Rose's Pledge Read Online Free

more crossable. She felt she might do quite well for herself amongst what was rumored to be a rather provincial people. Despite her own impoverished circumstance, she truly believed her beauty and charm alone to be a more than sufficient dowry. She’d spoken of little else from the moment the three had set sail.
    No doubt about it, Mariah would have to be closely watched.

    “Rose! Mariah!” Lily rushed through the cabin doorway, her cheeks positively glowing. “Captain Durning says it’s time for us to go ashore. I daresay, I cannot abide such excitement.”
    “Nevertheless,” Rose said quietly to calm the younger girl, “he advised us to remain here until his business with our cabinmates and the German family from the adjoining quarters has been concluded.” She recalled with distaste the conspiratorial wink he had given Mariah as he related his reputation for “saving the best for last.” Rose would have much preferred being present during the earlier transactions for some idea of what she and her sisters might expect, but the man had been most insistent.
    Now that the moment to disembark had arrived, her insides quivered uncontrollably. Her one slim comfort was the promise she had extracted from Captain Durning to sell the three of them together.
    She glanced around the cabin, noticing how much less crowded it appeared once their luggage had been taken ashore. “Search under the cots, Lily. We shouldn’t want to leave anything behind.”
    Mariah, already in the doorway, swung back. “For pity’s sake, Rose. Don’t be such a mother hen. We’ve checked the room from floor to ceiling, and as you can see, not a lock of our hair is out of place, nor has a single wrinkle dared crease our skirts.” She whirled out into the corridor with Lily chasing after her.
    Compelled to make her own final inspection of the cramped quarters, Rose could only agree. Both her sisters were impeccably groomed. Mariah was stunning in her royal blue taffeta, shawled in white lace—a combination which enhanced the deep indigo of her eyes and her shining black hair. Her wide-brimmed bonnet sat at a tilt as blithe as the girl herself. The blue satin ties and white under-frills would help contain her bountiful curls.
    Lily’s finely woven wool in muted pink accented her more delicate features and light gray eyes. Her hair had yet to darken from flaxen to golden brown as Rose’s had by the time she’d reached her fourteenth year. Mayhap Lily’s would remain blond, since her eyes were several shades lighter than Rose’s blue gray, and her complexion so fair it burned and freckled in the slightest sunshine. The two of them favored the taller, slender Harwood side, unlike Mariah, who had their mother’s more rounded figure.
    Rose sighed. What would Mother have thought of her daughters’ present circumstances? She’d had such high expectations, such fine hopes for all her children. Her last words had concerned them as she’d extracted a vow from Papa to see the girls safely through the pitfalls of this earthly walk, and she expressly urged Rose, as the oldest, to remain faithful to her Christian upbringing as an example to her siblings.
    Now such unforeseen changes lay ahead. But no matter what they entailed, Rose intended to keep that solemn pledge. In this she would not fail her mother.
    With a last smoothing of her gloved hands over a daygown of nut-brown linen edged with natural lace, she left the safety of the ship’s cabin in search of her sisters. Surely they hadn’t gotten too far ahead in the few moments’ time since they’d dashed off.
    Descending the wooden walkway from the ship to the quay, Rose surveyed the sprawling city with amazement. From the accounts she’d read in the English newspapers, she’d expected the ports to be little more than provincial villages. Yet from this high vantage point, she could see rows and rows of substantial buildings stretching inland. On either side of the Seaford Lady a veritable