Free Love's Odyssey by Jane Toombs Page B

Wellsley," he said.
    "How nice to see you again, Mister Montgomery," she managed to say, amazed at how calm she sounded.
    Margitte's glance flicked appraisingly from Adrien to Romell before she smiled up at Commandeur Zwaan.
    "I am honored, sir, to be sailing with you," she said. "I've heard many compliments paid you in the city."
    Skipper Hardens moved restlessly. " Mevrouw Van Slyke," he said. "What a pleasure to see your lovely face this morning."
    Margitte tossed him a sliver of a smile before concentrating on the commandeur. Romell stepped away from the group and stood by the rail. A moment later, Adrien joined her there.
    "So you've decided to marry," he said. "The last time we spoke I had the impression you were rather against the idea."
    "You're well informed," she said stiffly.
    He shrugged. "There are few secrets aboard ship."
    "What takes you to Batavia?" she asked.
    "Seeking a fortune in the Indies, what else?" He leaned on the rail and looked out at the sandy dunes of Texel. "I'll not be staying in Batavia long. There's no welcome for Englishmen in that Dutch stronghold."
    She looked at him, wondering if he could tell how fast her heart was beating. When he turned to her his eyes were mocking. "Perhaps I'll stay long enough to be invited to your wedding," he said.
    She held out her hand. "Adrien," she began, but stopped when she saw Margitte approaching. Romell's hand dropped to her side.
    Adrien turned and smiled at Margitte, a vision in rose and cream. "No doubt we'll meet again," he said casually to Romell as he moved off with Margitte's hand on his arm.
    Just before noon the white sails unfurled, the cables were slipped, and Romell felt the ship leap beneath her. The wind blew strong from the east and, as men scampered along the lines, the Zuiderwind pulled away from her island moorage into the heaving swell of the North Sea, following the man-of-war.
    Romell looked astern and saw the Goudland behind them with all her sails set, the white canvas gleaming in the sun. A splendid sight, she thought.
    The four ships threaded the English Channel without incident, though the VOC Junior Merchant, a young man named Willem Van Buren, had told Romell this was a dangerous passage, since one never knew "the temper of the weather or the English."
    She and Margitte both dined at the commandeur's table, ample meals served with beer and brandy. Adrien, too, ate there, as did the ship's officers, company officials, and some of the other passengers: a minister traveling with his wife and daughter and a young man who had been hired as a children's tutor by a Dutch family living in Batavia. The rest of the passengers were apparently judged not worthy of the honor.
    Romell knew the soldiers were quartered on the lower deck in a compartment next to the ship's crew. Occasionally, she saw a soldier on the quarterdeck, but by the time the Zuiderwind swung into the Atlantic to catch the trade wind, Romell had come close to forgetting that Pieter was aboard and so was taken aback when he hailed her one morning.
    "Romell!" he exclaimed, clasping her hand in both of his. "I'd heard you were on the ship and just couldn't believe it possible. What fantastic luck!"
    "How are you, Pieter?" she said, trying, without success, to withdraw her hand.
    "I thought I'd never see you again."
    She looked up into his face, now clean-shaven as befitted a junior officer, and thought he was really one of the handsomest men she'd ever seen. Why, then, had he never stirred her the way Adrien did?
    "My passage was paid by a widower in Batavia who needs a wife," she told him bluntly. No good would come of Pieter thinking she was aboard because of him.
    "I understand," he said softly, smiling at her possessively. "There was no other way."
    Romell jerked her hand free. "There's nothing between you and me, Pieter. Don't speak as though there is."
    He scowled. "Why be coy? We were meant for one another. Tell me, do you have a cabin to yourself?"
    She stared at