She took a long time unbuttoning her camisole, and then went to sit on the bed, in only her drawers. Cradling Reeve’s head in her arms, she lifted it to her bare breast, and he took the offered nipple hungrily into his mouth.

Chapter 20

THE NIGHTMARE REPLAYED ITSELF BEFORE REEVE’S MIND’S eye, day and night. He saw the water, seeming to boil with blood, and he heard the screams of his crewmen. The unforgettable stench of carnage filled his nostrils, and he could not turn away from the ship’s rail. Not, that is, unless the Yank was loving him. She provided his only respite from the gruesome scene that plagued both his mind and his spirit.

He couldn’t remember her name. She was lying beside him in the bed; he knew that. If he could just call out to her, she would drive the haunting spectacle from his mind for at least a few minutes.

“Loretta,” Reeve rasped after a few minutes of desperate mental groping.

The light was turned up and the dreamscape became less intense, less brutal. He felt her hands on his bare shoulders, warm and reassuring.

“I’m Maggie,” she said.

Reeve could see her clearly then. Her silvery-blond hair was tangled and soft, and her gray eyes were filled with a teasing sort of reprimand.

“Maggie,” he repeated, puzzled.

She laughed softly and kissed his chin. “That’s better,” she said, twisting so that she sat with one soft hip against his side, looking down at him. Her hand stroked the hair back from his forehead. “We’re off to Queensland tomorrow.”

Reeve willed her to keep talking, about anything and everything. She had a way of absorbing his every thought and emotion.

She reached for a book on the bedside table and leafed through the pages, knowing somehow that the sound of her voice and the sight of her face were all that kept the horrors of the night at bay.

“The Lord is my shepherd,” she read, “I shall not want.

“He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

“He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

“Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.”