Gentle Rogue by Johanna Lindsey

departing the next week. He hadn’t mentioned them sooner because he had figured she would discount them out-of-hand simply because they were English and crewed entirely by Englishmen, and escaping all things English was just as important to her right now as getting home was. And discount them is exactly what she did, and quite rudely, too. It was then that Mac hesitantly mentioned an alternative she hadn’t considered.
    “There be a ship sailing wi’ the morning tide. She willna take on passengers, but she’s needing a bo’s’n…and a cabin boy.”
    Georgina’s eyes widened with interest. “You mean work our way home?”
    “It was a thought, better’n spending half a year or more at sea wi’ a lass practicing impatience .”
    Georgina chuckled at the emphasis he put on that, accompanied with rolling eyes. It was the first thing she’d found amusing since she discovered Malcolm’s betrayal.
    “Maybe I’ll do less practicing once I’m on my way home. Oh, Mac, I think it’s a wonderful idea,” she said with sudden enthusiasm. “Is it an American ship? Is she big? Where’s she bound for?”
    “Slow down, lass, she’s no’ what ye think. She’s the Maiden Anne out of the West Indies, three-masted and spanking clean. A real beauty. But she has the look of a refitted warship still heavily armed, though she’s privately owned.”
    “A West Indies merchantman would need to be well armed if she frequents those pirate-infested waters. All of our Skylark ships that sail the Caribbean are, and yet they’re still occasionally attacked.”
    “True enough,” he agreed. “But the Maiden Anne isna a trader, at least no’ this voyage. She willna be carrying cargo, just ballast.”
    “A captain who can sail without making any profit whatsoever?” Georgina teased, knowing how that fact alone would annoy a man who had sailed thirty-five years on merchantmen. “He must be a pirate.”
    Mac snorted. “He’s a mon sails on his whims, going wherever the mood takes him, sae says his crew-mon.”
    “The captain’s the owner then, and rich enough to keep a ship just for pleasure?”
    “Sae it seems,” he said in disgust.
    Georgina grinned. “I know how that concept pains you, but it isn’t unique by any means. And what’s the difference if she’s carrying a cargo or not, as long as she gets us home?”
    “Aye, well, that’s another thing. It’s Jamaica she’s bound fer, no’ America.”
    “Jamaica?” Some of Georgina’s pleasure in finding a ship dimmed, but only for a moment. “But Skylark has offices in Jamaica. And isn’t it the third port on Thomas’s schedule? We could conceivably arrive there before he departs again, and if not, Skylark has other ships that put in to Jamaica frequently, including Boyd’s and Drew’s ships, not to mention my own.” She was grinning again. “At the most we’re talking only a few more weeks’ delay in getting home. That’s better than half a year, and certainly better than staying here another day.”

    “I dinna know, lass. The more I think on it, the more I’m thinking I shouldna have mentioned it.”
    “And the more I think on it, the more I like the idea. Come on, Mac, it’s the perfect solution.”
    “But ye’ll have tae work,” he reminded her. “Ye’ll have tae run the captain’s messages, bring his meals, clean his cabin, and whatever else he requires. Ye’ll be kept right busy.”
    “So?” she challenged. “Are you going to tell me you don’t think I’m capable of such simple tasks, when I’ve scrubbed decks, cleaned cannons, scraped hulls, climbed rigging—”
    “That were years ago, lass, afore ye started looking like the wee lady ye are now. Yer father and brothers indulged ye, letting ye climb all over their ships when in port, learning things ye had nae business learning. But this be working and living alongside men who dinna know ye, and who canna know ye. The job isna fer a lass, and it isna a lass ye can be if ye take