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Chapter OneSHROPSHIRE, ENGLAND JUNE 1830Dammit, Payton," Ross Dixon exploded. "I c a n \'t tie the wretchedthing. You do it. "Payton, at too crucial a stage with her second-eldest brother\'scravat even to risk a glance a t her eldest, sn a pped, "Wait yourturn.""Bleeding turn. " Hudson, holding his chin up, had to look down theslopes of his h i gh cheekbones to see his little sister as sheworked on his necktie, and then he only saw the top of her head."Wait your bleeding turn.""Wait your bleeding turn," Payton said, correcting herself.The ends of his cravat hanging limply round his neck, Ross turnedaway from the mirror, outraged. "Damn your eyes, Hud! Stopencouragin\' her to swear. You want her to tell the first bloke whoasks her to dance tonight to wait his bleeding turn?""No one\'s goin\' to ask Payton to dance," Raleigh informed them,from the window seat. His cravat already tied, he\'d been banished tothe far side of the room by his sister with a dire warning not tostir and unloose it again. He s a t in a flood of western sunlight,watch i ng a l i ne of carriages pull up to the front of the house."She\'s far too ugly.""Shut your bleed i ng mouth, Rale i gh," Payton adv i sed h i m.Ross ground h i s teeth. "Payton," he growled. "Stop swear ing. Youaren \'t home, and you aren \'t shipboard . Remember our agreemen t?You can behave like a hoyden all you wan t while we\'re a t home or at sea, but in other people\'s houses you\'ll conduct yourself likea-""You know," Hudson interrupted. "Payton\'s no t that ugly, Raleigh. It \'s jus t her damned hair." Since he had an eagle\'s eye view ofit, Hudson fel t qual i fied to crit i c i ze. "When you wereshavin\' all our heads this past summer, Ross, why didn\'t you shavePayton\'s, too? It might have helped if she\'d just got rid of thewhole thing, and starred over.""Why did you," Ross countered, irritably, "hire a cock in flictedwith lice? If you hadn\'t hired him on, none of us would have neededto shave our heads, and Georgiana wouldn\'t be forever needling me topurchase Payton a switch.""A s wit c h?" Payton wrinkled her freckled nose. "What would I wantwith a s wi t ch? Wear some other woman\'s hair on top of mine?" Sheshuddered. "No, thank you. I\'m perfectly happ y wa i ting until myown grows out again. "Hudson snorted. "You love havin\' your hair cropped short. Admit it.You\'re a lazy puss, and never liked comb i n\' out those damned Indi an braids you used to wear. "Payton turned bright gray eyes up toward h i m. "Careful," shewarned, tightening the cravat teasingly. "I may not have my Indianbraids anymore, but I can still sever a throat with ease. ""Bloodthirsty wench, aren\'t you?" Hudson tugged o n one of the shortrusset-brown curls that Payton had tried-unsuc cessfully, she feared-to tuck into a pair of tortoiseshell combs. "You\'re going to have tolearn to curb your tendency toward violence, my girl, or you\'llnever get yourself a hus band."Payton made a moue of distaste. "I fail to see what 1 need a husbandfor, when I already have you three telling me what to do.""Because eventually," Ross said, "Hud and Raleigh are go ing tofollow my example and take wives, leaving you all alone. ""What do you mean, alone?" Payton glared at him over a bare shoulder."There\'s always Papa. "

"Georgiana and I are taking care of Papa," Ross informed her. "Andneither of us cares to be saddled with my spinster sister, i n add it i on.""If you would stop be i ng such an ass and g i ve me a sh i p of myown to command," Payton sa i d coolly, "you wouldn\'t have to worryabout be i ng saddled with a spinster sister, let alone finding me ahusband. "Ross looked horrified. "Over my dead body," he declared, "are youever going to command a Dixon ship. ""And why not? I\'m twice the navigator Raleigh is, and he\'s had hisown ship for eight years now." She narrowed her eyes as she glancedin Raleigh\'s d i rection. "For all he spent most of those yearshopelessly lo st. "Look i ng up once again from the window, Raleigh informed her kindly,"I wasn\'t lost, my dear. I was exploring previously unchartedterritory. There\'s a difference. ""You were lost, Raleigh. Your cargo rotted while you were flounderingabout, trying to find your way around the Cape of Good Hope. Only youweren\'t at the Cape of Good Hope, were you?"Raleigh waved a hand at her. "Cape Horn, Cape Hope. Those capes alllock the same. Is it any wonder I mistook one for the other?"Payton turned to glare at her eldest brother, who was fuss ing withhis shirt collar in the mirror above the dressing table. "See? Yougive him a command, but not me? At least I can tell the continentsapart. ""The company," Ross explained to his reflection, as pa tiently as ifhe were speaking to a child, "is called Dixon and Sons Shipping,Payton. " At her sharp inhalation, Ross held up a hand, and said,"And kindly don\'t start arguing again that we should change the nameto Dixon and Sons and Daughter. I haven\'t the slightest intention ofbecoming the laughingstock of the shipping industry by introducinglady ship captains. ""What\'s wrong with lady ship captains?" Payton demanded tartly."I\'ve commanded your crews often enough, and quite ably, thank youvery much, when you three were too drunk to hold the wheel. I don\'tsee why I have to be married off like some kind of half-wit when Ihave at le a st as much ex perience as any of you-""I say. " Hudson cleared his throat. "Are you going to tie my cravat,Pay, or fight with Ross?" When her hot-eyed glare landed on him, hetook a quick step backward. "Never mind. Continue fighting with Ross,by all means. ""Don\'t worry, Pay," Raleigh drawled from the window seat. "Ross\'llhave no choice but to make you a lady ship captain in the end. Nobloke\'s ever goin\' to ask you to marry him. You\'re far too ugly. ""She ain\'t ugly!" Ross exploded, finally turning away from themirror. "Well, a t leas t, no t a nymore. No t after I paid damn neara hundred quid for tha t bleeding dress she\'s got on. ""Don\'t forget," Hudson reminded him, "the matching slip pers. Andthe hat and cloak. ""Another hundred pounds." Ross lifted a snifter of br a ndy he\'dplaced on top of the dresser, and drained it in a single quick gulp."And for what, I\'d like to know? It\'s no t like t here\'s enough mat erial in t ha t dress t o even cover \'er de cently. "Payton glanced down at her decolletage. It was a bit daring. Shedidn\'t have a lot to show, but what was there was on ratherprominent display. When she looked up again, she saw that Hudson hadfollowed her gaze."Yes, Pay," he said. "I\'d noticed you\'d gotten a besom. When did tha t happen?""I don\'t know. " Pay t on shook her head bewilderedly. "Las tsummer, I think. Somewhere between New Providence and the Keys. "

"I didn\'t notice you having any breasts when we were in Nassau,"Ross declared. The eldest child, it alw a ys irked him wheneverPayton, the youngest, did anything without asking- such as grow, forinstance."That\'s because she wore nothing all summer but tha t and thosedreadful striped trousers. " Raleigh, the fop of the fam i ly, heaveda delicate shudder. "Remember? Georgiana practically had to peel herout of \'em when we got back to London. ""I wore the trousers," Payton pointed out severely, "because Ididn\'t need everyone looking up my skirts every time I climbed themizzenpost-""Wishful thinking," Hudson observed.Ignoring him, Payton continued. "And I wore the vest be cause Ihadn\'t anything to support what was going on beneath my shirt. Nothanks to any of you. ""Underthings. " Ross nodded. "I forgot. Another hundred quid. And forwhat, I ask you?"The door to the bedroom opened, and Georgiana Dixon said matter-of-factly, "To get her married, of course. " Then, taking in the sightof her husband\'s loose collar with a sigh, she added, "I don\'tsuppose it would have occurred to any of you that most men employvalets to tie their cr a vats, not their little sisters. "It was Hudson\'s t urn t o shudder. "I don\'t want some bloketouching me, let alone my clo t hes. ""Really, Georgiana." Ross, Payton had noticed, was not quite aspatient with his new wife as he\'d been but a few months earlier.After all, then he\'d only been courting her. Now that they weresafely married, a nd she couldn\'t very well esc a pe, he made itquite clear that the newfangled ideas she\'d brought with her fromLondon were no longer going to be tolerated. "There\'s something...well, unnatural about a man helping another man to dress. That\'swomen\'s work. "Georgiana nodded. She\'d grown, Payton observed, quite used to thebackward logic frequently employed by the family into which she\'dmarried."I see," she said. "And so poor Payton\'s got to dress all of youbefore you\'ll let her see to herself. " Tut-tutting, she went toPayton\'s side, and began to remove her hair combs. "You three oughtto be ash a med of yourselves," Georgiana chas tised. "For heaven\'ssake, learn to tie your own cravats. I\'ve no t iced Cap t ain Drakecan do it. There\'s no reason any of you can\'t. You\'re not feeble.""Oh, well, Captain Drake" Hudson said, rolling his eyes."Captain Drake can do anything," mimicked Raleigh in a high-pitchedvoice, and although it was not clear who pre cisely he was mimicking,Payton shot him a warning lock. She had a sneaking suspicion he wasimi ta ting her, in which case, she\'d have to give him a taste ofher fist, first chance she got."I met the captain just now in the hallway." Using the hair combs,Georgiana began working the tangles from Payton\'s scandalously shortcurls. If she applied them at just the right angle, Georgiana hadfound that she could almost create the illusion that Payton\'s hairwas longer than jaw-length, which, in actual t ru t h, i t was no t."And he locked righ t presen t able. A good deal more presen t able than you looked, Ross, t he nigh t before we were married. ""Right," Hudson said, with a laugh. "But Ross had. I be lieve,consumed most of a bottle of rum that night, so it\'s understandablehe mightn\'t have looked his best-""I unders t and," Georgiana con t inued, as if Hudson had notinterrupted, "that Cap t ain Drake keeps no valet, so I can onlyassume that he, at least, is capable of dressing himself. "