Lucky's Lady (The Caversham Chronicles Book 4) (31 page)

"Would you gentlemen like to come with me?" She lifted her wide-brimmed straw hat from the rack by the door. "It's time to meet your ladies."

The next several hours proved to Lucky that his Mary knew her business well. He supposed he had understood this somewhat, back when he toured the
Ajax
and
Carolina
last summer. But
these
were his and Ian's boats. He wasn't sure if it was because these
were
their boats that he thought them more beautiful, better laid out, better appointed, with a finish unlike what he remembered on those other ships. Or was it because of
who
built them.

They arrived on the deck of the
Lady S,
and Lucky slid a hand along the ship's brightwork, the oiled finish as smooth as fine crystal. As he toured the
S,
as Mary called her, he was awestruck by the perfection and soundness of her creation. Everything from the jib boom to the aft rail, the mechanicals and riggings, the galley and cabins—it was everything they'd discussed and more. She'd had a vision and created the reality with the help of the men in her employ. He was amazed.

"Were you able to find a stove with an oven, as you'd mentioned last summer?" Lucky asked.

"No, I'm sorry. I even went into Baltimore and asked at a few foundries, to see how difficult it might be to design and produce them. No one, it seems, took me seriously," she said, sounding frustrated by the limitations due to her sex. "I've often said if I had been born a male, I would have had an easier time of it."

Lucky and Ian shared a sympathetic glance behind her back. But if Lucky was honest with himself, he'd admit to being thankful as well. Because if his Mary had been born a male, he knew without a doubt there would be an enormous hole in his heart. He didn't know exactly when he began to think of her as
his,
just that he had. Nor did he know when he knew she was
that
important to him, he just did.

They toured the
Lady S
around the finish crews working on the interior and the rigging crews hanging their lines, blocks and chains. Mary stopped to talk to one of the men and asked how soon he planned to have the sails brought on and hung. When the man said "hung and done" in two days, she gave Lucky and Ian a big grin.

"Captain, in two days, weather permitting, we shall take your Lady out into the Chesapeake as far as you'd like to really stretch her legs." Then she turned her amber eyes to Lucky and said, "Captain Gualtiero, about four days for your Lady."

"I can't wait, Mrs. Watkins." Ian walked toward the anchor deck to inspect something, leaving the two of them alone.

"Mrs. Watkins..." Lucky moved around the side of the galley where he saw no workers, intending to catch a moment alone with her. He wanted to kiss her since he saw her the night before, and he was going to take that kiss. Now. "Can you explain to me the placement of the longboats?"

"Yes, Captain." She followed him to the starboard side of the quarterdeck where they were hidden from view.

Once there, Lucky tugged her into his arms. She melted into him. She still fit against him as he remembered. He held her for a while, then threading his fingers through her braid, he lowered his head to meet her lips in a kiss of rediscovery. One that he'd envisioned every night for the past ten months.

His fingers itched to pull the hat off and let her auburn tresses fall, but to do that would blatantly announce their activity and humiliate Mary in front of her workmen. So instead, he slid them down from his hold on her head to roam over her back and bottom, bringing her in closer. He wanted her to know how desperately he needed her and wanted her. His lips parted and he tentatively touched hers with the tip of his tongue, coaxing them to part. Once they did and he tasted her sweetness, he became obsessed with taking more and more after that. Her trousers were baggy, yet the lightweight fabric skimmed over her curves so that with each step she took his male possessiveness rose up to lay claim on her.

She broke the kiss, gasping for breath as she buried her face in his chest. He held her close and whispered, "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to ravish you here."

Had he lost all reason? Just because he'd missed her wasn't reason to take such inappropriate liberties with her. There was nothing gentlemanly about his behavior. If he had any hopes of keeping her in his life in some capacity he must try harder to keep his ardor in check—especially when there was the chance they could be seen.

"I want..." Her eyes glistened with what he hoped was desire. "I want nothing more than to find a way to be alone with you. The entire time you were gone, I dreamed of being with you again, and of you holding me close, especially when..." She broke their gaze, pressing her face to his chest. "It is my memory of being nestled safe in your arms that strengthened me when I felt weak and unable to persevere, because I knew—" She paused and her voice choked. "My heart knew that you were missing me as much as I was missing you."

"You have no idea." God, he missed her. Not a single night went by that he didn't relive those two days he spent in her bed. And now that he knew she was of the same mind as he, Lucky knew he'd have to figure out a way, some way, that they might have a relationship. Because Mary-Michael Watkins was that special to him.

"Lucky?" Ian shouted.

Lucky groaned, disappointed at the interruption.

Mary stepped away from his embrace as Ian's footsteps grew louder. Lucky struggled to settle his stirring cock. It was a good thing that Ian had called for him. What if one of Mary's workers had happened upon them? What would he have done then?

"Here," Lucky called out.

When Ian rounded the corner, Mary turned her face away from them both, likely collecting herself.

"I put the two gigs on the davits back here, which is traditional American placement—one port, one starboard. Each is the same length as a lifeboat, but not as wide. And your two launches, being deeper and wider, are up out of the way on top of the galley on skids, which is your traditional British mounting. But you know that."

Ian lifted the tarp covering the gig and ran his hand over the notched railing for the oars. "She is truly beautiful and I cannot wait until we take her out."

"I'll make a note to order extra ballast for both vessels to set them deeper in the water while we test them," Mary said. "If she's shallow, she'll not handle as well as she would normally. Too shallow and it would be dangerous if we let out all her sails, which I would like to do. But then, you know that, too."

Lucky could tell Mary was nervous again, it showed in the way she chattered on about the things all sailors learn when they're children. While he felt badly for her, he also found it amusing, though he didn't want Ian to think he did this intentionally.

"We can start loading provisions, couldn't we?" Ian asked. "If all goes well on the test, perhaps we might sail home with them?"

"You certainly may," Mary replied. "I shall have one of my men help you with acquiring the provisions you want."

"Lucky and I hadn't planned on the ships being ready for two months yet," Ian said, "and we haven't enough crewmen to man the new ships yet. Since we were planning to do that after we made this visit, we were wondering if we might leave our two older girls here for some work," Ian asked, "and come back in six weeks or so for them? They could use re-coppering and painting. Plus, both need some interior carpentry work done in the cabins."

"Absolutely. I never turn work down, Captain. That would be taking food from the tables of my employees," Mary said. "But I'm thinking six weeks before we can even get to them. As you've seen, my dry dock is very busy. But once we get the crews on board, everything can be done in two to three weeks. Let's detail what you'd like done before you leave."

Mary led the way over to Lucky's boat. She walked between him and Ian as they discussed the work they'd need done to the two older vessels.

"Do you think we can have the old girls ready by mid-August?" Lucky asked Mary. "It would be good to have all four ships for this year's tea run." He looked at Ian. "Would that give us enough time to get home and ready?

"It'll be close but I think we can do it," Mary said. "Mr. Watkins always says, 'Preparation is everything in this business,' so if we can get a detailed list and get the supplies ordered as soon as possible, I don't see why we shouldn't be able to turn it around in just over two months' time."

They continued on their tour, this time on the
Lady M,
and Lucky watched and listened as Mary explained important details, and her reasons for doing things a certain way while she led them through the belly of the hulls. If anything was modified from what was considered the norm, she explained why she chose to do it her way rather than the way it had always been done before. When that was the case, it was usually something like a material that performed differently or that testing had proved another way preferable or less stressful to the vessel. As was the case with the composite masts and yards he'd already learned about.

Through the entire rest of the morning, his arms ached to hold her again and his lips burned from their earlier kisses. How could he get her alone for any length of time? He longed for a chance to revisit their passion. There was much to do that afternoon—stocking provisions and adding temporary ballast to the new ships. In the morning he needed to make a trip into Baltimore to find a downhill cargo, preferably cotton and tobacco as they were most in demand at home. It seemed that if Lucky wanted to spend time with Mary, they had to use the cover of night and his cabin.

He didn't want to leave again so soon. Lucky almost wished he hadn't promised Isabel he'd return for her ball, but he had. He loved his niece and would certainly not want to miss her debut. Still, he was already mentally planning his return for immediately afterward to bring the older boats back home.

Then it struck him. Was this what it was like to be in love? That inexplicable desire to never be apart? The longing to be with the other person at all times? He'd seen Lia and Ren and Ian and Sarah, and even Sarah's older sister Elise with her husband Michael—they were always happiest in each other's company. They rarely wished to be apart.

He was happiest when in the company of Mary-Michael Watkins. Even early on when all they did was bicker, he wanted to be in her presence and bicker with her, not with anyone else. Though, he must say he was glad to be past that stage. Now he hated being apart from her and couldn't foresee that ever changing. Unfortunately, she was still married to Spenser Watkins.

God, it was all so complicated. He wanted a woman who already belonged to another, both legally and in the eyes of the church. Deep down, a part of him felt he deserved this heartbreak for being in love with a married woman. A woman he wanted for his own but could not have until—he hated himself for even thinking it—until her husband died. The whole sordid affair almost made him wish he'd never met her.

 

M
ary-Michael had been a nervous puddle of muck when she, Lucky and Ian had started their tour of their two new clippers. She'd forced herself to find the strength to manage, and thought she was doing admirably. Then he'd kissed her, and... Oh, heaven! Even now, their kiss still had her a quivering mess inside. She longed to take Lucky down into the captain's quarters, lock the door and take him in her arms to do what she knew they both desired.

When Lucky had held her for that short moment above deck, heat had pooled like desire between her legs and her heart pounded in her chest making her feel the same way she had all those months ago. That desire was not going to just go away. She wanted to feel him inside her again, moving deeply, bringing them both to the pinnacle of ecstasy.

Hours later in her husband's office, as she and Robert the accountant worked on calculating payroll, the hairs on the back of her neck suddenly stood on end. She sensed Lucky's presence well before she saw him. The door was always open for propriety's sake and Andrew worked at his desk in the outer office on a specification for the retrofitting of a barquentine in dry dock. The object of her affliction strode down the hallway and though she heard footsteps, she didn't see him until he knocked at the door.

"May I have a moment?" Lucky asked.

She straightened and nodded at Robert, asking him to give her and the captain a minute in private. "I'll only be a minute."

"Thank you, sir," Lucky said as Robert left the room.

Lucky closed the door and led Mary-Michael into the corner, where no one from outside looking in the windows, nor anyone looking through the frosted glass pane in the door could see them. She felt that same quivery sensation low in her belly again, and she ached to feel him inside her. "Mary, I know this is not the time, nor the place, but I cannot wait a moment longer," he said as he closed the distance between them. "You are always working, and always in the open with several people around you."

"It is how I maintain respectability." She struggled to steady her breathing. She worried about what the men on the other side of the door would think. Or worse, what they'd say about her. "That closed door will cause gossip. It could get blown completely out of proportion. I could lose their respect."

"Then I will only take a moment for this," he whispered. His breath near her ear caused the baby fine wisps to tickle her cheek. He'd backed her into the wall and set a forearm either side of her head, his mouth mere inches from hers. His lips brushed across her temple. She exhaled, and with it all her reservation left her. Raising her face to his, she met his lips and kissed him, giving him everything she could at the time.

Mary-Michael returned his desperate demand for more of her. Opening her mouth, she welcomed his invading tongue with a passion she had only for him. Only for Lucky. She met his need, measure for measure. When she raised her hands to his face, he slowed his ardor. Hopefully she had assured him now this feeling was not his alone.