‘I made an adjustment in your cabin, sir. I mean, in case you were wondering what to do.’
John smiled inside, thinking of the times when his fellow commanders had twitted him about being too easy on his crew. He’d mostly ignored them. His years at sea had schooled him in the art of finesse. ‘Brownlow, I think I get your drift.’
‘I thought you might, Captain. Sweet dreams, if I may be so bold.’
He couldn’t help a blush, but below-deck was usually in a half light and he doubted Anna would notice. From the thoughtful expression on her face, he suspected she had ideas of her own.
‘Well, madam wife, I should probably carry you over the threshold, but…oh, why not?’
He opened the door to his quarters, that compact space across the aft of the ship with his desk, a few chairs and a regrettable pile of charts in one corner. Time to tidy this, but maybe not right now. He picked up his wife and stepped into his little domain, that place where he read, charted courses, thought, paced about, questioned his decisions, and hoped for the best.
So far so good. He set her down, kissed her soundly, then opened the door to his sleeping quarters and grinned. ‘I’ll be damned, Mrs Beattie, if I don’t have the best crew on any ocean,’ he told her.
Anna’s eyes were wide. She put her hand over her mouth and she smiled, too, thank God.
Brownlow had disconnected the ropes that kept his sleeping platform in motion. The bed frame was now anchored on the deck, held in place by marlinspikes. It wasn’t going anywhere. No one was going to be dumped from this bed, not tonight.
‘My dear, turn around,’ he said. ‘I recall buttoning two of your buttons several months ago. I intend to unbutton them all now. You know, in the interest of finding out if you have more freckles than those on your nose, which, by the way, I’ve been wanting to kiss.’
‘I understand, Captain,’ she said. ‘You’ll probably discover—since you are the observant type—that they match the ones on my front.’
A wife in a million. If that was so, then why this odd sense of restraint between them, suddenly? He hadn’t planned on that.
He hesitated.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Anna knew herself well. As possible marriage alliances never materialised, her practical side had assumed command. As the years marched on, she’d accepted the reality of her single state.
Everything had changed with that knock on her door, and the first sight of this man who was now her husband. Always a quick assessor of people, she saw distraction, misery and worry, coupled with the most exhaustion she had ever seen in a person. It almost seemed to seep out of his pores.
She recognised that exhaustion, because her brother Will had brought it home with him after every voyage. She’d quickly learned to help Will out of his cloak and offer food, which he always ate like a starving man, with glances of apology at her.
At first, Will used to think he needed to go with her to the sitting room and talk about his latest voyage, whether it be to the distant Azores, the feverish Caribbean or, in more recent years, to the tedious, mind-numbing blockade of Spain and France.
She remembered the night she had been making some comment, then looked over at her brother sitting beside her to see a man sound asleep. She had wakened him gently, told him to go to bed and, for heaven’s sake, sleep around the clock. Afterthat, his return from duty never bothered them, because they knew what he needed most.
This was different. She was now married to Captain John Beattie, an association so intimate and unexpected that even now, seeing him standing there by that amusing bed, she wanted to push him down and command him to go to sleep, that this would certainly keep until they knew each other a little better.
But she was no fool. Anna also saw a man with desire in his eyes. She knew little about such longing, but some instinct told her that John Beattie needed her right now. Yet his own hesitation had opened a small window on the dilemma she thought he struggled with.
How to play this hand? She could think of nothing but plain speaking, even though it would probably toss both of them into great chasms of embarrassment.
She saw him frowning at her.Come on, Anna, say the right thing, she told herself.There is a man’s dignity at stake.
She sat down on the funny bed and patted the space beside her. She took his hand and rested it against her thigh. She turned slightly to look into his eyes. Ah, yes, the exhaustion. And more. She addressed the more.
‘I believe, dear man, that you’re wondering what we just did in marrying so hastily.’ There. That was a simple start.
Better and better. She let herself breathe a little when he smiled and shook his head.
‘Madam wife, I believe you might be the smartest person in this room,’ he said, which made her laugh.
She nodded. ‘If it’s any consolation, it takes a smart person to see that.’
That brought another genuine smile to his face. Goodness, but he was a handsome man when he smiled.Lucky me, she thought.Onward, Anna.
‘I did you a huge service by solving your problem so conveniently, didn’t I?’ she asked.
