The Untamable Rogue (21 page)

I
was standing
at the railing, looking into the blue sea. The waves fascinated me. This whole expanse of water around me was in constant movement. The wind blew a few strands of hair into my face that had come loose. I brushed them away and enjoyed the spray that was flying up and dampening my face like a fine mist.

Ivo stepped up to me and put his arms around my middle. I laid myself, sighing, against his chest and closed my eyes.

“You’re up early,” he murmured into my ear and breathed a kiss onto my neck that made me shudder.

“Hm.”

“The captain says that we will reach our destination within a week if the weather does not change course. Are you looking forward to it?”

“Yes. I’m very curious as to how it will be. Are there still wild people there?”

Ivo laughed.

“No wilder than me, I don’t think. No! That was only a joke. Well the captain says that there are still Indians but they’re on reservations and there are hardly any attacks any more. Everything’s peaceful where we’re going – the right place to bring little Emil into the world.”

I smiled and put my hand on the gentle curve of my belly. We had somehow begun to call our unborn child Emil, which did not mean that we were necessarily hoping for a boy – both of us just found it unpleasant calling the child
it
.

“Are you sad to be leaving your home and Blue Hall behind?”

I sighed.

“I can’t say that I’m completely unbothered by it. But as Blue Hall burnt down and my uncle so badly ruined the businesses, there wasn’t much left of my inheritance anyway. We only have Mr Porter to thank for the fact that we still got such a good price for everything.”

“Yes, he’s a good man. I think it’s great that he’s accompanying us to America with his family. I think that, together, we can create something with the money from the proceeds that will have a future. I’m imagining us having a whole pack of children and that means we’ll need a big house with a lot of rooms and maids and a whole army of servants. And then we need enough space to house our stud-farm.”

I laughed.

“You’ve got a lot of plans – a pack of children – am I going to be asked about that, too?”

We had brought my father’s stallion, Dorian with us after we had bid farewell to Ivo’s family. Together with the mare, Cloe and the foal, Gypsy, we had the foundation of our stud-farm on board with us. We had sold Ivo’s stallion as there would have been too much commotion with two stallions on board.

Ivo and Sergio had made up and Sergio had married Jelonka. They both seemed to be happy which Ivo and I were happy about – we had both had a bad conscience.

We also suspected who could have been the betrayer. One of the men from the camp had also disappeared at the same time as Ivo went in search of me. He must have had a connection with the knife grinder who had contact with my uncle. No one had seen the Sinti from the camp nor the knife grinder again. They had probably disappeared with the money.

“I’m just thinking of how much I fought against accepting that Grandmother Aneta was right. I knew everything that she predicted was always right. But I simply could not imagine ever trusting a woman again, let alone loving her.”

“And I was so terribly afraid of the feelings that you had ignited in me. But you were also really horrible to me. So rude!”

Ivo’s throaty laughter tickled my neck.

“Purely self-protection. I was just as afraid of you as you were of me. I had just had more experience than you at hiding my feelings. You were so wonderfully innocent. It was that, too, that fascinated me so much about you. You were not aware in the slightest of the effect that you were having on me. You never played on your charms. And yet you were so passionate and so …”

“Was?” I said in playful indignation.

“Still! You were and are still.”

“That’s better.”

“It’s still early. Perhaps we should go back to our berth and then you can prove to me how passionate you are,” he murmured huskily.

I turned around in his arms and pulled his head down to me to kiss him. After a while he pulled away from me and looked at me, his eyes gleaming. 

“Have I finally tamed you, my wild one?” I asked, teasing.

“You can’t completely tame a wild animal, but you’ve got me eating out of your hand.”

I
f you’d like to know who’s hiding behind the name Cathy McAllister, I’ll tell you a little about myself now.

I was born in the beautiful Harz Mountains (Germany). I grew up in a small town in the north, where all was still good with the world and where everyone knew one another. Even at primary school the library was my favourite place and I didn’t miss out a single book - on the contrary - I read some books up to twenty times!

At secondary school I began to write little stories and poems myself. I have always had far too much imagination. I produced my first book myself in 2005. Soon after that I found my first publisher and before long published several of my books with publishing companies such as C.Bertelsmann and Ullstein. However, that was under a different pseudonym.

At the beginning of 2009 I went to West Africa for nearly two years with my family. There, after a long break from writing, my thriller ‘Angst im Paradies’ was written. When we returned to Europe (the UK), at the end of 2010, I took the risk of trying to sell my books as an Indie author in the Amazon Kindle Store, and it took off very quickly. Since publishing my first short story, ‘Fessel mein Herz’, as a Kindle ebook, there have been a further eight German ebooks and two English translations (as of October 2012). There will soon been a further English title.

And a further plea:

It’s difficult for us Indie authors to market our books. If you’ve enjoyed a book, whether by me or one of my Indie colleagues, please do recommend it and write a review on Amazon, Goodreads or on your Blog.

With very best wishes

Cathy McAllister