“Really,” he said in a wry tone. “Only he and the groundskeeper have keys. He seems to believe the populace is drooling with eagerness to get inside his precious greenhouses.”

She cocked a brow at him. “I’m prepared to travel quite a distance for it.”

“Then you and Gray can wallow in your botanical paradise,” he said with a grin. “Come on, let’s climb aboard so we can be on our way.”

“Am I supposed to get down into that boat the same way you got up here?”

Luke seemed surprised. “My brother told me you were brave, that you had spunk. Not the sort to quake in fear at a five-foot rope ladder.”

She laughed and gamely collected her skirts, turned around, and lowered herself down the ladder and onto the wobbling boat. She managed to get on board without embarrassing herself, even though transferring her bags and the equipment box was awkward.

“What am I supposed to do?” she asked once she was seated on a wooden bench opposite Luke.

He grabbed a rope and began hoisting a sail. The canvas billowed out, and the boat started moving with surprising speed. “You sit there like Cleopatra while I sail us to Windover Landing.”

As the dock slid into the distance, Luke explained how Windover Landing had once been a grand plantation estate owned by the Delacroix family for generations. “The house burned down during the war, but we still owned the land, so that’s where my father built the greenhouses and went back into business.”

As they moved farther into the center of the river, the sailboat picked up speed and listed to one side. Annabelle clenched the portfolio, for it contained rare specimens of vanilla orchids that had been collected by explorers all over the world.

“You’re not going to tip us over, are you?”

Luke laughed. “You’re not doing a very good Cleopatra imitation. If I’m making you nervous, you need to order me to sheet out and slow down. Then look me in the eye and call me a peasant in a withering voice.”

If there was a peasant in this boat, it was her. But it didn’t take her long to relax, because Luke immediately slowed the boat and seemed perfectly capable as he guided it down the river. The city was soon behind them, and within an hour, the river took them into a rural, marshy landscape where the air still carried a faint salty tang.

“What are those grasses growing along the bank?” she asked.

“Cordgrass,” Luke replied. “Depending on the season, the water can get a little salty, and cordgrass can stand up to it.”