Pride Of Duty
Men of the Squadron Series, Book 2
Andrea K. Stein
Contents
Introduction
Thank You!
Acknowledgments
Prologue
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
Epilogue
Afterword
Coming Soon!
Other Books By Andrea K. Stein
Excerpt: PRIDE OF HONOR
Chapter 1
Introduction
Two strangers are forced into marriage.
What could go wrong?
Willa Morton leads a life fraught with secrets. She’s lived the last ten years of her life as “Wills,” physician’s assistant to her Royal Navy surgeon father. Their subterfuge works well until he collapses and dies from a heart attack. Her days as a woman living free as a man are numbered.
When his father’s political clout lands him on a ship of the line, Dr. Cullen MacCloud resents his latest posting, away from his friends on the African Squadron and the dangerous work they do. Will, the deceased surgeon’s son, is a sullen sprout, but Cullen’s stuck with him. Since the posting is temporary, what could go wrong?
What if these two have more in common than they think? Will a thin blanket hung across the middle of a tiny cabin be enough to protect against the desire smoldering between them?
Pride of Duty
Copyright© 2020 by Andrea K. Stein
Published by Muirgen® Publishing, LLC
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions
By payment of required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferrable right to access and read the text of this book. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented without the express written permission of the copyright owner.
Cover Design & Interior Format by The Killion Group, Inc.
Thank you so much for choosing to read
PRIDE OF DUTY,
second in the Men of the Squadron series.
For all the men who sailed, fought, and died with the Royal Navy’s West African Preventative Squadron in the nineteenth century.
Acknowledgments
The author wishes to thank her editors, Louisa Cornell and Judy Brunswick, as well the indispensable Mr. Stein. Louisa is an expert on life in England during the Regency. Judy is the protector and Knight Templar of all things in English usage. However, the “typo gremlins” do occasionally sneak into every work of prose. In the rare case (one hopes) of a glaring error, the mistake is entirely my own.
Deepest thanks to friend, author, and Waterloo expert Kristine Hughes Patrone for sharing her research notes from the Duke of Wellington’s Dispatches on why Napoleon ended up on St. Helena instead of in front of a firing squad.
Short excerpts from “Gulliver’s Travels” by Anglo-Irish author Jonathan Swift, published anonymously in 1726, appear in this novel about another adventurous surgeon and his equally adventurous wife.
Prologue
Algiers
August 25, 1816
Dr. Cullen MacCloud, assistant surgeon on the HMS Leander, curled the sleeping baby closer to his chest and calculated the best moment to run for the shore boat waiting at the quay to evacuate English dependents. The oppressive heat made the night feel like he was slogging through tepid bath water.
For every few steps he advanced closer to the harbor, he stopped and listened for sounds of being followed, an exercise made almost impossible by the loud buzzing of clouds of insects near the ocean. There was no wind, not a breath of air, which accounted for the insects.
Every few minutes he would lift the baby’s face level with his ear to make sure he was still breathing evenly, but not rousing to wakefulness. There was a fine line between how much laudanum an infant could be given to keep the child from crying, but not endanger its life.
When the crackling of a branch betrayed someone walking toward him, he froze and ducked behind a huge, flowering bush of wild roses. Then he relaxed and stepped back out. “Oh, it’s you…”
Chapter One
50º47’56.36”N, 1º5’28.5”W
Portsmouth, England
August 1820
Dr. Cullen MacCloud tipped back the too-dainty chair in the small Portsmouth tea shop and threw a stern look at the sullen young man across from him. He hated having to make do with furniture not built to accommodate his broad shoulders and bulk.
He pushed his feet flat onto the floor and leaned forward to better intimidate William Morton, the most impertinent excuse for a physician’s assistant he’d ever encountered. He could not for the life of him fathom why his predecessor, the recently deceased ship’s surgeon, had importuned the captain to make sure (in writing) the young man would be able to continue to work alongside him in the ship’s surgery.
Cullen had hoped getting away from the ship to a different setting might soften the slight young man’s demeanor. Instead, the damned cod lifted his chin, still belligerent, as if he could challenge Cullen’s words.
Christ, but he’d had a hell of a week. First, he’d had a hopeless argument with his father. The bastard had used his court influence to get Cullen assigned away from his former Captain Arnaud Bellingham to the current posting. Arnaud was still awaiting final overhaul and crewing of his prize ship, the Black Condor, to return to the West African Squadron, and had moved to Portsmouth with his new wife, Sophie.
Cullen had hoped until the very last moment he could somehow thwart his father’s ambitions, but he’d lost the battle. No one in the Royal Navy fought the Admiralty once a decision had been made. He’d been aboard the HMS Arethusa for a full week, and sharing quarters with the former surgeon’s peevish offspring.
He’d been pleasantly surprised at how well organized and kept the surgery
