Free His Californian Countess by Kate Welsh Page B

and not love him. It would open her up to heartache eventually. But wouldn’t losing him now with so few good memories be worse than losing him later with many? She honestly didn’t know.
    “I had a position,” she said. “The one thing I didn’t want for my life was to live on someone’s charity.”
    She could see he was running out of patience. “A wife doesn’t live on her husband’s charity. Think about what I’ve said. I don’t give up easily,” he said, his gaze piercing. “I warn you I will spend this entire voyage trying to woo you. I intend to give you the courtship our hasty marriage cheated you of. Right now, though, I’m famished.” He stood. “Would you accompany me to the dining hall and breakfast with me, my lady? Together we’ll put an end to any rumors and gossip.”
    Amber shook her head. She needed time. She’d given up on marriage and it was very difficult to change direction so suddenly. It was true she had few options but she had to carefully examine them. The most important was that she wasn’t Helena. Hadn’t he called her name in the throes of passion? Because of that she knew he loved the other woman even though Helena was beyond his reach.
    And Helena would have made him a fine countess.
    “Very well,” he said on a sigh and looked disappointed. “I’ll have a meal sent to you. But be warned. Mimm says I am the most stubborn person she has evercome across and no one knows me better. We could have a good life based on respect, common goals. And attraction. I will win you over.”
    Oh, she was so very afraid he already had. And she was just as afraid, if not more, that Helena Conwell would always have his heart. He hadn’t offered love, after all. She was just his inconvenient wife.

Chapter Six
    J amie leaned his forearms on the teak rail and stared down at the water below. It was clear as glass, a curious mix of blue and green. He saw no answers in its depths nor heard one in the gentle hiss of the bow cutting through the sea. Amber had proven herself to be as stubborn an adversary as he’d come across.
    How could they reach an understanding when she kept her door closed and sent him away? Every morning. Every afternoon. Every evening.
    A hand clapped on his shoulder and Jamie glanced to his left. Captain E. C. Baker stood there, a look of concern in his eyes. “Your bride still being stubborn?”
    “She may have coined the word. For the life of me I don’t know how to tempt her out of that cabin. I cannot imagine spending a week in there. I’d think it the worst of punishments.” He chuckled bitterly. “Did, in fact, as a boy. And it was a room ten times larger and I had my nanny.”
    Captain Baker grinned, his gray eyes alive with mirth. “She’s not in there at all times. She comes ondeck at about midnight just after eight bells sound to the start of the graveyard shift. She remains topside till eight bells sound again.”
    Jamie frowned. “Is that safe?”
    “I have my second in command watch out for her after I’ve smoked the last of my cigar and retired.”
    With a curious mixture of annoyance and admiration bubbling in his veins for the woman he’d taken in marriage, Jamie gave in to a smile. “The little scoundrel. She sleeps all day and enjoys the stars from midnight till dawn.” Jamie straightened. “Thank you. I’ll use the information wisely.”
    Baker raised a bushy eyebrow. “See that you use it as quietly as possible. It wouldn’t do to awaken everyone when the ship is mostly bedded down.”
    Jamie nodded, regretting that he’d caused a stir before with his ill treatment of Amber. “I promise to retire the field before hostilities occur.”
    “It isn’t you I worry about, son,” the captain quipped, a grin splitting his weathered face. Jamie returned to his cabin then, needing to get to sleep so he’d be awake and alert at midnight.
     
    A cabin door in the companionway opened, then ever so quietly snapped shut again. Jamie sat up.