A steamboat was never quiet. The engines roared and banged and wheezed, the paddles sluiced, bells clanged and whistles hooted. People were always about and the hum of conversation, the shouted orders and the cries of the vendors on the levee, added to the cacophony. The silence in this room was like being submerged in a pool of still, green water on a summer day.
Only slowly did Chase come to realize that the woman he'd agreed to meet was already here. She was standing motionless, looking out the window at the far end of the room as if there were something of consuming importance was taking place in the street.
He stepped toward her, soaking up impressions. He noticed first that though she stood gracefully erect, she wasn't all that tall. She held her shoulders a bit too straight to complement the prevailing fashions, but her gown was well-cut and of a soft-gray color that reminded him of winter dawns. Her hair draped thick and golden-brown against her cheeks, then coiled back close to her nape, twisted like a honeybun.
He paused barely three feet away. "Miss Rossiter?"
Her back stiffened and she turned her head, glancing at him over her shoulder. In that moment, Chase took note of a stalk of satiny throat, the thumbprint of a dimple at the tip of her chin, and a delicate mouth, held far too tightly.
Then gradually she turned to face him—and he understood why her step-e had summoned him.
She was with child.
Chase should have expected it, but the realization thumped into him with force enough to make the breath huff in his throat.
She acknowledged his reaction with a sharp, brittle lift of her chin. Her pregnancy was the reason he'd been offered things he hadn't sought and probably didn't deserve. In exchange for the Andromeda, he was supposed to provide Ann Rossiter's bastard with a name.
Moon in the Water
The Women's West Series
Book Five
by
Elizabeth Grayson
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Moon in the Water
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Elizabeth Grayson has always loved stories of adventure and romance and began writing them in childhood. While she was teaching art at the St. Louis Art Museum, she published ten historical and two contemporary novels. Among them are books that have garnered awards from Waldenbooks and the RT Bookclub. Elizabeth's novels have also been finalists for the Willa Cather Literary Award and the Romance Writers of America's RITA. Elizabeth lives in the mid-west and is currently working on several new writing projects.
Contact her at: www.elizbethgrayson.com
Table of Contents
Cover
Acknowledgments
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Epilogue
A Note from the Publisher
Excerpt from MOON IN THE WATER (The Women's West, Book 5)
Meet the Author