Gentle Rogue by Johanna Lindsey Page B

turned on her side to face him, and was just short of glowering back at him.
    She did grind her teeth for a moment in frustration before insisting, “This isn’t necessary, Captain. I’m feeling much better.”
    “ I’ll determine when you’re better, lad,” he said arbitrarily, leaning back in his chair again now that she’d done as she was told. “You’re still as pale as that quilt under you, so you’ll stay put until I tell you otherwise.”
    Anger brought color to her cheeks, though shewasn’t aware of it. Look at him, sitting there like a pampered lord, and in fact he was, pampered that is, and probably a lord, too. More than likely he had never lifted a finger to do a single thing for himself in his entire life. If she ended up stuck on this ship for the next several weeks because of this unwanted concern he was forcing on her, she’d quickly become worn to a frazzle serving the likes of him, and hating every moment of it. The thought was unbearable. But short of outright defiance, which she wasn’t equipped to back up any more than a twelve-year-old boy would be, there was no way to leave the cabin just now.
    Accepting that conclusion, Georgina went back to the subject of where he intended her to sleep if she was still on the ship tonight. “I had assumed, Captain, that all available cabins were occupied.”
    “So they are. What’s your point, lad?”
    “I’m just wondering where that’s going to put me and my hammock, if I’m to be near enough to hear if you summon me in the night.”
    That got her a laugh. “Where the deuce d’you think it’s going to put you?”
    His amusement at her expense was as infuriating as his unwanted concern. “In the drafty hall,” she retorted. “Which I have to tell you doesn’t suit me at—”
    “Give over, youngun, before you have me in tears. What bloody nonsense. You’ll sleep right here, of course, just as my previous cabin boy did, and every one before him.”
    She’d been afraid that was what he had in mind. Fortunately, it wasn’t unheard of to her, which saved her from making a maidenly display of outrage thatwould have been quite inappropriate. She knew of several captains who shared their quarters with the youngest members of their crews, simply for the boys’ protection. Her brother Clinton was one, ever since a cabin boy of his had been set upon by three crewmen and seriously injured. She had never learned the particulars of what happened, only that Clinton had been furious enough to have the three attackers severely whipped.
    This captain, however, knew she had a brother on board who could see to her protection, so his insistence that she move in here with him was for his convenience, not any concern for her welfare. But she wasn’t going to argue about it—not that he’d listen to arguments after warning her against making any. It would simply be foolish to protest if this was an established policy of his, and apparently it was if his other cabin boys had shared the room with him.
    So she had only one question for him. “Right here where? ”
    He tilted his head to indicate the one empty corner in the room, the one to the right of the door. “That will suffice, I’m sure. There’s plenty of room for your sea chest and whatever else you’ve brought along with you. Supports are already in the walls for your hammock.”
    She saw the hooks he was talking about, spaced just wide enough to accommodate a hammock to cross the space of the corner. Strange, she didn’t remember seeing them yesterday when she’d been in the cabin. The corner was at least a long distance from the bed, but that was the best she could say for it, since there wasn’t a single piece of furniture between the twoareas high enough to give her even a modicum of privacy.
    The only thing on that side of the room was the screened-off tub in the other corner near the windows, and the low commode between the corner and the door. The dining table was more in the center