‘May I join you? I find myself at leisure for an hour or two. With these light airs we will be tacking back and forth for a tiresome while longer, I fear.’
‘Please.’ The ship’s carpenter had rigged them up a table and an awning as well as fetching up chairs and the hammock.
Nathan dropped into one of the low chairs and stretched out his legs. He had shed his uniform coat for a light linen on
e and he had a wide-brimmed hat like the planters wore on his head. ‘My back is very much better this morning, Miss Ravenhurst.’ Clemence saw Eliza’s sharp gaze focus on their faces.
‘My suggestion that an oil massage would help proved successful?’ she enquired as though her own hands had been nowhere near either back or oil.
‘Miraculous,’ Nathan said, his lids lowered so she could not see what was going on in those blue eyes. ‘Extremely therapeutic. In fact, I can safely say I have never felt anything like it.’
‘Will it be necessary to repeat it?’ she asked, attempting to sound nonchalant.
‘It would perhaps not be wise.’ And then he did look fully at her and the heat blazed like firelight behind sapphires and the breath caught in her throat.
‘Eliza, I think this would be a good time to give One-Eye some exercise,’ Clemence announced.
‘Yes, Miss Clemence,’ Eliza said primly, folding her work and getting up. ‘Come on, lazy hound, let’s see what Street’s got in the galley for you.’ As she passed behind Nathan she caught Clemence’s eye and pursed her lips in an exaggerated kiss.
‘Clemence? What has occurred to put you to the blush?’
‘Eliza, drat the woman,’ she confessed. ‘She reads more into what I did last night than…’
‘I read only kindness,’ Nathan said softly. ‘And, considering recent events between us, considerable powers of forgiveness and trust.’
‘If we are speaking of forgiveness, I can still not forget how you came to be injured in the first place,’ Clemence protested. ‘And as for you refusing to marry me, I suppose I can accept that your scruples are honourable, although I find them misguided. If I had known about your wife, how you feel about her still, then of course, I would have refused immediately.’
‘How I feel?’ he queried, frowning at her.
‘You told me you loved her. And there was such emotion on your face when you spoke of her. You fought a duel over her, put your career at hazard to defend her honour—you do not need to explain any more, and I should not be intruding into those feelings in any case. I would not want to be a second wife under those circumstances, to know that my husband could not help but compare me to his first wife.’
After a moment he said, ‘You are right, my feelings for you are very different from what I now feel for Julietta.’ Clemence felt the cramping misery inside at the shadow that passed over his face as he spoke.
‘Well,’ she said with an attempt at lightness, ‘we may be friends again, may we not?’ There were weeks still to go, days to become accustomed to being with him and knowing that now she could never become any closer, figure any larger in his life.
‘Friends?’ Nathan reached out and lifted her hand, which lightly clasped the edge of the hammock. ‘Yes, we may be friends.’ The kiss he dropped on her fingertips was feather-light, but Clemence felt it as though it had caressed her lips. Then he picked up her book and grimaced at the open page and the moment had passed.
‘You are enjoying this?’
‘No, it is deadly dull, but Mr Jones gave it to me and I do not like to hurt his feelings. I thought I could read one sermon at least and then discuss it with him at dinner.’
‘The trials and tribulations of being a well brought-up young lady,’ Nathan teased, settling back in his chair and tipping his hat over his eyes.
‘I am sure my manners will fall far short of what is expected in English society,’ Clemence worried.
‘You will enchant them with your freshness. Anything that is different to prevailing manners in Jamaica you will quickly learn; besides, your relatives are sure to be in the country or at the seaside, so you will have plenty of time before you have to worry about the rigours of the Season.’
‘Will you go to sea again soon?’ she asked, endeavouring quite successfully not to sound wistful. Nathan must never guess how she truly felt about him.
‘I would hope to. I have no desire to languish on half-pay.’
‘No, indeed not. I imagine that must be most frustrating. And I suppose, too, that with the end of hostilities there must be fewer opportunities.’
‘Yes,’ he agreed, his mouth set, and she mentally kicked herself for tactlessness.
‘Papa wished to go into the navy. He was the youngest son, so that was quite acceptable. But then they found his eyesight was so very poor he was ineligible.’
‘Is that why he became a merchant and built his fleet?’