Free Amanda Scott by Sisters Traherne (Lady Meriel's Duty; Lord Lyford's Secret) Page A

from one wave to the next, sending a wall of spray soaring to either side. Before long, she realized she was getting soaked, but despite the wind and the water, her cloak kept her warm enough and she had no desire to go below. Turning her face up, she exposed her cheeks enthusiastically to the needlelike sting of spray.
    “Good God, what are you about?” The question roared in her left ear, startling her, before she had any notion that she was no longer alone. As she turned toward the voice, a powerful arm enveloped her shoulders and a firm masculine hand clamped the railing near her own. “Have you any notion how dangerous it is to be standing here like this?” Sir Antony demanded, his voice still loud enough in her ear to make her wince.
    “Sir,” she said, looking up into the face so near her own, “there is no need to shout. I can hear you perfectly well.”
    “I feel like shouting,” he retorted, although he lowered his voice to a rumble. “You are sure to be blown overboard if you stand here. I cannot think what all those sailors are about not to have warned you.”
    “They are about their business, sir,” she said tartly, “as you should be.”
    “Don’t be childish,” he said. “You must come inside at once.”
    “I shall not. I am quite safe here, and I am enjoying the wind and the excitement of the gathering storm. Only look, sir, there is a bolt of lightning. I daresay we are in for quite a tempest.”
    “No doubt, ma’am.” He regarded the top of her head through narrowed eyes. “I should have expected such weather to have frightened you.”
    “Nonsense, sir, I am Welsh. Did such weather distress me, I should have spent the whole of my life in a distressed condition. One bolt of lightning will not send me running for cover. I have stood near the summit of Cader Idris—a mountain nearly three thousand feet high, I’ll have you know—and watched much worse storms gather than this promises to be.”
    “So you climb mountains, do you? Somehow I am not surprised.” There was amusement in his voice now, and she looked back at him.
    “Of course, I do. I have not been raised to be such a fragile honey as your London girls, you know.”
    “I begin to believe you, ma’am.”
    The ship pitched more sharply than ever just then, and his powerful arm instantly clamped her body to the railing. She was sure her ribs would be bruised, but she did not protest. Indeed, the thought that he wished to protect her was a warming one. A moment later, when the ship crashed down into the next trough and began to climb an even steeper wall of water, she made no further protest to his repeated insistence that they make their way to a safer position. She quickly discovered that the decision to leave the railing and the actual accomplishment of that feat were two entirely different matters, and when they had finally reached the comparative safety of the ladies’ saloon, she sank down upon a banquette with a sigh of relief, tossing her muff onto the floor.
    “That is quite ruined, I daresay. You were indeed in the right of it, sir. I remained outside longer than I ought to have done. You need not stay with me, however. I am quite content to remain here for a time.”
    He was braced against the bulkhead, watching her settle herself as gracefully as though she had little regard for the pitching deck beneath their feet. His eyes, glinting at first with what might have been anger in a more emotional man, softened as she spoke. Now it could be seen that he was amused.
    “Where would you have me go, ma’am?”
    “Why, to the great cabin, of course, or to your own. You ought not to remain here, sir.”
    He glanced around the empty cabin. “There is no one else here to be offended, and I’ve no wish to venture outside again at the moment. Already my neckcloth is limp and my boots have lost their polish. Moreover, not only is the sea attempting to swamp this craft, but I believe it is coming on to rain.”
    Glancing