LOVE’S CHRISTMAS HOPE (THE EAGLE HARBOR #5) BY NAOMI RAWLINGS – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Authors: Naomi Rawlings
- Language: English
- Genre: contemporary romance
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 5.4 MB
- Price: Free
Eagle Harbor, Michigan; November 1883
Look out!” Thomas Dowrick’s shout echoed over the angry noise of
the waves. He bent his head against the wind and staggered toward
the gunwale, moving as quickly as he could over the water-slickened
deck toward the young sailor caught against the railing.
“Help!” Young Ronnie clutched the railing half a ship length ahead.
Snow drove down from the heavens with the force of buckshot, stinging
Thomas’s face if he dared look up at the sky. And the frigid waters of Lake
Superior sloshed across the deck, freezing the bottom of his trousers. He
hurried past where the captain and sailors huddled by the gunwale, and
toward the boy needing help.
One of the sailors looked up from securing a rope to the dinghy. “Do
you need me to get Ronnie?”
“I can manage.” Never mind that he was a miner by trade, not a sailor,
and that it had been five years since he’d last been on a ship. The captain
needed every spare hand to prepare the dinghy that would carry them away
from the rocks that had wrecked their ketch.
The snow nearly blinded him as he approached the bow of the ship and
Ronnie. “What’s wrong?”
The brown-headed boy seemed far too young to have a job at all, let
alone be a sailor. “I’m caught.”
Indeed he was. The cabin boy was wedged between the gunwale and a
crate that had broken lose from its chains when the ship hit the rocks.
“Let’s see if we can move this.” Thomas pulled at the wooden box
trapping the boy, but pain ricocheted up his weak shoulder. The crate wasn’t
overly big, but whatever it held weighed a great deal.
“Watch out,” Ronnie shouted. “There’s another wave.”
The warning came an instant too late. A vicious wave doused him from
behind, splattering its icy spray against his back and causing the ship to
sway. His foot slid out from beneath him, and the deck sloped so steeply he
careened into the gunwale.
“Don’t go overboard.” Panic laced Ronnie’s voice.
“Don’t plan on it.” Thomas clung to the top of the railing with both
arms, his feet fighting for purchase against the slippery, slanting deck. Then
he glanced down into the water below.
Mistake. Craggy gray rocks and white churning waves confronted him.
He clung tighter to the railing, but the narrow strip of wood suddenly
seemed too flimsy to hold a man his size.
Why hadn’t he taken the train and rented a horse rather than boarding
the mail ship this morning in Houghton? It might have meant an extra three
days of traveling, but he would have at least been alive—even if his wife
and daughters were still missing.
You can’t let me die, God, not here, not now. I need to find them first,
need to know they’ll be safe without me.
“Can someone else help us?” Ronnie called to the sailors handling the
dinghy.
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