Page 68 of Empire of Shadows

Adam cocked a challenging eyebrow at Ellie, who was perched primly in the bow.

“Still wanna wait to show me the rest of that map?” he prompted. “Remember, that cave’s probably full of spiders. Might be I could find us a way around it.”

“Stick to the plan, Mr. Bates,” Ellie replied firmly.

“If all the girls were bells in the tower,” Adam sang cheerfully as he swung the rudder around. “And I was a clapper I’d bang one each—”

She gave an awkward cough. Adam grinned as they chugged into the narrower branch of the river.

The wilderness drifted past them, thick and tangled. The motion of the leaves dappled the sunlight as it sparkled against the water.

Ellie tossed aside her hat, apparently determining that it was shady enough not to require it. As Adam watched, she dipped a hand over the side, then smoothed her damp fingers over the back of her neck where the fine tendrils of her chestnut hair curled beneath the mess of her bun.

Adam’s thoughts involuntarily flew back to earlier that morning—to the unexpected sight of her softly curved form suspended on the rippling water with her hair loose around her. Those plain-as-toast underthings of hers had left very little to the imagination.

Adam’s imagination had charged on regardless. It wasn’t one to shy away from a challenge.

He’d deliberately antagonized her with his cannonball off the deck, and maybe it hadn’t been strictly necessary for him to strip off his shirt and toss it back onto the boat like a sopping wet missile. But he hadn’t been kidding about needing a dip. Give him three or four days in the bush without a wash, and Adam wasn’t sure he’d want to keep company with himself—never mind inflict that kind of stink on a woman.

Besides, he had to admit there was a certain kind of joy in getting her mouth to turn into that pretty little scowl.

He’d have to keep a careful watch on those impulses. If the woman was a widow, then she definitely wasn’t the kind they wrote the racy songs about—and honestly, Adam had some doubts. In the extremity of the moment back in his room at the Rio Nuevo, it had made sense to buy her story and get them moving before that smooth-faced bastard who’d tied her up came poking around for another look. Now that they were out in the wild, he had no interest in addingshameless debaucher of ladiesto his resume.

He had best play it safe—enticingly practical underthings aside. And that was what he would do. He would be the safest player that had ever played.

Just watch him.

?

After three more miles of winding water, theMary Leerounded a bend and faced the obstacle that lay in their path.

The hill rose up before them, draped in an impenetrable veil of green. The river disappeared into a black mouth at the base of it framed by tangles of falling vines.

Adam cut back on the throttle and lazily looped a line around the handle of the rudder before moving to join the woman at the bow.

Beyond the arch of the cave, the water disappeared, swallowed by a thick darkness.

“Looks a little tight, but I think we’ll make it,” he concluded.

“Thinkwe’ll make it?” Ellie echoed, slightly aghast.

“I’ll take us in nice and slow,” he replied as he moved back to the boiler.

“Are you sure there aren’t any additional precautions that might be prudent?” she demanded.

Adam considered it.

“Now you mention it, there is something,” he said. “Lemme just rig up the plank.”

“Plank?” she said weakly as her eyes widened with alarm.

“It’s great,” Adam promised her. “You’ll love it.”

The preparations took only a few moments. First, Adam waded to shore to harvest a likely-looking sapling with his machete. After stripping it of all of its leaves and branches, he was left with a long, slender pole.

Next, he pried a loose board up from the deck of theMary Leeand set it down on the bow rail.

“Hold that,” he ordered.

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