Page 34 of Echo in the Wind

“I do not think much would shock you, my lady.”

Joanna narrowed her eyes. “And why, Monsieur, would you say that?”

“Why, based solely upon my intuition.” Before she could answer, he offered his arm. “Come, let us dance.”

Seeing no alternative but to leave Tillie vulnerable to the too attractive comte, Joanna stifled the retort welling up inside her and placed her hand upon his arm.

He led her to the next room where a line of ladies faced a line of gentlemen in preparation for the next dance.

Angry that he had forced her into dancing with him and mystified as to why he should want to seek her out when it was Tillie he had been flirting with, Joanna thought to provoke him. “Is it true what they say about you, Monsieur?”

He adroitly stepped through the motions of the dance and, when next they came together, asked, “And what is it they say, my lady?” His midnight eyes twinkled with mirth as his warm hand took hers, sending a strange and not unpleasant sensation rippling though her.

“That you have been both a pirate and a privateer,” she flung the words at him in a voice low enough only he would hear.

“Ah, now that would be telling and I won’t do that. Instead, I shall leave you to wonder if there be any truth to such tales.”

“You would have fun at my expense, good sir?”

“Peut-être I would. You are quite beautiful when cross.”

“And for that compliment, I will say, you may be a pirate, but you dance like a nobleman.”

“A return compliment from the austere Lady Joanna? I shall savor it!”

Of a certain, he was having fun at her expense. With every move of the dance, he touched her and smiled. His masculine presence was not to be dismissed. His coat sleeve slid across her arm, making her heart speed. The room suddenly grew overwarm.

The image came to her of a panther clothed in velvet with the smile of a predator, leaving her to wonder if she hadn’t ventured into waters far beyond her depth.

At his insistence, she danced a second time with him. At the end of it, he bowed before her. “My lady, it has been a pleasure.”

“Monsieur Donet, before you go, tell me one thing.”

He stood proudly before her. “Oui?”

“Where exactly is Saintonge in France?’

“So curious, you are,” he said with a look of wonderment. “It is in the far west, south of Bretagne. That would be Brittany to you.”

“It must be beautiful there—and warm.” She meant it sincerely. With rare exception, London had been cold this spring.

“I assure you, it is most pleasant.”

“When do you return?”

“I leave tomorrow with the tide, but I am certain we will meet again.”

She did not think so, unless he came to England, but she would wish him well all the same. “Godspeed, Monsieur.”

Joanna chided herself for the sadness she felt as he strode away. She had never before encountered a more exciting man and yet, at times, for no good reason, he could infuriate her. All the same, there was something about him that inexorably drew her. But at least with his going, Tillie would be safe from his advances. Though, as she thought of it, he had not approached her sister all evening. Could she have been wrong about the object of his intentions?

Might that object be her?

Chapter 10

In his cabin, Jean looked up from the chart, feeling the ship surge against its moorings as it responded to the rising tide. Setting aside the chart, he headed for the weather deck.

A blast of cold wet wind hit him as he emerged from the aft hatch. Above him, dark clouds hovered over the Thames, the same gray color as the waters of the river.