Bonds of Matrimony (3 page)

           
“Lady
Colchester,” he replied, “you remind me that I would be better off buying a
ticket for myself and escorting the three of you to America.”
 
He grinned at her and lifted her soft
hand to a sweet kiss.
 
“I will keep
an eye on them.
 
Rest assured.”

           
“Thank
you, James.
 
And may God bless
you,” Lady Colchester said sternly.
 
She patted his cheek in a perfectly maternal fashion and then turned to
board the ship.

           
James
shook Reese’s hand and frowned when her handshake proved to be too flimsy.
 
Immediately, she corrected her error
with a smile.
 

           
“Good
bye, James.
 
Write to us, won’t
you?” she asked sweetly.

           
“Of
course, sir,” he responded with another grin.

           
Chastity
was
the last
to say farewell.
 

“It’s
your bosom, Chase.
 
You will have a
difficult time passing as a young man unless we can somehow bind you,” her grandmother
pointed out.

           
Chastity
looked down at the full breasts she had been cursing for the past four years,
and cursed them one more time for good measure.
 
“Dammit,” she muttered.

           
“Chastity,”
her sister scolded.

           
“It’s
perfect,” James argued.
 
“In fact,
you must both feel free to use profanity liberally once you’re on board.”

           
“Of
course,” their grandmother agreed.
 
“It’s one of those things that men do when a lady isn’t present.
 
It’s important that Reese and Chase
both get used to hearing and using those words without blushing.”

           
Lady
Colchester ushered Reese out of the room, leaving James and Chase.
 
He had only nine days to turn her
sister and her from London ladies to convincing young men.
 
He looked back at Chase and studied her
from head to toe.
 
His gaze
lingered a moment too long on her breasts, and he hid his smile behind his hand
as he rubbed his face in mock frustration.

           
“Oh
bugger off, James,” she cursed.

James had always been like a
brother to Chastity, but never moreso than in the past two weeks.
 
It broke her heart to leave him.
 
And the thought of never seeing him
again brought threatening tears to her eyes.

           
“Don’t
you dare,” he scolded.

           
“Take
care of Artemis,” she choked.

           
“You
needn’t even ask,” he reminded her.
 
“I plan to purchase her from your father.
 
I happen to have an open stall for her in my own stables.”

           
“And
give your mother a kiss for me.”

           
He
smiled wryly and replied, “To a passerby,
Sir
,
that might sound a bit lewd.”

           
She
laughed sadly, already missing his jokes and humor.

           
“So
long, Chase.”

           
She
took the hand he offered her and returned his firm handshake.
 
“Take care of yourself, James.
 
And do write us soon.”

           
“I
hope the three of you can finally find some peace and happiness in
America.
 
Truly.
 
And who knows, maybe someday, we’ll
meet again.”

           
“I’d
like that.”

           
Having
said their good-byes, Chase cleared her throat, lifted her chin, and began the
ascent to the deck of the ship.

           
“Chase,”
he called after her.

           
She
stopped in mid-stride and turned to see him one last time.

           
“Remember
what I told you,” he warned ambiguously.

           
“Everything,”
she assured him.

           
“Especially
the part about Webb.”
 
It was something
that James would typically say with a playful grin, teasing her for last
night’s fascination with the attractive Texan.
 
Today, his eyebrows were drawn together, a telling sign of
the seriousness of his warning.
 

           
She
nodded at him, frowning a bit, and then followed her sister and grandmother to
the decks of the Mauretania.

***

           
Once
on board, the porter directed them to their cabins.
 
Chastity prepared herself for the worst as Reese opened the
door to the room they were going to share.
 
Instead, she was shocked to see the elaborate mahogany
woodwork and furniture.
 
The double
bed was covered in dark blue velvet that looked particularly inviting after her
late evening.

           
“It’s
gorgeous,” Reese gasped.

           
“It’s
not quite as awful as James led us to believe, is it?” Chase joked.
 

           
A
knock sounded on their door, and they let their grandmother in.
 

           
“It’s
worth the two-hundred pounds per ticket, isn’t it?” Lady Colchester asked with
a flush in her cheeks and a light in her eyes.
 

           
“Suddenly,
staying locked in my room for five days doesn’t sound awful,” Reese admitted
with a smile.
 

           
Her
final words were drowned out by the booming horn of the ship, signaling to its
final boarders.
 

           
“Should
we go out to the main deck and try to find James?
 
We could wave good-bye one last time,” Reese suggested.

           
“We’ll
never see him in that crowd,” Chase pointed out.
 
“I’m going to lie down for a bit and let everyone settle
in.
 
I could use a mid-morning nap
after last evening’s excursion.”

           
“Oh
yes.
 
How did it go?” her grandmother
asked.

           
Chase
thought of Colton Webb’s laughing brown eyes and beautiful blond mane.
 
She remembered his tan forearms resting
on the table and his big tanned hands holding his cards.
 
“It was quite a success,” she
commented, certainly thinking of her meeting with Colton Webb as much as she
was her successful impersonation.

           
“So,
what was it like?” Reese whispered, as though there were others around to hear
what they were discussing.

           
“Loud,
smoky, stinky.”
 
She paused and
grinned.
 
“It was strange and
exciting all at once.
 
James bought
me a beer.
 
We watched these ladies
singing and dancing on stage.
 
Then
I joined in a game of poker and won a few hands.
 
Then Webb offered me a cigar, which tasted surprisingly
sweet,” she added.
 
“But after I finished
my second pint, James thought it would be wise to take me back to the hotel.”

           
“You
drank beer and smoked a cigar?” Reese asked in amazement.

           
“Who’s
Webb?” her grandmother asked, never missing a tiny detail.

           
“He
was just a man,” Chastity told her, waving her hand to dismiss any concerns she
might have.
 
She didn’t dare admit
that he was the most appealing man she’d ever met.
 
And she most certainly didn’t plan to tell her that he was
on the same ship.
 
Lady Colchester
would watch her granddaughter like a hawk for the next six days if she even
suspected any attraction toward such a ruggedly appealing man.
 
Chastity feared her great adventure
would turn out to be no different than the rest of her life under her father’s
controlling thumb.
 
She recognized
that her grandmother was nothing like Father; but she would definitely be
concerned about her granddaughter showing any interest in any man, particularly
a raw Texan who seemed to have a talent for making women positively hum.

           
She
smiled to herself in memory of his stories from the evening before.
 
He had the most attractive drawl.
 
And the way his smile reached the
corners of his eyes, exuding confidence and comfort.
 
Oh yes.
 
It was
definitely not challenging to imagine his effect on women.
 
Chase didn’t have to imagine.
 
She had felt it herself.

           
Half
of the men she’d met during her first Season in London seemed nearly as prissy
as Reese.
 
The other half of them
were either scoundrels or repugnant.
 
Colton Webb, on the other hand, was the least prissy person she’d ever
had the pleasure of meeting.
 
And
he was the farthest thing from repugnant that one could be.
 
And as for the scoundrel bit, she
wasn’t convinced that he wasn’t a bit of a rogue, but it was so very appealing
on him.

           
For
the first time, she wondered how big Texas truly was.
 
She wondered if she would ever see Colton Webb again.
 
In spite of James’s warning, she most
certainly hoped so.

           
“How
many people are on this ship, Grandmother?” she asked suddenly, interrupting
something that Reese had been saying.

           
“I’m
not exactly certain.
 
I believe
there must be around 2,000 passengers.
 
But most of the passengers will be in second or third class.
 
We will probably not see them again
until we get to America.
 
Why do
you ask?”

           
Chase
shrugged nonchalantly.
 
“I was
simply curious.”

           
She
wondered if Colton Webb was in first class.
 
If he was, she would undoubtedly see him aboard.

***

           
That
evening, Reese and Chase dressed in their formal-wear for dinner.
 
Following the Porter’s directions, they
made their way to the elegant dining saloon.
 
Chase led her grandmother, escorted by Reese, down an
elaborate staircase into the golden room.
 
She paused near the bottom of the stairs to make note of the colorful
dresses of the women and the soft light cast by the crystal chandeliers.
 
Her attention was drawn to the dome
ceiling with unusual decorative symbols above the center of the room.

           
“Those
are the signs of the zodiac,” their grandmother informed them.

           
She
elbowed Reese to encourage a more manly show of appreciation, and Reese was
quick to close her pink mouth and descend the rest of the stairs.
 

           
They
made their way to an empty table in the middle of the room, all while Chase
scoured the faces for some glimpse of Colton Webb.
 
He was not currently present.

           
They
were joined for dinner by the Havisham sisters, two spinsters who had given up
on their lives in England in favor of joining their favorite nephew in
Boston.
 
The two of them carried
the conversation, while Reese and Chase gratefully focused on their dinner and
nodded occasionally in acknowledgment.
 

           
During
dessert, Chase was forced to apply a swift kick to Reese’s shins when she
closed her eyes in appreciation of the sweet cake.
 
She held the silver fork daintily, pinky finger extended,
while she paused to savor the sweet flavor.
 
Her eyes widened in surprise and perhaps pain, fork still
partially submerged in her pink mouth.
 
But she was admittedly well-behaved for the completion of the meal.
 

           
After
dinner, Chase felt as though she had eaten too much, and she was eager to
stretch her legs a bit.
 
Lady
Colchester and Reese had walked the deck as soon as they had left
Liverpool.
 
Chase had declined
their invitation so that she could make up the sleep that James had robbed her
of the night before.