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been Nick asking the question, she would have been loath to agree to such an intimate arrangement.  But Eric Quinlan was the most selfless, artless man she’d ever met.  She owed him so much.
    “I’m only sorry that you have to put up with me,” she answered, her chest warming from the inside.
    He broke into a smile.  “It’ll be my pleasure, ma’am.”  He offered her his arm.  “We’d better get up to the first-class boarding deck then.  Oh, and you might want to get into the habit of calling me Eric, seeing as we’re newlyweds and all.”  He followed his comment with a wink.
    Amelia took his arm.  It was a lifeboat in a storm.  “Thank you, Eric.”
    She would find a way to repay him.  After a gesture like this, she had to.
    They made their way through the crowded dock to the first-class gangplank.  The world of the higher decks was entirely different than the world below.  Amelia had felt out of place and over-dressed in her new linen traveling frock amongst the third-class passengers.  Ten minutes later, amongst the travelers on the higher decks, she felt as though she stuck out like a shabby sore thumb.  The women around her wore silks and lace with feathers in their hats like they were on display.  The gentlemen sized Eric like a rival who had been found wanting.  Eric didn’t seem to notice.
    “Boy I tell you,” he began, his drawl as pronounced as ever, “I sure will be happy to see the tail end of this place.  No offense meant.”  He corrected himself as soon as he made his statement.
    “No offense taken,” Amelia replied.  She was glad to be leaving herself, if she was honest.
    “Truth is, I don’t think I was made for this kind of fine and fancy life,” Eric went on.  “It’s too closed in and laced up.  There’s too many rules that I can’t seem to follow.”
    “I know the feeling,” she muttered in reply as they joined the queue for the gangplank.
    “I miss the freedom of the wind in my hair and a horse between my legs.”  He sighed.  “You just don’t get that same feeling around here.”
    “I know.  I used to ride in the country,” she told him.
    “Did you?”  His smile grew.
    She nodded.  “Growing up.  We had a country estate.  I used to go riding almost every day.  That was before my father’s unfortunate demise,” she finished and glanced down.
    “Oh.”  Eric scratched his head with an awkward wince.
    They moved forward in the queue.  A little boy behind her in a crisp sailor suit leaned over the railing to look at the dock below.
    “Ooo!  Look, mummy!” he said, pointing.
    “Christopher, stop!” his mother hissed.  She stepped out of line to yank him away from the railing.
    “But they’re loading-”
    “I don’t care what they’re doing.  They’re a bunch of filthy beggars!”
    Eric exchanged a glance with Amelia, raising his eyebrow.
    “But,” Christopher protested as he was dragged back in line.
    “Behave!” his mother demanded.
    Amelia felt the sting of those words as though they were directed to her.  She met young Christopher’s pout with a sympathetic smile.  Christopher smiled back, cheeks pink.  For the first time all day Amelia’s heart felt light.
    “You like kids, don’t you,” Eric asked as they stepped up to the porter taking tickets.
    Amelia relinquished her new ticket and the porter nodded for her to board.  She waited for Eric to stride up the gangway behind her before answering, “Yes, I do.”
    “I could tell.  And boy those Hamilton girls always looked at you like you was a princess or something.”
    Amelia’s heart twisted to her throat at the mention of her young charges.  How she would miss them!  Eric smiled and took her arm.  He escorted her the rest of the way up the gangplank to the ship.  She turned back to check on Christopher, to look at her homeland spreading, dingy and crowded, behind her.  One last step onto the ship’s first-class deck and she had effectively left her