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voyage of some duration,” he blustered. “You will be away from your family. There will be hardships no doubt too great for you to bear.”
    But Miss Burke had more than enough brain. Her smile was all intelligent, resolute pity. “As I assured you in my letter when you first wrote me last May, I am well aware of, and indeed I hope properly prepared for, the hardships, Sir Richard. I assure you, sir, I have not got to my age and level of experience without understanding both the physical rigor, and the painful sacrifices involved in proving myself both capable and successful. This is not my first collecting expedition.”
    Dance almost admired her cool, intelligent persuasiveness. It was a balm to his cynical soul to watch her discompose Sir Richard so.
    “Yes, yes, be that as it may, although you feel properly prepared, we do not. We have not planned on a young woman amongst us. I assure you we do not want to be remembered for a scandal.” Here Sir Richard made a sweeping gesture to induce the three men at his back.
    Miss Burke spoke before any of them had time to concur. “If we are any good, we will be remembered for the quality of our science, sir, rather than any imaginary scandal.”
    “Well said, Miss Burke.” The tall, bespectacled younger naturalist at the back of the small pack met Miss Burke’s eye, and even touched the brim of his hat in polite greeting. “Miss Burke seems to know her business, Sir Richard.” His voice was calm, and his tone measured and mild, but Sir Richard reacted as if he had been reprimanded, turning instantly to the fellow with obvious deference. “I, for one, see no reason why she might not join us if she is so prepared, for she is very clearly conversant on her subject. And surely she is old enough to make up her own mind?”
    The moment the grave young man spoke, Dance felt the short hairs at the back of his neck bristle with hostility, much as they had with Ransome. Which was ridiculous. If this naturalist admired Miss Burke, as he so obviously did, and wanted to be her colleague, it was no business of Dance’s. He had more than enough trouble of his own without borrowing some from a lady scientist.
    He flung his undisciplined mind back into work. “Pass word for the carpenter. I want a report on those repairs to the bowsprit.”
    But his mind wasn’t on the bowsprit. It was on the dangerously intelligent Miss Burke. Because at the word of the bespectacled scholar, and with his own silent agreement, Tenacious was to be home to this tiny, resolute, pocket-sized spinster of a lady scientist for the next two years.
    And he, Lieutenant Charles Dance, was going to have to leave her alone.
    Damn him to hell. Because he could no more stop himself from admiring her than he could stop the captain from taking his drink. His palm instantly conjured up the feel of the taut curve of her body beneath the layers of dowdy woolen fabric. And it had not been one-sided—his fascination. He had not imagined her untutored response to his nearness. Nor the flare of awareness in her wide blue eyes.
    He would have to take steps to keep her well away from him.
    He turned to one of the men he had collected in Portsmouth—a ginger-haired, one-legged sailor he had known in his days aboard Audacious , and signed on to serve as a steward to the wardroom. “Punch, have Miss Burke’s dunnage stowed in my cabin.”
    At his command, all of Miss Burke’s considerable aplomb vanished—she looked as pale and shocked as a virgin at an orgy. “Sir! I shall most emphatically not be sharing any accommodation with you.”
    Dance did his level best not to let his normally wry sense of humor have its way. Nor did he allow himself to point out that she would be far better off with him than with anyone else, or with taking her chances with the crew.
    He made himself touch his hat to her in a respectful manner before he spoke. But even he could hear the cynical amusement in his voice. “Fear not, madam. I mean