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Robert could hardly contain his amusement, another insight into Miss Pemberton he thought. The exhausting woman could speak Spanish! He wondered where she had picked up Spanish, since she had no trace of a Spanish accent, and would take a guess with that red hair that she didn’t have an ounce of Spanish blood in her. Well, just one more mystery for him to unravel about this woman. What was he thinking! He knew he needed to stay away from this despicable, contemptible… incredibly beautiful woman.

“Anna vous regardez rince, se sentant bien? Ou etes-vous juste embarrasses?” He replied in French. If she wanted to play that game he would just play right along with her.

“I most certainly am not flushed sir nor do I have anything to be embarrassed about!” She said defensively, replying before she realized what she was doing. She heard more than a few gasps around throughout between-decks.

He walked over to where she lay and whispered in a deep voice as he raised one eyebrow. “The lady has a few more secrets?” He was clearly finding her intriguing.

Anna knew it was unusual for women to be educated, much less in different languages, and especially women from middle class families, which all of the women on the ship were from, except her. How was she supposed to blend in and not be noticed if she kept making these blunders? She had to get out of this room, he took too much of her energy, so she staggered to her feet. The dizziness was too much though and she started to fall.

Major Marsh lunged for her the minute he saw her sway on her feet and once again they ended up in a heap on the floor, with Anna on top of him, as his head hit the hard wooden deck floor.