Read Realm 06 - A Touch of Love for Free Online

lieutenant stood quickly. “Please forgive me, Ma’am. I have spoken out of turn.”
    Lucinda noted the remorse upon the man’s countenance. “I am not annoyed with you, Lieutenant,” she said dutifully, although she was embarrassed to admit how she had come to this moment.
    Worsley’s Adam’s apple worked hard. “I truly meant no disrespect, Mrs. Warren. England has changed much in the decade I was away. I am often at sixes and sevens it seems.”
    “As are we all,” she said compliantly.
    He shuffled his feet in place. “Would it be?” Tentativeness had returned. “Would it be acceptable for me to call upon you while I am in London?”
    Lucinda stood also. “Your offer is greatly appreciated, Lieutenant, but we should each find a means to return to English society. It would be wrong of us to seek comfort in each other.” Her words sounded foolish, but Mr. Worsley nodded his agreement.
    “You speak with reason, Mrs. Warren. The captain would have been proud to call you his wife,” he declared.
    Lucinda kept the scorn from her expression, but not totally from her tone. “I am certain Captain Warren rewarded his wife with his devotion,” she said enigmatically. She spoke the truth: Mr. Warren had devoted himself to his wife; the only exception was she was not that woman. She extended her hand to the lieutenant. “I wish you well, Mr. Worsley. Find your happiness and seize it tightly to you.”
    A look of confusion crossed the man’s countenance He accepted her hand and bent to kiss her glove. “I pray I know the happiness you did with Captain Warren, Ma’am.”
    Lucinda withdrew her fingers from the man’s grasp. As a squire’s son, Mr. Worsley would do well among the genteel sect. “I pray you know happiness beyond what you observed in my stead.”

    Carter frowned as he read the missive. Much had happened since he had seen his parents aboard
The Northern Star
. First, he had led an operation, which had confiscated a large supply of opium entering England: then he had set about dismantling the vessel to search for clues to the whereabouts of Murhad Jamot, a known enemy of the Realm. Gabriel Crowden had reported seeing Jamot aboard
The Sea Spray
when they had staged their take over, and although Carter had initially declared his disbelief in the marquis’s account, he knew the Marquis of Godown would never have said as such if it were not true.
    Thinking on the marquis’s report brought Carter a moment of regret, and he prayed he had not permanently damaged his relationship with Lord Godown. His actions had been a great mistake. Carter had fished Lady Godown from the water. The woman and the marquis’s elderly aunts had been taken captive; when the marquise had escaped, Godown’s wife had attempted an impossible swim for shore in the icy waters off England’s coast. As he carried Lady Godown to her husband’s waiting arms, an unusual loneliness had invaded Carter’s heart.
    He had lifted the marquise into his arms before light-footing his way from the small boat to the lower planking. “You do that very well, Sir Carter,” Lady Godown had murmured from where her head rested below his chin. “I imagine you are an excellent dancer.”
    The woman’s words had brought a smile to Carter’s lips. It had felt a lifetime since he had experienced the teasing tone of a handsome woman. He had admitted, if only to himself, to enjoying the warmth of Lady Godown’s breath against the base of his neck. At the time, he had wondered how it would feel to carry his own wife into his bedroom and to know the happiness the other of his unit had discovered. Without thinking, he had kissed the soft fuzz at the crown of Lady Godown’s head. “I will not fail you,” he had whispered hoarsely as he climbed the irregular steps leading to the main docks. “In truth, I will prove myself an excellent partner. Promise you will save me a dance at the first ball of the Season.” A gnawing longing had caught in his