She opened her mouth to answer his question and the stateroom door opened.
"Mr. Drake. What are you doing here with Miss Thea alone? It's not at all proper."
Thea squeezed her eyes shut. "Melly, you are returned from your visit."
"Yes, and it looks like I've arrived just in time, too. What your sainted mother would say if she saw you right now, I cannot tell."
Drake stood and pulled Thea to her feet with the hand he kept locked firmly in his own. "She would undoubtedly wish us happy."
Thea's gasp of outrage was drowned out by her maid's exclamation of delight. "I knew you were a man of honor, sir. I told myself, Melly, Mr. Drake wouldn't come visiting and wreaking havoc with the young miss's reputation without he had courting on his mind."
This time Thea succeeded in removing her hand from Drake's. "Stop right now. Melly, I am not engaged to Mr. Drake."
"Of course you are. He said so, didn't he?"
"No, he didn't. He made a comment about my mother wishing us happy, which given the nature of the implication, she was not likely to have done." Thea glared at both Drake and Melly. "Mama did not believe that there was anything resembling bliss in the wedded state."
Melly snorted. "The poor thing had her own reasons for feeling as she did, but it's every mother's dream to see her daughter wed to the right gentleman."
"It wasn't my mother's dream and I cannot believe that you have deluded yourself into believing it was."
Melly looked undaunted. There were definite disadvantages to having a maid who was more family than servant. "Deluded I may be, but I'm that happy you're going to marry Mr. Drake. I am."
Thea very nearly gave in to the urge to scream. She crossed her arms over her chest and fixed both her maid and the irritating Drake with a look that said she meant to be listened to. "I am not going to marry Mr. Drake."
When Melly opened her mouth to speak, Thea put up her hand to forestall her. "I mean it. I will not marry."
Drake still looked entirely too pleased with himself to be convinced, but Melly's sullen expression said that she'd finally accepted Thea's statement.
She sat back down on her bunk. "There is a perfectly good reason why Mr. Drake is here."
They were close enough to port that Thea no longer saw the need for subterfuge. If she told Melly the truth, or at least the truth about the attack, her maid would cease hounding her about marrying Drake and the propriety of them being caught in a room together.
Drake watched the emotions flitting across Thea's face. After what had transpired between them in his stateroom, how could she deny that she belong
ed to him?
He put the thought aside for later because what he wanted now was the continuation of the explanation she had begun when her maid entered the stateroom. He sensed that he was going to get just that. So he waited.
Thea bit her lip, a sure sign she was thinking. It occurred to Drake that she might not tell the whole story to her maid. He bit back his frustration.
"The other night I couldn't sleep. So I decided to take a short walk on deck and explore the ship a little more."
Melly's eye's widened. "Don't tell me you went on deck alone at night. Why, it isn't decent. What would your sainted mother have said?"
Drake didn't have a clue, but he wished the woman, sainted or not, had not said quite so much on the subject of marriage to her daughter.
Thea waved her hand, dismissing Melly's comment. "The thing is…" She let her voice trail off, and then taking a deep breath, she plunged on. "When I was on deck, someone attacked me and tried to throw me overboard."
Melly's face turned ashen and she collapsed on to the side of her bed as if her knees had given way. "Someone tried to throw you overboard?" She glared at Drake. "How could you let something like this happen? A respectable woman should be safe walking the decks of your ship. I've a good mind to, to…"
She clearly didn't know what she had a good mind to do, and Drake had no intention of giving her time to figure it out. The maid acted more like a mother hen than a servant. "Your mistress had no business on deck alone, particularly at night."
"As if that had anything to do with it. Miss Thea has a mind of her own, and that's a fact. It's no excuse for some blackguard to come along and try to do her harm."
"I didn't mean to imply that it was."
Thea drew his attention with a long-drawn-out sigh. "Listen, you two. Arguing about it isn't going to solve anything. It is imperative that I have the chance to interrogate the villain before he jumps ship and disappears altogether."