Free The Mask of Omegon (Gwen Farris Book 6) by P.S. Power

soon. The king and her were
trying though. Both were healthy enough even, so it wouldn’t be that long.
    The large man was there alone it
seemed that evening. Normally he brought Gloria along with him. Gwen hadn’t
really thought about it, since they were of different social strata, but the
ship’s Engineer and the Duke seemed to be an item. Which was good if it was the
case. Gwen actually liked them both, after all. If nothing else it would make
dinner parties easier on her.
    “Hey! Duke Morten.” She held her
arms open, but was a bit shocked when the man actually stood up from his sofa
and managed to give her a credible hug.
    “Curly! Gloria was just asking
after you, not yesterday. Actually, she ordered me to see about getting you in
for a run? We’re two loaders down for our next trip out, otherwise. Smitty actually went and got himself promoted, of all things. Darnell…” There was a
sad look then, along with a head shake that felt both real and fake, at the
same time. “There was an accident at the last port. Paris? In Europa. I’m
afraid he didn’t make it back to the Peregrine on time, so has to find his own
way home.”
    It sounded like that was a sad
thing, but given who had been left Gwen had to figure that it was done on
purpose. The man was an idiot. Worse, he probably wasn’t even stupid, which
could have been worked with. Slow was a thing and its own excuse at times.
Darnell just thought he was cleverer than he actually was, which made problems.
    It had to be pretty bad though, if
they stranded him like that. It was close to the last thing that anyone in the
shipping business would do, on purpose.
    “What did he do?”
    The tall man, who was bald on top,
and a combination of silver, black and gray on the sides, all trimmed nicely,
sighed.
    “Liberties with our cook. Rather
got a bit out of hand about it. I mean, a woman on a ship gets patted a bit
more than is proper at times, naturally. Hazard of the job. He was trying to
force her, though. Just with words, or he wouldn’t have been getting off
the ship at port. We’re keeping that part quiet, for the lady’s sake. Anyway,
are you in?” He looked at her closely, kindly not mentioning how thin she still
was. That played behind his eyes, but she could work.
    “I should be free? I think I
actually wore out my welcome with Ferdinand. Not that he hasn’t been a dear about
everything. At least I don’t think I pissed off Marianna or anything.”
They were short on female watchers for her. The Special Service had some women,
but only four of them now, and Beth was down, since being pregnant meant not
being in combat armor. Not that they lived in the stuff, but if it came up, she
couldn’t fit in hers, or wouldn’t be able to soon.
    Groundling, her old ship pal, just
grimaced at her a bit.
    “He called me up on that one. It isn’t what you’d think. You came back and then spent six months on duty. Straight,
without taking so much as a single rest day. That’s your entire duty set for
the year. Given you worked sixteen hour days, that’s your whole contract at
once. Stupid rule, if you’re willing to do more, but that’s the civilian way
for that sort of thing. You’re the only non-Westmorland in the job on the
women’s side, so they have to treat you like a girl.” He smirked a bit, then
looked over at Tomas, nodding. It was very nearly a casual thing.
    “Baron Harrison. Good to see you
out. Last I heard you were consumed with your latest art project? Children’s
novels, wasn’t it?” There was no particular condemnation over that being what
the guy was doing.
    No hesitation about the Baron part either. It could have been a bit of a shock to her, but Gwen figured that
the man had probably hidden who he was from a lot of people. Really, that was
likely for the same reason that Groundling did on the ships. At least he used
to, before being shown as nobility to the masses. It was so he could do his
work, without being bothered all the