The Runaway Girl

Jina Bacarr

Description

Two women hold the keys to his heart. Only one will survive that fateful night...

When Ava O’Reilly is wrongly accused of stealing from her employer, she has no option but to flee Ireland. The law is after her, and she has only one chance at escape - the Titanic.

Aboard the ship of dreams, she runs straight into the arms of Captain 'Buck' Blackthorn, a dashing gentleman gambler who promises to be her protector. He is intrigued by her Irish beauty and manages to disguise her as the maid of his good friend, the lovely Countess of Marbury. Little does he realise, that the Countess is also in love with him.

As the fateful night approaches, tragedy strikes further when Ava is separated from Buck, and must make a daring choice that will change her life forever...

A sweeping, emotional historical romance set aboard the Titanic, perfect for fans of Gill Paul and Suzanne Goldring.

This is a revised and fully updated edition of a novel previously published as Titanic Rhapsody.

What readers are saying about The Runaway Girl:

'A fantastic Titanic take woven in with a great portrayal of love, friendship, and even forgiveness. I would have rather seen this as a movie than the Jack and Rose story!!!''Oh how I adored this story... From start to finish I was enchanted with the story and the characters and all the finer details describing the ship, clothes and scenery.'
'A breathtaking romance that is sure to stay with you long after reading'

'Perfect for historical fiction and romance fans.'
'A mesmerizing romance that is sure to sweep you off your feet and take you away to another place, another time.'

'A fabulous book you won't want to miss'

'You will start to love the favorable characters and the great storyline'

'I was enchanted with the story'

'Oh how I adored this story'

Sujets

• Romance contemporaine
• Fiction
• Romance
• Family Life
• Danielle Steel
• Contemporary
• General
• General officer
• Ellen Emerson White
• No Greater Love
• Contemporary history
• Claudia Gray
• Holidays
• Historical Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: Boldwood Books
• Date de parution: 17 mars 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 11
• EAN13: 9781838893736
• Langue: English

Extrait

The Runaway Girl
A Titanic love story


Jina Bacarr
Contents



Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Epilogue


Acknowledgments

Author’s Note

More from Jina Bacarr

About the Author

About Boldwood Books
1



Cameron Bally Manor House
Ireland
9 April 1912
‘Ava O’Reilly, you’re nothing but a common thief who brings shame upon this fine house,’ spewed Lord Emsy, wagging his fat finger in her face. ‘What have you to say for yourself, girl?’
‘A thief, am I, milord?’ Ava shot back, refusing to cower before a man so pompous and full of himself, even if he was her employer. With his wing tip collar and fancy silk ascot, he reminded her of a leg of lamb gussied up for Sunday dinner. ‘Says who? Your daughter?’ She narrowed her eyes, staring her accuser down. Lady Olivia greeted her angry look with a swift turning of the head, her nose in the air, but Ava wasn’t finished. ‘I’d rather dance with the devil than believe her.’
His lordship growled. ‘Then you deny stealing the bracelet?’
‘Aye, that I do.’ Ava smoothed down her shiny, black cotton uniform with her hands, making fists and fighting to keep her composure. Him with the glow of damnation in his eyes, accusing her like he was the Almighty Himself. She refused to back down. With the afternoon sun spilling an arc as bright as a pot o’ gold at her feet, she wondered how she, the daughter of a fine Irish mum and da, could be so unlucky. But here she was, accused of thievery because she was caught reading a book in a place where a housemaid had no right to be. The library. Now she was paying the price for her thirst for knowledge.
‘Well, how do you plead?’ asked his lordship.
‘I plead guilty to nothing more than reading your fine books.’
Ignoring her, Lord Emsy bellowed, ‘Then how do you explain this?’
He dangled a slender rope of sparkling diamonds in front of her nose, taking her breath away.
Ava swallowed hard. Each stone was a knot on the noose tightening around her neck.
‘I swear on me sainted mother’s grave, I never seen the likes of that till this morning.’
‘She’s lying, Papa,’ Lady Olivia decried. ‘She stole it from my jewel case and was trying to hide it when I caught her.’
Ava gritted her teeth. They both knew it was a lie.
Aye, what was a lass to do? His lordship’s daughter had hated her since Ava had first crossed paths with her, when she’d used the grand main staircase instead of scuttling down the backstairs. The breach of protocol had not only embarrassed the family, Lady Olivia scolded her, but Ava had attracted the eye of the young gentleman at her side. Lord Holm made no secret of his interest in the servant girl with the glorious red hair spilling down her back. Mary Dolores had warned her about him when Ava joined her sister to work as a housemaid in the grand manor.
A dandy, she had said, always ready to pat the bum of any servant girl he could get into a dark corner.
Did Ava listen to her? No. She was obstinate and bull-headed. A family trait, Mary Dolores admitted, shaking her head. Going through life casting her spell on every man caught looking at her. Ava paid them no mind, going about her way and insisting she didn’t need a man to better herself.
Unfortunately, Ava couldn’t control the wily fates determined to get in her way.
Her relationship with Lady Olivia became even more strained when Lord Holm saw her wearing a discarded dress belonging to her ladyship. Silk with delicate appliqué around the collar and cap sleeves, the vibrant emerald green set off her red hair.
And what was the crime in that, Ava wanted to know, since it was customary for servant girls to lay claim to their mistress’s tossed-away garments.
Her ears burned when she overheard her ladyship say to Lord Holm, ‘You never noticed when I wore that dress,’ to which he replied, ‘You never looked like that.’
His comment sealed her fate.
Now she’d get sacked for a crime she didn’t commit.
Ava felt a growing bitterness prickle her skin, making her shiver. She couldn’t deny she presented a threat to the daughter of the house. It was no secret her ladyship wasn’t popular with the servants with her snotty airs and precise manners, ordering everyone about. More than one prayer was lifted up to heaven in the servants’ hall in the hopes her outrageous flirting with the gent from Dublin would have her running off with the handsome man with arched, dark brows and a dimple in his chin. Till then, every time the young lord’s head turned in Ava’s direction, she loomed as a danger to her ladyship’s prospects for a secure married life.
A danger that must be eliminated.
Lady Olivia made it her duty to make Ava’s life miserable. She left empty tea cups scattered about after Ava tidied a room, complained about her blatant insubordination to Mrs Briggs, the housekeeper, when Ava failed to make a proper curtsy, then smeared the damp tea leaves Ava set upon the carpets to remove dust under the heel of her pointy boot.
Ava spent two days digging the crushed leaves out of the rug fibers.
By the devil, she’d not be done in by the girl’s lies. Hadn’t she made every effort to be a good housemaid? Learned to lower her eyes and not stare when the family was about. Cleaned up her ladyship’s slops with a wooden clothes peg pinching her nose and set the hot brick at the foot of her bed so the snobby girl would be toasty at night.
But she had no intention of getting sacked for nothing more than a man looking at her, even if her mother had warned her. Ava let the moment wash over her, the poignant memory stabbing her in the heart, missing her mum so.
‘A man may be God’s creature, Ava,’ her late mother, Mary Elizabeth Sullivan O’Reilly had drummed into her head, her pale grey eyes turning a deep slate when she noticed her younger daughter’s curves, soft and round. ‘But he’s also an instrument of the devil’s handiwork. With a face like yours, child, temptation will surely follow.’
No matter, Ava decided. She’d show them gentlemen she had more to offer. Much more .
She would challenge their minds.
She set her plan to work, reading and studying from the books in his lordship’s library, though borrowing books was forbidden to the servants. Only family members could sign the journal on the desk. A ledger containing the names of the borrowers. Lady Olivia’s name rarely appeared.
Ava closed her eyes tight, remembering how Mum oft reminded her that her curiosity for knowledge would do her in someday, but she didn’t see what was so wrong about trying to rise above her class and gain the freedom that came with it.
Plato, Shaw, Shakespeare and Mark Twain.
Stories of grand adventure that thrilled her and made her yearn for a life outside of service. Something her sister didn’t understand. What Ava saw as a humiliating job, Mary Dolores embraced as a proper and decent life for the likes of them.
Two orphaned sisters without kin.
Ava bit her lip. Her sister was right about one thing. She wouldn’t be standing here now accused of stealing the diamond bracelet if she hadn’t lingered in the library after she finished her morning duties. Hidden behind a tall Oriental screen, she was reading Romeo and Juliet when Lady Olivia bounded into the room before anyone upstairs was awake. Tossing cushions about, mumbling, looking everywhere until she found her bracelet under the blue damask divan.
Most likely her ladyship lost it while carousing with the young lord and didn’t want her father to find out. Their engagement hadn’t been settled and whispers in the servants’ hall confirmed the young gentleman had yet to approach Lord Emsy with a formal request. That didn’t stop the loose-tongued cook from gossiping about how her ladyship sweetened the pie by treating him to a taste of her cherry-tipped buds.
Ava smirked. Lady Olivia wasn’t taking any chances on losing a fine catch like Lord Holm. When she caught her hiding behind the screen, she saw the perfect opportunity to accuse her of theft and ruin her.
‘I shall ask you for the last time, Ava,’ Lord Emsy demanded, his double chins wiggling, ‘did you steal the bracelet?’
Ava refused to stand down. ‘No, milord, I did not steal the bracelet.’
‘Then you leave me no choice,’ his lordship said, exhaling loudly, ‘but to turn you over to the proper authorities at Cork for grand larceny.’
‘But, milord—’ Ava pleaded, fear rising in her so quickly she felt numb.
‘Quiet, girl. You’re confined to your room until further notice.’
‘That’s not fair! I didn’t do anything wrong.’ Ava flinched when Warner, the butler, grabbed her. She yanked her arm away, the fiery glint in her eye directed toward Lady Olivia. ‘You’ve not seen the end of Ava O’Reilly, your ladyship. Someday I shall be a grand lady—’
‘You , a lady?’ Lady Olivia said, disbelieving. ‘Don’t make me laugh. You’re not fit to be a scullery maid.’
Then she turned on her heel and glided upstairs like a pretentious swan, taking her aristocratic airs with her. Ava nearly died with embarrassment. Not because she’d called her a scullery maid, but at how the guilty could walk away free while the innocent paid the price.
Because she was born poor.
‘No more chatter, girl,’ said the butler, moving her along, but Ava dragged her heels, her mind spinning. Somehow, someway , she’d get free. Her ladyship felt Ava’s gaze upon her and turned around, grinning at her with victory in her eyes. In spite of her determination to fight back, Ava felt the sting o