The Damsel's Defiance. Meriel Fuller

in her haste.

      ‘I have no need of you ever again,’ Emmeline bit out, anger beginning to take precedence over the embarrassment of her nakedness. He couldn’t see very much from where he stood, of that she was certain. ‘You have caused enough trouble already. How dare you interfere with my plans?’

      ‘I was just trying to save the Empress some money,’ he replied. ‘You drive a hard bargain, mistress.’

      ‘I normally do.’ She whipped her head around, eyes sparking with anger. ‘At least I do when my plans aren’t scuppered by some infernal man!’

      Talvas grinned, the corners of his mouth turning up to make his face seem much younger than his years. ‘So glad that you hold such a high opinion of me,’ he countered. ‘But with thirty gold coins the Empress could have raised a whole fleet of ships to cross the Channel.’ His tone sounded laconic, amused.

      ‘She would have paid it—’ Emmeline seethed ‘—if you hadn’t interfered.’

      ‘Does it really mean that much to you?’ The green depths of his eyes drilled into her. ‘The money, I mean.’

      Incredulity washed over her face. ‘Are you completely mad? Of course it does! How else do you think my mother and I have enough to live on?’ She tore her gaze from him and studied the surface of the water, water that was rapidly losing its heat. Jiggling her legs, the ripples pooling away from her knees and lapping the wooden sides, she tried to warm up. ‘Now get out.’

      Talvas smiled. ‘When I’m good and ready.’

      Emmeline drew her knees up to her chest, looping her hands around them. She would rather freeze to death than give him the satisfaction of watching her climb from the bath. ‘Why did you offer to captain the ship?’

      ‘To annoy you.’

      She ignored him. ‘Surely you planned to travel to Boulogne?’

      ‘It matters not to me whether I stay here or return to England.’ Talvas shrugged his powerful shoulders. ‘I have castles and lands in both.’

      ‘And you condemn me for trying to squeeze an extra ten gold coins from the Empress!’ she flung back at him, green eyes blazing. He obviously had no idea what it was like to live from hand to mouth, to worry each day where the next meal was coming from. She shook her head. ‘Why not choose to stay here? I will find another captain.’

      ‘So desperate to be rid of me, mam’selle? Nay, I will travel to England.’ The tempting upper curve of her breast snared his gaze, just visible after she turned her head.

      ‘Unluckily for me.’ Her fingers scrabbled for the towel that Beatrice held out to her, wrapping it around her shoulders and rising in one movement so that the towel’s soft folds covered her nakedness.

      Talvas’s breath caught. Her hair, darkened by the water, straggled out in ripples over the rough gathers of the towel, falling to her hips from the pale shimmer of her face. ‘What’s the matter, mam’selle?’ His voice spiralled sarcastically into her ear. ‘Suddenly regretting your generosity to the Empress now that I’ll be at the helm?’

      ‘It wasn’t supposed to be generosity,’ she spat back. ‘She was supposed to pay well for the privilege.’