Rescued By The Viscount's Ring. Carol Arens

on deck and the entrance to the steerage dining room.

      It was slightly after daybreak but hard to recognise the dawn because of dark clouds pressing the sea.

      Walking towards the Captain’s office, Rees swore the grey sky leached into the ocean, made them look like one dreary expanse where there was no visible horizon.

      He rapped smartly on the door, hoping the man was alone. It would not be easy to explain why a fellow from the fire room had left the furnaces to visit the ship’s Captain.

      The door opened, letting out a whoosh of welcome heat and the scent of rich, dark coffee.

      ‘Good day, my lord.’ Captain Collier stood to one side by way of inviting him in. ‘Is something amiss? You look rather stormy.’

      And why would he not look stormy? A man of his employ had left a helpless woman to the elements!

      ‘I am rather—more than rather.’

      ‘You’ve heard of the empty vessel, I assume. I only just discovered it myself.’

      ‘What vessel?’

      The Captain indicated an empty chair with a nod of his head while pouring another cup of coffee, then handing it to Rees.

      ‘One of the men you hired to keep a lookout found an empty flask near the fire room. He asked around about it, but no one admitted knowing anything about it.’

      ‘They would not, I imagine.’ Rees stood up. The delicious bitterness of the coffee turned suddenly sour and he set the mug on the table. ‘Perhaps in the past drinking while on duty was overlooked. It will not be now.’

      ‘It might not have been a crew member. A passenger, perhaps, who wandered below decks so as not to be seen imbibing? I suggest we find the woman who tried to sneak on board.’ Collier pursed his mouth so tightly that his heavy grey moustache covered his bottom lip. ‘A stowaway is always the first we must suspect.’

      ‘The one you abandoned to fend for herself with an Atlantic storm brewing?’

      ‘Abandoned?’ Collier also rose. ‘I hardly did that. As pretty as she is, I imagine she found a place to sleep.’

      ‘She did, in fact—with me.’

      ‘I see. Well, you can trust that your private affair will not spread beyond this room. Just beware, my lord, a pretty face is the last to be suspected of wrongdoing.’

      Heat pulsed in Rees’s chest, rolled in an angry flush up his neck.

      ‘I find it odd that she sought you out,’ Collier continued, tugging at his ear and apparently unaware of Rees’s ire. ‘I would venture that she knows who you are and—’

      ‘She did not seek me. I found her near death from exposure in a lifeboat.’ Rees clenched his fists behind his back. The last thing he needed to do was pummel the only Captain he had to man this ship.

      At this, the Captain did have the good grace to look stunned.

      ‘I—I thought...’ The Captain sat down on his chair with a thud. ‘Why would she think that was a proper place?’

      ‘Why did you not find her one, Captain? As a soul aboard this ship she was your responsibility!’

      He gulped several times. ‘I hope—that is—did she survive?’

      ‘Her death will not be on your conscience. I cannot say the same for her future happiness.’

      ‘What do you mean?’

      ‘I mean that you will report to my cabin at nine o’clock this evening to officiate my marriage to her.’

      ‘But, Lord Glenbrook! The woman is a commoner. I cannot help but wonder if she has sought you out for your title. Perhaps it is the reason she stowed away.’

      He had assumed his Captain to be a smart fellow, but had he not heard a word of this conversation?

      ‘I hope you are more observant than it appears, Captain. Did you not notice earlier that the woman was being pursued by a man before she boarded? That even with that she gave away her ticket to someone else?’

      The Captain stared dumbly at the wall past Rees’s shoulder, then the ceiling.

      ‘I’ll expect you promptly at nine.’

      Rees stepped outside, took a deep breath of cold salty air before heading down to the belly of the ship.

      What he ought to do was go back to his cabin, inform the lady of her destiny, but he still had a full day’s work in the boiler room.

      If someone was drinking on their shift they might be inattentive to what they were doing. An accident could happen—an explosion would cripple the ship, cripple it in the middle of the ocean.

      Perhaps he ought to turn about and go to his cabin. He did owe his future bride a warning of what was to come.

      But he also owed her, and everyone else, a safe ship to cross the Atlantic on.

      Besides, he doubted that the poor girl was recovered enough to accept the situation anyway.

      He also doubted she would regard their nuptials as the divine deliverance it seemed to him.

      Tonight would be soon enough to confront her with her future.