Page 5 of A Stroke of Luck (Intrepid Heroines #4)

“Out of necessity.” Zara deftly removed the remains of the first rabbit from the spit and slid the second one in place over the coals. Setting what was left of the cooked meat on a flat stone, she fell to dividing it up into equal portions.

“You sure you won’t try some of this, sir?” The valet offered a share to Prestwick. “It is really quite tasty. And besides, who knows when the next opportunity for a meal will present itself.”

He crossed his arms and shook his head, prompting Zara to mutter, “Oh, don’t be an ass. Your man Stump is right—would you rather starve rather than put aside your precious propriety long enough to enjoy a simple repast?”

“I assure you, it would not be enjoyable,” replied Prestwick with a haughtiness that set her teeth on edge.

Did the pompous prig have any idea of how insufferably ungrateful he sounded? she wondered. Well, his stomach could go and turn cartwheels across the strand for all she cared.

“Kind of prissy, aren’t you?” observed Perry, as if he had read her own thoughts. “Haven’t you ever been on an adventure before?”

“Oh, and I suppose you have a goodly number of them under your belt?” retorted Prestwick.

“Aye, quite a few,” answered her brother, standing up with laudable aplomb to someone more than twice his height and age.

“My father was a great one for exploring, even if it meant eating meals without the proper utensils. We once had a picnic on the top of Mount Parnassus, and then there was the time we cooked squid on a beach on Delphi.”

“Oh, I remember that,” mused Nonny. “We had been chased by Corsican pirates from the harbor at Mykonos, and it took some tricky maneuvering between the islands to lose them.”

An animated recounting of some of their more harrowing travel experiences followed, along with fond remembrances of the more peaceful moments.

“Papa and his adventures.” A smile ghosted over Zara’s lips at the mention of camping out in an ancient temple on Delphi. “It was never dull, was it? And despite the dangers and discomforts, many of them were quite fun.”

“Fun? Only a complete Bedlamite would consider being cast up upon these ghastly rocks fun,” snapped Prestwick.

“And only a complete Bedlamite would think that I am enjoying the present predicament,” she shot back.

“However, when you are tossed into deep water, sometimes the only way to keep your head above the churning waves is to maintain a sense of humor. I must be able to laugh, for the alternative is simply not an option. Not if I wish to survive.”

“I see.” His tone had a stiff formality that only provoked her to greater indignation.

“No, I doubt that you do. I doubt you have ever had to cope with a problem more distressing than saltwater stains on your fancy Hessians.” It was not a smile playing on her lips, but rather a quivering she was finding difficult to control.

“Contrary to your supercilious sarcasm, sir, we did not embark on this journey as a lark. My parents perished in an epidemic of typhus that swept through Crete, leaving the three of us high and dry on distant shores. For the last six months, I have spent a goodly amount of effort and every last farthing in seeing to it that my brothers and I arrived safely back to England. Only to find that our relatives are trying to cheat us out of?—”

Zara bit off her words in mid sentence, angry that she had allowed his snide comment to goad her into revealing such personal details. “Not that it is any of your concern.”

He had the grace to color under the heat of her retort.

“Do you mean to say, you sailed that small boat all the way from the depths of the Mediterranean?” asked Stump.

“Good Lord, no. We only, er, acquired it recently.”

At the rather halting explanation, the duke’s brow shot up in sardonic skepticism. “A rather odd choice of terms. Do you, perchance, mean to say you neglected to pay for it?”

“Zara earned every penny’s worth of that boat!” exclaimed Nonny hotly, his hands curling into tight fists. “And I’ll punch the deadlights out of any man who implies otherwise.”

The youngest Greeley was also quick to pipe up in defense of his sister. “That’s naught but the truth. The smarmy tavern keeper in Falmouth saw his patronage double for the month that she cooked for him, and then refused to pay her the wages that were due.”

“Aye. So Zara came up with the idea to take the boat instead,” explained Nonny. “It was a corking good plan, too. It gave us a means of transportation north, and once we reached Lytham, we planned to sell it in order to have the funds to travel inland to our final destination.”

Zara knew the prudent course of action was to quiet her siblings and leave it at that, yet the dratted man and his condescending attitude had stirred her to such indignation, she found it impossible to stay silent herself.

“So you see, while my personal travails may not be any of your concern, the loss of my boat is!” she snapped. “I have lost my last tangible asset, and all because of you!”

“Because of me ?” The duke looked rather stunned.

“It’s all your fault that we came to grief on the rocks!”

“It was my fault?”

“Stop sounding like a parrot!” she cried.

“Yes, your fault! If you had not been so jugbitten as to fall overboard, I would not have been forced to veer off course in order to pluck your pickled carcass out of the seas. If you had not been so rude as to swear, I would not have been distracted from the shoaling reefs. If you had not?—”

“Er, begging your pardon, Miss.” Stump cleared his throat.

“If you wish to ring a peal over someone’s head, it ought to be mine.

I was the clumsy fool who slipped over the gunwales.

Prestwick felt beholden to dive in after me, not on account of a surfeit of spirits but because of some misguided notion that my scarred old hide was worth the risk of his own neck. ”

Zara found it was her turn to blush. In the heat of her anger, it appeared she was guilty of misjudging the dratted man—at least on that account.

He might be arrogant and ill-mannered but if what his companion said was true, then underneath the foppish clothes and stiff speech he possessed a good deal more character than she had given him credit for.

Her accusations had been unfair, and much as it pained her to admit it, she owed him an apology.

“Forgive me,” she said through gritted teeth. “It seems I was wrong in assuming you were three sheets to the wind.”

In response to the rather ungracious admission, he inclined his head, a barely civil nod.

“But I was not wrong on the other accounts. You are at least partly to blame for us being stranded upon these shores.”

“And you, Miss Admiral of the Amazons?” The sarcasm had returned, and was fairly dripping from his words. “I trust you are also going to bear some responsibility for running us up on the rocks?—”

“That’s quite enough.” Stump punctuated his gruff order with a slap of his one remaining palm upon one of the rocks.

“Hell’s Bells, you should be ashamed of yourselves.

We have enough obstacles to overcome without the two of you brangling like children.

” After a quick glance at Perry and Nonny, who were following the heated exchange with great interest while polishing off the rest of the rabbit, he amended his analogy.

“Not that the present company of young people have exhibited any such behavior.”

Zara suddenly felt all the fight leak out of her.

She did not often give way to doubt, but like the smashed hull of her sailboat, her confidence had sunk to rock bottom.

Good Lord, had she made a terrible mistake in setting out on this voyage?

She had known that the elements were unpredictable, and that it would take a great deal of skill to navigate through all the dangers, but the risks had seemed worth it.

Now, she was not so sure.

However, it was too late to turn back. Ducking her head to hide the tears she felt welling up in her eyes, she began to stuff her few meager possession back into the small canvas sack.

“Oh, what does it matter whose fault it is?” The words, hardly more than a whisper, were meant more for herself than anyone else.

“What is done is done, and we shall just have to make the best of it.” Squaring her shoulders, she turned to her brothers.

“Finish your breakfast, and then let us pack up our bags and pick a direction to start walking.”

Nonny scrambled to his feet. “Don’t worry, Zara. We have been in far worse places than this and have always found our way clear.”

“That’s right,” piped up his brother. “Remember that inn in Genoa?—”

“Actually, I would rather not.” However their plucky attempts at keeping her spirits afloat did manage to buoy her sense of humor. She managed a wan smile. “That was an awfully close shave.”

“As I recall, you had to remove a bit more than just whiskers from the chin of that drunken Venetian merchant.” Nonny’s eyes narrowed as he cleaned off the blade of his knife. “You should have let me help you fend off the son of a?—”

“I only resort to violence when absolutely necessary.”

“You should not have to fight off such louts by yourself.” Assuming a twisted scowl, he set his hands on his hips and thrust his chest out. “Not when you have Perry and me to protect you.”

His adolescent limbs were still as gangly as those of a growing puppy, so the effect was not quite as menacing as he intended.

Still, she took great care to repress any quirk of amusement.

“And I could not wish for two more stalwart defenders,” she assured him.

But as she spoke, Zara could not help wondering what it might be like to have a man’s shoulder to lean on.

Such girlish fantasies were then ruthlessly shoved aside.

She had learned quickly over the course of her journey that it was not a shoulder that most men sought to offer a lone female.

“However, our main concern at present is not fending off a lecherous Lothario, but in finding some way out of these wilds. So let’s be off.”

Stump levered somewhat awkwardly from his seat on the sand. “Mind if we come along with you?”

Zara noted that his companion looked about to argue, then clamped his jaw shut.

“Oh, why not?” she answered with a wry grimace. “Like it or not, it looks as if we are stuck with each other for the time being.”