When she reached his stateroom, Tamina found him pacing up and down, rubbing his wet hair with a towel.
His shirt was open at the neck and he had discarded his coat that was lying in a soggy heap on the floor.
Without thinking Tamina bent to pick it up to hang it over the back of a chair.
“Leave it!” snapped the Earl. “Joe can deal with it.”
Tamina bit her lip.
“Has Joe recovered, my Lord?”
“Yes, once I told him that his fiancée was safe, he relaxed and fell asleep. The doctor assures me he will regain all his abilities when he awakes, except for a bad headache.”
Tamina continued to straighten out the cabin.
There were so many books, clothes and papers scattered everywhere. The rolling of the great ship had caused havoc with the work lying on the Earl’s desk. Several pages were covered in ink where a particularly vicious roll had caused an inkwell to open and flood across the top.
“Miss Waites, I asked you to stop! I would like you to tell me what you know of this – this – deception. Were you in on the plan from the beginning?”
The Earl jammed his fists into his trouser pockets and then glared at Tamina. The thought that this girl had blatantly deceived him in such a fashion had disturbed him in ways he did not fully understand.
He would have wagered good money that she was not the type to do so, but perhaps he was wrong, he thought bitterly. Perhaps all women were capable of such deceptions.
He recalled the honeyed words of Lady Eunice when they had met only a few weeks ago.
How he had felt comforted by her sympathy for the loss of his family, how he had nearly given her his heart, been about to ask her to marry him, until he discovered she belonged to another man.
He still could not believe a lady of breeding and good family like Eunice had been able to take part in a deceit of such deep gravity.
He had lain awake, night after night, trying to work out why and how he had been taken in by her charms.
Now he struggled to keep his temper.
Was this Miss Waites just such a woman as well?
And why did it matter so much to him?
Tamina felt hot colour flood into her cheeks.
She had expected the Earl to be annoyed, but not this angry. She was only an employee after all and not a close friend.
And she hated to think that he could hold such a poor opinion of her.
“My Lord, I had hoped that you would know a little of my character by now. I would never have agreed to such a reckless plan or deceived you by plotting with Joe and Nancy. You have shown me nothing but kindness and courtesy. I could never repay you in such a way.”
He heard her words, but could not quell the feelings that coursed through him.
He could still picture that treacherous and slippery metal stairway that ran between the decks. The tossing of the ship could have thrown her off into the well that ran right to the lowest decks.
Miss Waites was so small and slight although he had to admit she was braver than any other female he had ever known.
Tamina explained swiftly when she had learned about Nancy and how she had planned to sort out the problem.
“So you still did not mean to tell me!”
She tossed her head.
“Not until we reached Madeira – no. There I thought the problem could be resolved. Joe would tell you about Nancy and with your help arrange for her to obtain work on the island, hopefully with a family who would give her a passage home with them at some point in the future.”
The Earl took a step towards her.
“And did you not stop to think for one second that you were putting yourself in great danger climbing up and down inside the ship? What would have happened if you had slipped and fallen?”
“My Lord, I am not some weak and feeble female who does not dare venture into a difficult situation if called to do so! I have two older brothers who would have scoffed and laughed at me if I had declined to investigate out of cowardice.”
The Earl frowned.
“Miss Waites, you must promise me that you will never do such a thing again!”
“My Lord, although you are my employer, I cannot possibly make such a promise!”
The Earl took another step forward and grasped her shoulders.
How dare she be so flippant? Did her life mean so little to her?
He stared down into her flushed face, his gaze fixed on the beautiful lips so close to his.
He felt an overwhelming desire to kiss her.
Tamina gasped.
The Earl’s fingers were tight on her shoulders and as she stared up into the handsome face, she had the strangest feeling that he was about to kiss her.
And she knew without a doubt that she would let him!
Then came a flash of uncertainty in the Earl’s eyes and he loosened his grip and turned away from her.
He busied himself tearing up the ink-soaked notes on his desk and throwing them in the waste-paper basket.
Suddenly he turned back to Tamina.
“You are quite right, of course, Miss Waites. But as I am your employer for the duration of this trip, perhaps we can agree that you will do as little as you possibly can to partake of activities that might hinder the completion of my book. If your madcap behaviour meant a stay in hospital, I might then have difficulty in finding another secretary in Madeira. And that would be – inconvenient.”
And with that he walked into his bedroom cabin and closed the door.
Tamina bit her lip and dug her nails hard into the palms of her hands.
The Earl had sounded irritable, almost bored. What had she been imagining?
Obviously she had been completely wrong about his desire to kiss her!
What a silly little fool she was to think that this marvellous man would take any interest in Miss Tabitha Waites, a lowly secretary, when he had all the eligible Society ladies of England willing to become his wife.
But, oh, how good it would feel to tell him exactly who she was.
She knew that her emotions had been stirred and captured by the Earl in a way she had never imagined could happen to her.
She longed to be in his company the whole time.
She listened for his voice, admired his talent for writing, his sense of honour and his dedication in taking over as head of the family when he had been so devastated by his brother’s tragic death.
Tamina had never met a man who interested her so much.
Even their sense of humour seemed the same. Little light jokes he had made during their time together had convinced her of that.
Now Tamina turned away and began to gather up the notes that had escaped the ink damage. She would go back to her cabin and write them up neatly. At least she could still be of some help to him.
She could hardly see, her eyes filling with stupid tears.
So this was what true love felt like?
She now shuddered. The feelings she had held for Edmund were nothing in comparison to those that were coursing through her now.
It was like comparing the flicker of a candle flame to the roaring of a great fire.
Once – and incredibly she realised it was only a few days ago – she had scrubbed her mouth to remove the memory of Edmund’s kiss.
Now, oh, how she would have welcomed the touch of the Earl’s lips on hers!
*
During the long night the storm abated.
Tamina hardly slept and at five in the morning she was sitting, staring out of her porthole as the dawn broke and she could see that the angry seas had vanished.
Washing and dressing quickly in a demure cream top and skirt, she stepped over Nancy’s still sleeping form, bundled up in travelling rugs on the floor.
She stopped for a second as she pulled a cloak with a silk hood over her outfit and stared down at the stowaway.
Nancy was really such a pretty young girl with wild corkscrews of flaming red cascading across the cushion under her
head.
In her sleep the worry lines had vanished from her face and the dreadful pallor had gone. There was a little pink in her cheeks now and she was half smiling.
Tamina wondered if she was dreaming of her fiancé, Joe.
As she left her cabin and made her way along the companionway towards the deck, she realised she felt a certain envy of young Nancy.
To love and know you are loved in return. Was there any greater gift in life, any greater joy?
Tamina knew her parents and brothers loved her, but that was not the same as knowing you had the affection and respect of a man you could call your soulmate. A man that stirred desire within that was reciprocated.
She realised now that what she had felt for Edmund had just been a young girl’s wish to be in love. It had nothing to do with falling in love at all.
On deck she discovered that the wind had dropped. The sky was a pale duck-egg blue and the air tasted like sweet white wine.
Even though it was still so early, there were several people already up and about, well wrapped up in rugs, sipping an early morning cup of coffee.
Tamina strolled along the deck, pleased to feel the light breeze on her skin. She took deep breaths of the glorious air and felt her spirits lift slightly.
She was by nature an optimistic girl and although she had no idea what was going to happen to her, she faced the new day with hope.
She had been leaning on the rail, gazing down at the dark green waters, delighted to see a shoal of dolphins keeping up with the great boat, when a voice came from behind her.
“I see the storm has passed, Miss Waites.”
She spun round to find the Earl standing behind her.
He was smiling and with a great feeling of relief, Tamina realised that his black mood of the night before had vanished with the new day.
“A new day and a new start, my Lord,” she said mischievously, her blue eyes sparkling up into his.
His lips twitched.
“Indeed. And – look – you can see the tip of the island of Madeira on the horizon!”
With a sigh of delight, Tamina followed his pointing finger and yes, there on the hard blue line that divided the ocean from the sky, was a speck of black.
“Will we reach port today?”
To her surprise, the Earl shook his head.
“No, I have been told by Captain Reid that we have suffered some minor damage to the propeller during the storm. We are under way, as you can see, but we won’t be making landfall until tomorrow morning.”
He laughed and leaning over the rail, pointed down to where the dolphins were diving and rolling under and through the wake of the Blue Diamond.
“Your slippery friends down there will reach the harbour before we do. We like to think we can better nature and God’s creatures, but they show us we are far frailer than we imagine – especially at sea!”
Tamina stared out towards the far horizon.
They had another whole day on board before all the formalities of land surrounded them.
There would be all the problems to sort out today regarding Nancy, but when that was done she knew she would spend her time with the Earl of Daventry.
And no matter what they did, she knew she would treasure every moment with him as if it was her last.
The Earl glanced down at the tiny person standing next to him, her bright blonde hair streaming in the wind.
The hood of her cloak had slipped back from her face and the long curls were fighting again to escape from their clips and pins.
It was strange but he had to admit that Miss Waites was not too accomplished when it came to dressing her hair in that severe style. Which was very odd considering she had to do it every day.
It was just one more part of the puzzle surrounding his secretary.
He stared out across the ocean at the first sighting of Madeira.
There would be another twenty-four hours before they reached the fascinating port of Funchal.
He realised he was looking forward to this day. He wanted to sit and watch Miss Waites’s face as they came closer and closer to the island.
There was an enjoyment of life in this bright young girl that he had never experienced in any of his more sophisticated friends.
“Breakfast, Miss Waites?” he enquired cheerfully and offered her his arm in a light-hearted cavalier fashion.
And with a laugh Tamina accepted. Tomorrow and all the problems it would bring could definitely wait.
CHAPTER EIGHT
The midday sun blazed down on the narrow hilly streets of Funchal, the capital of the beautiful island of Madeira.
The low white buildings dozed behind their blue shutters. The lanes and alleyways were deserted with only lazy bees bumbling around through the cascades of pink and purple bougainvillea and other brilliantly coloured flowers that dropped a profusion of petals like confetti onto the cobblestones below.
A lonely figure trudged uphill along one wide road in a fashionable area of the town.
Joe stopped for a moment in the shade of a tree that to his amazement was growing real lemons to wipe the sweat from his shining face with a big red handkerchief.
Under the floppy white hat the Earl had given him to wear, his blond hair was sticking to his forehead and irritating the scar that was just beginning to heal under its bandage.
He stared back down the dusty road – from this elevated position he could see the harbour spread out below him. The vessels clustered around the docks looked tiny, like a small child’s bath-time toys.
He could just make out the shape of the Blue Diamond where it sat snugly against the dock.
The sea looked very blue, flat and calm and it was hard to remember that, only a few days ago, it had been a maelstrom of towering waves and vicious icy spray.
He could not remember falling and hitting his head, only how kind the Earl and Miss Waites had been to him when he finally came round.
It had been such a relief to know that Nancy was well and being taken care of. He loved her so much and felt guilty that he had caused her so much grief.
‘What if she ’ad died down there in that ’orrid ’ole between the decks?’ he muttered to himself. ‘It would have been my fault for makin’ her run away with me.
‘My Lord was quite right – ’e said I should have spoken to ’im about it and he would have dealt with her Dad, that old devil Rider. He said Jacob would have told his brother and so I should have trusted ’im to do what was right for me and Nancy.’
The sun was burning his fair English skin.
Joe sighed.
He would have given a lot to sit in the shade for a few minutes, but he knew he did not have the time to relax.
The Earl had given him the afternoon off, but he was due back on board the Blue Diamond in the evening.
Joe now had to admit that the Earl had been very considerate. So many employers would have thrown him out without a reference.
When he had finally recovered his wits after hitting his head during the storm, Joe had discovered that they had docked at Funchal and Nancy was gone from the Blue Diamond!
This morning Miss Waites had given him a little note that Nancy had written before she left the ship.
“You are not to worry, Joe,” the Earl’s secretary had said, her voice soft and calming. “His Lordship has found Nancy a position with a family who are renting a villa in Madeira for the summer and they will be returning to England in October. She will be perfectly safe until you can meet up once more.”
“Thank you, miss! His Lordship gave me a long lecture about ’ow stupid we’d been and Nancy could have died without your ’elp. I’ll never be able to repay you.”
He liked Miss Waites, but the small golden-haired girl baffled him.
She was only an employee and about his age, but her air of authority and the way she spoke and carried herself told Joe that she came from a much higher social level.
Joe had seen the way the Earl looked at her, when Miss Waites w
as not aware.
He realised he felt sorry for the man who seemed to have so much in the way of power, position and wealth, because an alliance between the two of them would never work.
At least his love for Nancy was returned and one day they would be happy together.
Nancy’s note had said that he was not to worry about her, but Joe was determined to speak to the girl he loved so much before the Blue Diamond put to sea again.
‘I’m not goin’ to sail away to other foreign parts until I talk to my Nancy,’ he muttered now as he walked on until he reached a large villa, set well back from the road in its own shady grounds.
“Vil - la Mi - mo - sa,” he mumbled, reading the dark blue lettering on the white name tile sunk into one of the gate pillars.
‘That’s the place where the Earl told me ’e had found a position for Nancy. Well, it’s a fine lookin’ house and no mistake.’
Pushing open the ornate iron gates, he made his way up a long tree-shaded gravel drive round to the back of the house to where the kitchen door stood open.
And luck was on his side!
There was Nancy, her red hair tied up under a big white cap sitting on a chair in the sunshine shelling peas.
“Joe!”
Her pretty heart-shaped face lit up with delight and then she threw a scared glance over her shoulder.
“You shouldn’t be ’ere! There’ll be trouble if you’re found.”
“I wasn’t goin’ to sail away without makin’ sure you were all right, my sweetheart!”
Nancy put down the basin of peas and taking his hand hurried across the sun-baked courtyard to a small storeroom where piles of vegetables were stacked.
She picked up a shallow wicker basket and began to fill it with onions and tomatoes.
“Oh, Joe, it’s so lovely to see you, but I’ll get into fearful trouble if we’re caught!”
Joe reached out and took the basket from her grasp. He put it down, caught her hands in his and pulled her towards him for a kiss.
“Nancy! Oh, it’s so wonderful to see you. Are they treatin’ you right? The Earl told me they were a good family, but if you’re un’appy – ”
“No, no. I’m all right, Joe.”
She squeezed his fingers and gazed up into his serious blue eyes.
In Hiding Page 9