Hardly a day out of Vera Cruz, Ginny was resigned to spending most of the voyage in her cabin. Two of the male passengers had attached themselves to her with an annoying tenacity, though the younger man, James Tyler, was more doting than offensive.

Mr. Andrews, a bluff, hearty man with whiskered jowls and a touch of gray in his dark hair, was particularly persistent, insisting that he had met her somewhere before.

“Perhaps in San Francisco? You are not a woman a man would ever forget, Mrs. Morgan.”

“You are too kind, Mr. Andrews, but I fear that I have no recollection of our ever meeting before.” Ginny rose from her chair, intent upon returning to her cabin. Andrews put out a hand to stop her.

“No, please, I did not mean to run you off, Mrs. Morgan, I only thought we had met before. Don’t leave us. We need another player for a hand of piquet. Say you’ll stay.”

“You may be sorry if I do, Mr. Andrews, for I’m a fair hand at cards. I don’t often lose.”

He smiled, his eyes roving over her face in a most disagreeable manner. “Neither do I, Mrs. Morgan. Neither do I.”

It was a challenge, and it gave her inordinate pleasure to best Andrews at cards, even at poker, which he boasted had made him his fortune. “I won my land and railroad stock that way!”

“Perhaps you should invest in a more dependable venture next time,” she said sweetly as she tucked her winnings into her small velvet purse and pulled the drawstrings closed. “I seem to have beaten you.”

Andrews rose politely as she stood, but there was a taut set to his mouth. “You must allow me to recoup my losses, Mrs. Morgan.”

“Why, Mr. Andrews, then I will have lost!” She laughed lightly, enjoying his discomfiture, and allowed the smitten Mr. Tyler to escort her belowdecks.

“Thank you,” she said pointedly at the door, and he had the good grace to blush deeply and retire.

For the next two nights, out of boredom more than anything else, Ginny found herself in the dining hall with the gentlemen, playing cards and winning a great deal of the time. Though he tried, Mr. Andrews was unable to recover his losses from her, and she could tell that it grated on him.

When the ship docked in Galveston, she left the dining area early, preferring the refuge of her stateroom to the chaos of passengers disembarking. Thank heavens the odious Andrews was one of the passengers leaving at Galveston! The thought of crossing the Atlantic with him was dismaying.

The younger man was more courteous, but she saw with a sigh that he was infatuated.