Page 56 of Miss Whittier Makes a List
“I am not the horseman for lovemaking in the saddle,”the captain said as he gathered the reins again and coaxed the horse back onto the road.“I merely had to assure you that was a silly question.”
“Was it?”shemurmured, half to herself, as the agony of unsettled love was replaced by a distinct chill that wentheartbefore she could wish it away. I wonder what will happen when Mr. Futtrell brings you news of another ship.
They arrived at Spark’s estate too late for a good look at it in the fading autumn light.“It’s always better by morning light, my love,”he whispered in her ear as he reined to a stop in front of the well-lighted house.“Earlymorning light, need I add?”
“Oh, please, not before eight bells,”she said, trying to keep her eyes open.
He laughed, handed her down, and dismounted with a groan.“I knowthisman’s natural state is a quarterdeck, and not the back of a quadruped,”he said, then picked her up and startedtoward the steps.“Here, Hannah, you knock on the door. My hands are full,”he said.
“Not until you put me down,”she said, then touched his cheek, closing her eyes when he kissed her palm and her wrist, where the pulse beat faster.“If I marry you, you can carry me over the threshold, but not now.”
“Spoilsport,”he said, and lowered her to her feet. He knocked and the door was opened by a handsome woman in cap and apron who held out her hands to them both.
“Captain,”she said, taking his hand and Hannah’s.“You’ve been too long away. This is Hannah Whittier?”she asked, her eyes on Hannah, her smile of welcome genuine.
“The very same. Hannah,may I introduce my housekeeper, Mrs. Paige? She raised me and I purloined her from the family estate, when I bought this place. Edmund is still smarting from that piece of impertinence, by the way, as the bailiff came with her.”
In a few minutes they were in the kitchen, eating almond cake with icing so gooey that Hannah could only roll her eyes and follow one bite with another one.
“My love, I think you can see why only a few of these bring me right back up to my precruise tonnage,”Spark said as he scooped up more icing with his finger, dodged Mrs. Paige’s slap, and stuck his finger in his mouth. He leaned back finally and patted his flat stomach.“NowI am home! Mrs. Paige, how do you do?”
“Excellently well, sir,”said the housekeeper, who sat next to Hannah with her hands folded in her lap.“Your mother is already in bed with a hot water bottle. She was sure you had been delayed by pirates or smugglers, so I gave her a sleeping draught.”
“Bless you, Mrs. Paige,”Daniel said fervently. He glanced at Hannah, who was hard put to keep her eyes open.“Lady Amber here doesn’t need a sleeping draught. Did you put her in thecornerroom?”
“As you wished, Captain,”said Mrs. Paige as she rose to her feetandpicked up a candle by the kitchen door.“I believe Mr. Paige has already put her trunk in there. Come, little one, let me show you upstairs.”
“I can do that,”said the captain, his eyes lively.
“No, sir! You can eat another piece of cake,”said Mrs. Paige firmly as she took hold of Hannah’sarm and helped her up.“Plenty of time for that later. Right my dear?”Hannah nodded and smiled at Spark.“No, remember, not too early.”
She was asleep almost as soon as Mrs. Paige helped her into her nightgown and pulled back the bedcovers. She sank into the feather bed with a sigh,burpedfrom the effects of almond cake at ten o’clock, murmured“Excuse me,”and closed her eyes. She thought she recalled someone coming into her room later to stand by the bed, and then brush her cheek with his own, but she couldn’t be sure. It may have been a dream. Heaven knew she was dreaming about Captain Spark more than she should, anyway. The impression that he needed a shave led her to believe it was not a nighttime fantasy, but she was too drugged with sleepto explore the matter beyond patting his face, murmuring something nonsensical that made him chuckle, and surrendering unconditionally to the mattress.
She woke to a world of sunlight and lay with her eyes closed, waiting for the sound ofbirds. But it was September now,and they had flown to South America, or at leastNew Orleans. But no, this wasEngland, notNantucket. The songbirds of an English summer would be inSpain, or over the Pillars of Hercules toNorth Africa. She opened her eyes then, wondering why she felt like she was home.
Without raising her head from the pillow, she stretched luxuriously and looked around the room, her eyes opening wider with delight. The curtains were simplest muslin and fluttered slightly in the breeze that came through the barely open window. The walls were pale blue, with no ornamentation beyond asampler with a Bible verse. Intrigued, she raised up on her elbow to admire the severe bureau, and smiled to herself. There was no mirror on the bureau, and the room smelled suspiciously of new paint.
“Daniel, what has thee been up to?”she murmured out loud, and threw back the bedcovers. Her bare feet trod plain boards to the window and she curled up in the window seat for her first view of the ocean. Tears sprung to her eyes. The view was a powerful reminder ofNantucket, with the sea, such a deep blue that her heart flopped, peeping like an afterthought through the trees in the distance. She glanced around the sparse room again, and her heart was full to bursting. I could almost be home, she thought.Oh, I do love you, Daniel Spark.
She closed the window and climbed back in bed, amazed that it was possible to feel so good with her stomach rumbling for breakfast and her eyes still foggyfrom sleep. She folded her hands gently across her stomach and stared at the ceiling.“HannahWhittier, thee is loved, truly thee is,”she whispered.
Someone knocked at the door. She knew it was toofirma knock for Mrs. Paige, and she gloried in that knowledge.“Oh, please come in. Captain Spark,”she said, sitting up and tucking thebedclothes demurely around her,even as she wondered if her hair was as unruly as she suspected.
He carried a tray with a teapot and two cups, and his eyes seemed even lighter againstthat paleblue background. He stood in the doorway,just looking at her until she put her hands to her hair.
“I know I am a fright, but thee needn’t stare so,”she said at last when he closed the door with his foot, his eyes still on her.
“Idiot,”he said, his voice unsteady as he put thetrayon the table by the bed, sat down beside her, and took her in his arms without another word. In a moment he was lying next to her, his hands in her hair, smoothing it back even as he kissed her over and over, each kiss more insistent than the one before.
She could scarcely formthoughts in her mind as she kissed him back, beyond wanting to pull back the covers and invite him under them with her. She heard his shoes hit the floor and knew he had the same idea, but the sudden sound on the bare boards brought her around. She pushed herself away from him, even as her whole body cried out for him to come closer.
“Please stop,”she said.
“I don’t want to.”
“Stop anyway.”she insisted.
“Damn,”he said, and his voice was wistful as he caressed that curse into a loving epithet“Time is so short, Hannah, I hate to waste it.”
