The Calhoun Chronicles Bundle: The Charm School

“An idle question,” Maurício said. “Come now. We will cure that with some food and wine!”

The four of them went in to a supper of melon and shellfish, sherried mushrooms, a salad of fruit and greens, beefsteak and stewed vegetables and goiabada made of guavas and sugar. An array of wines and cordials accompanied each course.

“I have heard much of Boston,” Amalia said, sprinkling shredded manioc root on her husband’s salad. “Your native city is a great center of learning, yes?”

“Indeed it is,” Isadora replied. “People from Boston place a high premium on education.”

“And scholarship has always been important in your family?”

“Oh, yes. Though never quite so important as…” She caught herself, flushed and looked down at her plate. “As other things,” she finished vaguely.

Ryan had an idea that those “other things” had to do with being witty and entertaining at parties, snagging the proper husband and resembling a silver-gilt ornament on a rich man’s arm. He took a deep drink of wine, scowling into his goblet.

“How did you enjoy your sightseeing yesterday, senhorita?” Ferraro asked.

“I found it all quite stunning. Your city is so incredibly rich in things to see and do.”

“Then you must do it all,” Amalia insisted.

“I wish I could, but that would take a lifetime.” She glanced at Ryan. “We have only a short time here, isn’t that so, Captain?”

“Sadly, yes,” Ryan said.

“I wish I could spend longer,” Isadora said.

The Ferraros beamed. “That is Rio. Though your home might be elsewhere, Rio takes your heart, always.” They joined hands, and Ryan found the gesture oddly touching, for it was so open and unconscious.

What would it be like, he wondered, to have that? To have someone you could reach out and touch, knowing she’d always be there? To have someone who knew without asking how you liked your salad?

An old yearning tugged at him, a wish he’d had for many years. It was a simple wish, really. He wanted to share his life with someone the way the Ferraros shared theirs. In his travels, he’d seen wonders beyond imagining, he’d faced moments of danger and triumph, but it all added up to nothing because there was no one to tell about it, no one to listen to his hopes and fears and dreams.

Ryan set down his empty goblet. Damn. He’d had too much wine.

“You must miss the familiarity of your home,” Amalia said, motioning for a servant to refill Ryan’s cup.

“Not too much.” Isadora ducked her head guiltily. “I mean no disloyalty, but my life in Boston was quite settled and predictable. I imagine I could be away for years and find everything unchanged upon my return.”

Amalia laughed. “Surely your friends and family would not want to be deprived of you for too long.”

A blush misted Isadora’s cheeks. “How very flattering to think there are those who would miss me.”

“Of course there would be. Perhaps even a special gentleman—”

“Dear heaven, no,” Isadora said, almost in a panic. Her hand went to her bosom as if her heart were trying to pound its way out of the cage.

Senhor Ferraro laughed with delight. “When a lady protests so vehemently, it is always because of a special gentleman.”

Isadora shut her eyes and smiled ruefully. “I am so unforgivably predictable.”

Their hosts shared a knowing look.

Ryan slammed back his wine. Chad Easterbrook again. What did she see in that vacant-headed epiphyte?

With their cheery conversation and their pride in Rio, the Ferraros eventually put Isadora at her ease. At the end of the meal, Ferraro got Ryan’s attention. “We must go outside for our cigars. Amalia will not abide the odor in the house.” He bent and kissed his wife’s hand. “Can you do without us for a few moments?”

“Of course. We’ll enjoy our coffee together,” Amalia said.

Ryan followed his host onto a verandah bordered by an ornate plaster balustrade.

“We should have no trouble getting you a cargo for Boston,” Maurício said. “You are days ahead of the winter fleet.”

“Mr. Ferraro, I’m glad you brought up the cargo. I know this isn’t in the consignment agreement, but I won’t accept anything produced by slave labor.”

The merchant gave a low whistle. “That leaves out a lot of the best coffee in the world.”

Ryan nodded. “It almost ruined me on my last run to Havana, but I managed to find a tobacco and sugar factor who represented nonslave interests.”

“I can help you,” Ferraro said after a moment. “I know a number of growers who employ paid labor.”

Through the window they could see the ladies sipping their coffee and chatting. Ferraro lit the cigars and studied them through the threads of smoke. He probably had no idea that he was grinning like a lovestruck idiot at his wife.

Ryan took a shallow puff of his cigar. “You’re a lucky man,” he said. “Life is sweet for you.”

“God has seen fit to bless me,” he agreed, smiling even more as Amalia tipped back her head to laugh at something Isadora said. “I have the most beautiful wife in the world.”

The heartfelt declaration resonated strangely through Ryan. Amalia Ferraro wasn’t slender. She wasn’t young. Her features were not arranged in any particularly breathtaking fashion. But Ryan had no doubt that in Ferraro’s eyes, she was a gift from heaven.

“You’re a man who enjoys his blessings,” he said.

“And you are not?”

“I’m a man who has obligations,” Ryan admitted. “The blessings—I can always hope—will follow.”

Ferraro nodded. “That is something an impatient young man would say.”

“You don’t agree?”

Ferraro studied the ladies, Amalia in her flowing white and Isadora in her stiff black-and-brown dress. “What you, like most impatient young men, fail to understand is that sometimes the sweetest blessing of all is right before your eyes.”

Isadora decided that Christmas in the tropics was vastly preferable to Christmas in Boston. The days leading up to the feast day were warm and balmy, the people cheerful as they went about their chores and visits. In Boston there would be caroling parties and sleigh rides and fevered preparations, and aside from seeing Chad at these functions, she gladly did without them.

Rose insisted that there was not much in the way of gift-giving in her household. On Three Kings Day people exchanged trinkets and fruits and nuts, perhaps a round of visits with neighbors and relatives and a parade of sail in the harbor.

Isadora felt an odd calm settle over her as she drifted through the days at Villa do Cielo. Ryan stayed busy with matters of commerce, seeing to the discharge and sale of his cargo and securing goods for the run back to Boston. Though she rarely saw him, she caught herself wondering about him often.

You are no expert on men, Isadora. And you’re especially no expert on me. He had all but said she didn’t know him, couldn’t even begin to know him. She knew she should be ashamed of her curiosity about him. Yet when she did think of Ryan, she didn’t experience the cold sweat and knotted stomach that thoughts of Chad inspired in her. Instead she felt…comfortable. Alive. And unafraid that the next step she took, the next word she uttered, would lead to disaster.

Very slowly she was coming to realize what was happening between her and Ryan.