True Heart by Arnette Lamb Page B

lead, but that had always been so. He traced her feminine curves and wondered why she bothered with a corset. Picturing her without it, with no clothing, sent his passion higher.
    â€œLet her go, Cameron.”
    Agnes’s voice sliced the silence, and Cameron tensed. He wanted to nestle Virginia beside him in his bunk as a prelude to making love to her.
    He broke the kiss but held Virginia near. “Be gone, Agnes.”
    â€œNay. May I remind you that now is not the time to dust off your betrothal to my sister. She doesn’t know you, and you cannot take advantage of that. Other matters must first be settled or dissolved. Isn’t that so? You haven’t forgotten those other matters?”
    She was speaking of his longtime affair with Adrienne Cholomondeley. “The only thing I’m certain of is that I’d like to strangle you.”
    â€œI’m surprised you would risk that with Virginia looking on.”
    Damn Agnes for being right. “For Virginia, I will risk much.”
    â€œWait for Papa.”
    â€œWait for what?” Virginia asked.
    â€œFor ravishing of any kind.”
    Virginia gasped, and Cameron cursed. “Ravishment is not foremost in my mind,” he said to Agnes.
    â€œNo?”
    â€œNo. I think Virginia will steal my heart before she ravishes me.”
    Virginia laughed. “May I sleep on the ship tonight?”
    â€œVirginia!”
    Holding tightly to him, she faced her sister. “I’m sorry. I meant, may I stay here alone in one of the cabins. I’m not a woman of loose morals, I swear I’m not. But I don’t recall ever sleeping anywhere except Poplar Knoll. Maybe being here will help me remember the past.”
    Several scented letters from Adrienne and a miniature were among the papers in his cabin. He couldn’t let Virginia find it. “I’ll settle her in MacAdoo’s cabin.”
    Agnes stood her ground. “I’ll settle myself in yours.”
    â€œOh, I couldn’t inconvenience either of you.”
    Agnes laughed, but Cameron knew the humor was feigned. “Truth to tell,” she said, “the bed in my room is too soft. I’ve spent weeks aboard this bucket. Now that I’ve had a bath, I rather miss this ship.”
    Cameron gave up the argument. Kissing Virginia had stirred a mighty need in him. He knew he couldn’t sleep. So he excused himself and walked to the gardens.
    A stranger slipped from the shadows.
    â€œWho are you?” Cameron demanded.
    â€œRafferty, my lord. Best cooper in the tidewater.”
    â€œWhat do you want?”
    â€œOnly to tell you that I was here the day they brought her up river. No taller’n my shoulder she was.”
    â€œShe?”
    He tipped his head toward the ship. “The one you came for. For a price I’ll tell you things she don’t want you to know.”

Chapter
6

    Virginia remembered everything. No fall from a horse had stolen her past.
    Cameron paused on the stairs, his mind still reeling from what he’d learned from Rafferty, the cooper, the night before. Until Quinten Brown had delivered the news that Cameron was on his way to America, Virginia had lived in the slave hamlet. Until Cameron had set foot on this wretched land, she had worked in the fields.
    The design on the cask had been a plea, not a silent signal, but a calculated risk and a cry for help. His legs suddenly weak, Cameron sat down and leaned against the banister. Unless the cooper had lied. According to Rafferty, the then ten-year-old Virginia had told them who she was. Moreland, the prior owner, hadn’t believed her. With the entire population of Poplar Knoll looking on, he had laughed and cruelly named her Duchess. Duchess, a mockery of her heritage. The painting in the salon was her work.
    What had driven her to lie? Cameron didn’t know, couldn’t think of a logical reason for the deception. She disavowed all knowledge of her heritage and