I wonder.” Eliza seemed to reconsider. “In and out of every foreign port as he is, and for so long, I suppose he has a paramour somewhere. Several, perhaps.”
The notion nearly made Esmée squirm. “He made no mention of such.”
