Free Patricia Potter by Lightning

inheritance from his grandfather, and more. Annoyed by his son’s insistent creditors, Adrian’s father offered to buy him a naval commission, and announced he would then be through with him. Adrian, with few options other than debtor’s prison, accepted. A year later his father was dead, and John owned Ridgely …
    Much to his surprise, Adrian had liked the sea, although he didn’t like naval discipline. Not even his smile helped there. But gradually he’d adjusted and learned everything he could. He had been happy enough until his last tour of duty. The captain was both a martinet and a fool, and Adrian’s hot temper destroyed his career. And then John had lost Ridgely after a long series of losses at the gambling tables.
    Adrian had felt hollow at hearing the news, as if a vital part of him had been torn away, and he realized then that he had always expected to return. And now a man named Rhys Redding, whose sole talent was gambling, owned Ridgely, and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it—until the American Civil War erupted and created opportunities for quick wealth.
    But in those years during his childhood, his courtship of Sylvia, and the final betrayal by his brother, he had lost any trust he’d ever had in others. And since Sylvia, he’d had no serious thoughts for women.
    So why did Lauren Bradley haunt him so?
    Socrates sat in front of him, his head positioned on his hands like a little wise man, as if surveying a mystery.
    Or a fool.
    Lauren dressed carefully the next evening. She felt the strangest combination of dread and excitement, and she didn’t understand the tingling inside her body. She should feel nothing but loathing for the Englishman.
    Yet there had been something about him the previous night—the wry, crestfallen charm when she had called Socrates a hero, then the bright, shining smile when she had amended the compliment to include him. She had not been able to dismiss either expression from her thoughts.
    She had spent much of the day with Jeremy in his shop. It had not taken long to learn there were few secrets in Nassau. The first customer, a gentleman involved in the shipping business, remarked on her “unfortunate incident,” and later Lauren felt her cheeks glow brightly as she explained to Jeremy what had happened.
    “It was really nothing,” Lauren tried to assure him. “I didn’t want to bother or worry you.”
    His forehead furrowed with concern. “Tell me everything that happened.”
    “The night was so pretty. I was feeling restless, so I took a short walk. I often walked in the evening in Dover,” she explained.
    He raised a thick gray eyebrow. “I’m afraid Nassau isn’t Dover,” he said quietly. “It’s safe enough on some streets in the daytime, but you shouldn’t go anywhere alone at night. I should have warned you.”
    Lauren knew he thought he shouldn’t have to warn her. It had been a careless thing to do, and she realized he probably now had doubts about her competence. But she had needed that time to think.
    “Continue,” he prodded gently.
    “Four sailors,” she told him. “They were drunk and thought …”
    “I can imagine what they thought,” he interrupted curtly.
    “I would have been in a great deal of trouble if Captain Cabot and his monkey hadn’t happened along.”
    Jeremy’s eyebrow rose higher. “Cabot?”
    She nodded. “And Socrates. He bit one of them.”
    Jeremy smiled as he shook his head. “Someone seems to be on our side.”
    Lauren frowned slightly in question.
    “There’s no quicker way to a man’s heart than to bring out the protective side of him.”
    Lauren’s hand went to the side of her skirt, and her fingers clutched the material. “It’s going to be more difficult …”
    His voice gentled. “Phillips thought you could handle it, and you can. You must think of the good you’re doing for your country, the lives you can save.”
    They spoke no more about the incident, and at Lauren’s