Finally! Chapter One of The Maid and The Cook is live on Literotica in the Romance Category!
Remember where Hannah leaves Brigit in Chapter One of The Devil’s Luck? How’s about I refresh your memory:
The scowling captain looked back at Graves with a disgusted curl of his lip before returning his eyes to her. He eyed her again from top to bottom in a most unacceptable manner and, by the look on his face, appeared to make a decision. Looking about him for someone or something he did not immediately find, he caught her upper arm in a firm grip.
“Might I have a word with you, Madam?” he said in a gruff tone that did not sound like a request, “In private?”
Hannah looked with wide eyes from his hand on her arm and back to the man whose demeanor had become decidedly unpleasant in the span of mere moments. She decided then that she would have a word with this uncouth man, and the sort of word that needn’t be shared with an audience.
Pretending to ignore the fingers around her arm, she turned to her maid and mustered an unperturbed voice. “Brigit, if you’ll return to our room, please, to wait for our things? I’ll join you again as soon as I’ve spoken with the captain.”
“As you wish, Ma’am,” the woman moved to obey Hannah’s words, but her normally indifferent eyes now held a hint of concern that said she wasn’t sure whether speaking with the captain alone was such a good idea.
When her maid had disappeared again into the doorway from which they’d come, the man who still held her arm jerked Hannah’s attention back to the situation at hand.
Well that’s exactly where Brigit’s story picks up. Here’s a bit of the opener, to whet your appetite:
“Brigit, if you’ll return to our room, please, to wait for our things? I’ll join you again as soon as I’ve spoken with the captain.”
“As you wish, Ma’am.” She moved to obey Mrs Collingwood’s words, though her reluctance to return to the tiny cabin below decks likely showed on her pitted face. Brigit wasn’t sure whether the widow speaking with the captain alone was such a good idea.
The steps to the lower deck marched away under her feet again as she made her way back to the dark little room. She kept her eyes averted to avoid the considering glances she received from passing sailors as she went, but what she really hoped to avoid seeing was any more of that greasy surgeon.
She and her employer, the Widow Collingwood of Bristol, had been shown aboard by an oily lizard of a man claiming to be the surgeon aboard The Mourning Dove. Brigit had immediately disliked him, though he’d only said a handful of words in her presence, and she was quite relieved to see the back of him when he’d left her and the widow in their cabin.
The cabin, she thought, slipping back through its narrow door again, was close and dark, and made the backs of her hands itch just sitting in it. She’d never been on a journey by sea of this length, and the weak glow of an oil lamp fastened to the outer wall did nothing to reassure her that it would be a pleasant trip. Neither did the widow’s company.
Ready for it? Head on over to Literotica to read the rest! And if you have comments, please, I love them! Leave them here on the blog or in the comment section of Lit. I usually respond on Lit after every five comments. And I always respond to email feed back. 😉
Woohoo! I’m so excited! I started this story before The Fall of Rowland Graves, and had to put it on hold while I wrote that one under the Halloween Contest deadline. I’m so happy to share The Maid and The Cook with you now!
