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Vowing to secure a suitable marriage partner, Nicole sets out with the Renard family’s greatest treasure: a dagger personally gifted to Nicole’s father by the pirate Jean Lafitte. Many believe the legend that the dagger is the source of all Renard Shipping’s good fortune, though Nicole is sure her father’s work ethic and honorable business practices are the keys to their success. Before she can board the steamer to New Orleans, Nicole finds her father’s rivals–the Jenkins brothers–on either side of the gangplank, ready to grab her and steal the dagger. Quickly, she decides to instead travel north, to Liberty, Texas, where she can decide what to do next.
Darius Thornton needs a secretary–someone to help him get his notes in order. Ever since the boiler explosion aboard the Louisiana, Darius has been a man obsessed. He will do anything to stop even one more steamship disaster. The pretty young socialite who applies for the job baffles him with her knowledge of mathematics and steamships. He decides to take a risk and hire her, but he’s determined her attractive face and fancy clothes won’t distract him from his important research.
The job offer comes at exactly the right time for Nicole. With what Darius is paying her, she’ll be able to afford passage to New Orleans in mere weeks. But Mr. Thornton is so reclusive, so distant, so unusual. He can create complex scientific equations but can’t remember to comb his hair. And his experiments are growing more and more dangerous. Still, there are undeniable sparks of attraction between them. But Nicole is leaving soon, and if she marries, it must be to a man who can manage a shipping empire. Darius certainly doesn’t fit that description. And the Jenkins brothers have not given up on kidnapping Nicole and seizing the Lafitte dagger for themselves.
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go way into the future and meet your great grandchildren?
love imagining life in the past, I would actually pick meeting my great
grandchildren. I would love to see how the legacy of faith we’ve worked to
instill in our children has trickled down through the generations. And it would
be fun to see what kind of grandparents my kids turned out to be. Wonder if any
of my books would still be around?
time. I’d love to be in the pirate colony Campeche
when my grandfather, Henri Renard, took the bullet meant for Jean Lafitte. That
pivotal moment shaped my family’s history for generations.
love to see all the mechanical advancements that take place in the shipping
industry. Maybe we’ll finally find a way to power our ships without those
blasted boilers.
button in your life?
in constant need of more time. More time to write, more time to spend with my
family, more time to just relax. A pause button sounds heavenly.
my father’s illness, I want to savor each moment I have left with him.
give anything to go back to November 15, 1849 and warn the captain of the Louisiana to get his passengers and crew
to safety. I’ll always regret that I couldn’t do more to save those who lost
their lives that day.
a hard one. I guess I would have to choose beggar. Swallowing my pride would be
excruciating, but it would be better than forfeiting my moral code.
years I played pirate on the beaches of Galveston with Tommy Ackerman, I’d have
to say thief, but only if the situation were dire enough to justify such
action. For instance . . . if one needed to protect her family from certain
harm. Hypothetically speaking, of course.
it comes to providing for my family, I’ll do whatever it takes, go to any
length to see that they are safe. Thankfully, with my family owning King Star
Shipping, the likelihood of facing this dilemma is slim.
hours of sleep, but you get to control your dreams every night?
as fully rested after 5 hours as I am after 10, I would definitely choose the
5. Just think what I could accomplish with those extra hours!
the accounts for Renard Shipping, watching over Jacob, and helping my mother
tend my father, I could use all the extra hours I could get. I’ll take the 5.
tormented by nightmares for months, the thought of controlling my dreams is an
enticement that is hard to resist. Yet after meeting Nicole, my dreams are much
less troubling, and I really can’t afford to waste 10 hours of every 24 in
sleep. People are dying due to malfunctioning boilers. Sacrificing my comfort
to continue my research is a small price to pay.
