Lillie Coulbourne marks time in Paris while the Civil War rages back home. While translating dispatches from the Confederacy for the French Finance Ministry, she accepts a spy mission through the Union blockade. When the captain of the only blockade runner headed back to a Southern port won’t deal with women, or spies, she sneaks aboard as his cabin boy.
He refuses to risk his ship, or his heart.
Blockade runner Captain Jack Roberts has never been caught and he’s not about to let a spoiled American heiress ruin his perfect record. After he discovers her deception, he fails miserably at keeping her at arm’s length and vows to send her packing on the first mail ship back to England.
When she surprises him with her skill as a seaman and navigator, he grudgingly allows her to finish the run. But ultimately, he has to choose what is closer to his heart – Lillie or his ship.
“Where is she?” Jack’s control broke. He interrupted Hollis’s taunting speech by pressing a pistol to his neck. “Enough. Bring the girl to me.” He pushed the pistol harder into the Hollis’s jugular vein. “If one hair on her head is harmed, you will regret the day you were born.”
“She should be outside about now trying to escape from the courtyard,” Hollis said, with another hard laugh. The object of Jack’s ire tried to inch his body out of harm’s way and gestured toward a window. “She certainly is a feisty little thing. However, it does appear as though I’ve had more luck than you in hanging on to her.”
Jack loosened the tension on the firing pin just long enough to confirm she was safe. Lillie seemed oblivious to the drama inside the drawing room. She inched her way around the perimeter of the walled courtyard, searching for a way out.
He held his breath and stared while she gathered the sheet up to her knees, exposing a length of curved, bare leg. She ran one of her hands over the courtyard walls and searched for chinks in the surface, no doubt looking for a way to escape.
Without warning, he drew back the pistol and cracked it alongside Hollis’s head. His enemy fell to the floor before the pirate’s men could react. Jack handed the pistol to Edward and burst through the entry into the courtyard.
When Jack came up behind her and placed his hand on her shoulder, Lillie whirled and went for his groin with her knee.
Thank God for long arms to hold the spitfire at length. She continued to fight and flail away at him for a bit and then finally quieted. He gathered her into his arms and adjusted the sheet to cover her. How often had he taken this unmanageable woman into his arms? He couldn’t recall a time when he didn’t know what she felt like with her head against his shoulder, the weight of her warm body resting in his arms.
“Jack?” Lillie asked, as she nestled against his chest.
“Yes?”
“We can’t go without my clothes. Make him return my clothes.”
Twenty years as a journalist couldn't stifle the yarns. Yacht delivery up and down the Caribbean only increased the flow. Now those tales celebrate romance on the high seas.
I am a professional captain living in the Rocky Mountains, just about 15 minutes from the Continental Divide. I spent the last 12 summers teaching sailing on awesome Lake Dillon at 9,017 feet in Summit County, Colorado. I also captained tours for my business, Sails in the Sunset.
