Tansy retreated a step, but there was a twinkle in her blue eyes. “I ain’t suggestin’ anything of the sort, love. It’s just that—well—after all your carryin’ on about bein’ pure for your ’usband come your weddin’ night, it looked a bit odd.”

All of Maggie’s ire escaped her and she sank to her berth like a deflated balloon. “I was desperate,” she said. “I had to know why Mr. McKenna behaved so strangely when I introduced myself to him as Philip’s intended.”

Tansy sat down beside Maggie and shyly took her hand. “What did ’e say, then?”

“Awful things,” Maggie replied, sudden tears springing to her eyes and burning there. “Oh, Tansy, he despises Philip!”

Tansy’s workworn hand patted Maggie’s smooth one and, though tempted, she refrained from saying I told you so. “Coo, but ’e’s a ’andsome one, that Mr. Reeve McKenna. Pure man from the soles of ’is feet to the crown of’is ’ead—I’ll wager ’e could make a girl carry on somethin’ fearful!”

Though she wouldn’t have admitted it on pain of death, Maggie had had the same thought ever since she’d burst into Reeve McKenna’s cabin and caught him in his bath. She remembered his broad chest and the dark swirls of wet hair that had covered it, remembered his powerful arms and the mocking light in his blue-green eyes. A strange, melting heat had spread through her on sight of him, and the curious needs left in its wake showed no signs of abating even though a full day and night had passed.

Undaunted by Maggie’s failure to answer, Tansy rushed on. “I asked John about ’im, so curious was I, and ’e said McKenna’s one of the richest men in Australia—got ’imself over from Ireland when ’e was just a wee lad and made ’is fortune right and proper.” Suddenly, the light went out of Tansy’s eyes and her smile faded. “’E ’as a mistress, though, and to ’ear John ’iggins tell it, she’s as pretty as an angel.”

Maggie couldn’t think why she wanted to cry, but she did. She wanted to fling herself facedown on her berth and pound her pillow with her fists, too, while kicking her feet and wailing. Of course, she did none of those things; she merely jutted out her chin and said, “He’s promised to buy my papers if necessary, and give me a part in The Taming of the Shrew, so what do I care if he’s got a mistress?”

Tansy’s eyes went wide and her mouth dropped open. “Buy your papers, is it? Give you a part? And what’s ’e askin’ in return for all this, missy?”

“Nothing,” Maggie said stiffly. “Nothing at all.”