Journey of the Heart by Jacinta Carey, HerStory Books

Samantha Barnes, daughter of a wealthy ship-builder from Nantucket, discovers that her father has engaged her to a business rival's son to further his own interests. Samantha flees to her uncle's house in a desperate attempt to keep her freedom and save the Barnes Shipyard from bankruptcy.

At her uncle's she meet dashing whaling captain Dare Starbuck, a wealthy man with excellent family connections and the Devil's own luck on the high seas. The friendship which springs up between them soon grows to overwhelming attraction.

Samantha risks all by disguising herself as a boy and shipping out as one of Dare's crew to help restore her family's fortunes. Only when she sails with Dare can she decide if he is just interested in her because of her social connections, or whether she can trust her life and love to him, her body and soul....

Samantha was just reaching for the towel when the door opened. She gasped, for the standing in the doorway was Dare, a look of complete shock on his face.

He stared at her--and stared. His mouth open, he could barely get a word out. "W-w-what the- Who-"

Finally, he clamped his lips shut, turned on his heel, and marched out, leaving her dripping in the tub, and feeling as though she were about to faint.

Drat it all. She had fully intended to tell him the truth.

To have him find out her real identity in such an abrupt and embarrassing manner was not something she had ever counted on in her dreams of a romantic reunion in which they pledged their undying love for each other.

Journey of the Heart
Volume One of The Starbuck Saga
Word Count: 77,000
Setting: Nantucket, USA, 1836
Rating: Sensual, love scenes throughout the novel
Format: Instant PDF Download
Price: $4.99

Chapter One
Nantucket, December 1836

"You will marry Hugo Cooke, and that is my last word upon the subject. Dare to defy me, Samantha, and you will no longer be any daughter of mine."
Samantha leapt from the upholstered blue chair, her emerald eyes flashing. "In that case, Mr. Barnes, I shall say farewell, and trouble you no longer."
Samuel Barnes' mouth opened as wide as a whale's. He was so thunderstruck by her response that Samantha would have laughed were it not for the fact that her entire future depended upon the outcome of this interview.
She enjoyed the brief respite her father's astonishment afforded her, but it was over all too quickly.
"How can you have the effrontery to speak to me thus? After everything I've done for you, it's unspeakable to have to confront such ingratitude."
She smoothed down her plain black silk gown with one trembling hand, trying to keep a tenuous grip on her temper. "In the manner of Cordelia in King Lear, I shall say that you have begot me, bred me, loved me, in your own fashion, according to our bond. You've done your duty, as I've done mine."
"I demand more from you than mere duty--"
She fixed him with a hard glittering green stare. "Indeed. And I have done more than my duty, sir. I've worked hard for the sake of the family, as both your housekeeper, and one of the accountants and foremen at the firm. No one regrets more than I that both of my brothers are gone.
"But to speak plainly, they were never much interested in the business. Never applied themselves as they should have."
Samuel Barnes scowled furiously.
"I've worked hard, and deserve to be your heir in my own right. It appalls me that had John and Adam lived, they would have had everything, whilst I would have been fobbed off with nothing more than a small dowry, and expected to be grateful for even that."
"Your brothers--"
She held up one hand, demanding silence. "My brothers are gone now, and things have changed. Just because they're dead does not mean that the company is about to fall into ruin, or that I'm suddenly incapable of helping to run the shipbuilding works as I always have. There's no crisis in the firm that needs to be dealt with, and at nineteen I'm hardly in danger of becoming a spinster."
"But a woman must-"
She tapped her black leather-booted foot impatiently on the bare boards of her father's study floor. "You have trust me with many responsibilities within the yard. I haven't suddenly been rendered incapable of good judgment. There's no need to find me a suitable husband to protect me and ensure that I don't fall prey to a fortune-hunter. I want to see a bit of the world beyond Nantucket. And if you can't see that Hugo Cooke is only out to protect his own interests, then old age must have addled your wits."
"How dare you! You, you..."
She shook her head so hard she could feel some of her hairpins working free from her thick fall of auburn hair. "I'm sorry to speak so plainly, Father. I know grief can affect a man's faculties badly. But the truth is that you've made many errors in the accounting recently, and are no longer taking any real interest in the running of the business. If you're tired of it all, then let me run the yard for you. Please don't persist in this folly. The yard will be ruined if someone doesn't start to take a firmer hand. And I have no intention of marrying for the sake of the yard when I am perfectly capable of managing it myself."
"I haven't made any errors," he stated flatly.
"I beg your pardon?" she said, sure she had misheard.
"There have been no errors," he said in a firm tone.
Samantha put her hand to her suddenly aching head. "Excuse me, Father, but did I hear you correctly? At my last review of the books, thousands of dollars were unaccounted for. What do you mean, there were no errors?"
"There weren't," he maintained.
"Then where has the money gone?" she said, throwing her hands wide in exasperation.
Her father suddenly looked sheepish, a most unusual occurrence for him.
"Where is the money, Father?" she demanded more urgently.
"It was your dowry, in advance, plus more besides, for some investments that Hugo Cooke convinced me were sound."
Samantha snorted in disbelief. "And you believed that viper? Gave him the money without telling me or Mr. Barker? Why pay someone to look after your bank accounts if you don't want to take his professional advice?"
Her father leaned back in his chair with a sigh. "It seemed such a golden opportunity for us, including any children the two of you might have together."
She crossed her arms over her bosom, suddenly chilled despite the warmth of the fire burning in the snug office's hearth. "I'm appalled at your high-handedness. You've always been strict, but at least fair. Do you not think you should have asked my opinion, obtained my consent, before giving our main business rivals all of that money? Before bargaining me away as if I was some sort of poor African slave?"
Her father tugged at his collar nervously. "There didn't seem any need at the time to ask you. Hugo assured me that he would agree to a long engagement. John was only ill at the time, and of course Adam was still alive. I had no reason to think that there would be very much risk involved."
"I see. So what changed?"
"It started out as only a small sum. I made very good money for some time, and bought more shares. For a while we were doing extremely well."
"I'm sure," she said dryly, folding her hands to stop herself from wringing them.
"Then Hugo told me that the value of the shares had declined. I needed to invest more to prop up the scheme to prevent me losing the whole lot. I'm ashamed to say that I kept going, and did lose it all in the end anyway."
"I can just imagine." She rolled her eyes Heavenward. "Father, how could you let them dupe you so?"
He sighed. "Shortly thereafter, John died and Adam drowned, and all the money was gone. It has also been given out as fact by Hugo and his father Ezra that the two of you are engaged, and that the family businesses are going to be merged. So you see-"
A new recognition dawned in Sam's grim expression. She quivered with indignation. "So that's why we've hardly had any new orders recently. They're all going directly to Cooke's shipyard now."
Mr. Barnes leaned back heavily in the chair behind his desk and sighed. "I'm afraid so, Daughter. I've behaved foolishly, I see that now. But if you marry him, all will be well."
She shook her head so vehemently a stray lock of auburn hair tumbled into her eyes. She knocked it away with an impatient swipe.
"No, it won't. Not for our shipyard, and most certainly not for me. They'll edge us both out of our own company, and I'll be tied to a man I neither respect nor esteem for the rest of my life. I know people of substance don't usually marry for love, but I should be able to at least look at my husband across the dinner table without revulsion."
"But in time…"
"No, you've already said that. I won't marry him. I'm not going to prostitute myself for the sake of the shipyard."
"Samantha! Language, please!"
She began to pace up and down upon the hearth rug like an agitated tigress. "There is nothing you can do or say which will make me change my mind. I refuse to argue with you about this any longer. There's work to be done, and by jiminy you're going to deal with this problem the way you should have done before."
"What on earth do you think I can do? It is too late!" Mr. Barnes protested, thumping the flat of his hand on the green leather blotter. "This will ruin us!"
"Not if we fight," she said with a brave lift of her chin. "I won't let you ruin my life, at any rate. This is your problem, one you should have owned up to long before. The solution is not to bargain away your daughter in marriage as though she's some whore."
"Samantha! How dare--"
"I'll dare anything at this point so long as I don't have to marry that thief and reprobate. There are other solutions, and you just need to apply your cunning to coming up with one."
"Don't you think I've tried?" he snapped.
"Not hard enough!" she fired back. "Not if you think this is going to do anything other than save the shipyard for a month or two at best."
"Please, I need--"
"My advice, obviously," she said, leaning forward on the desk with both hands. "Which is this. You confess to Mr. Barker everything which has transpired, and see what he suggests. You supply evidence that proves that the money was an investment, not a dowry, and that no marriage or merger will ever take place.
"Then you consult with our solicitor Mr. Graves regarding what should happen in the event of a breach of promise suit. But since they already have the money from you, there isn't much they can do about it. It was obviously a misunderstanding."
"They'll never--"
She fixed him with a hard stare. "Since we're taking the tack that the money was an investment, we have the right to ask for a full accounting. I hope for all of our sakes that you have kept adequate records of how much you gave them. If there's anything suspicious about their dealings in the matter, we sue them to get the money back."
She paced a moment longer, before at last settling down into a chair once more in front of her father's impressive oak desk.
At length he nodded. "All right, I can try."
She was inexpressibly relieved, but she pressed on. "Finally, we will look into suing the Cookes for interference in our business. It's obvious they've been trading upon our good name to secure contracts for their own shipyard on the basis of a supposed merger which has never been agreed upon by any of us. Have a few of the men ask around town, and in the taverns especially, to find out if a merger was hinted at, or even mentioned explicitly."
"What good will it do if they've already pilfered our business?"
"If it was mentioned, then we can find out who has commissioned new ships recently, and find out if they gave the business to Hugo Cooke on the strength of the supposed merger. If they believed our people were going to carry out the work here. In that case, they have been duped,and will go after them. Everyone knows our ships are better, and less money too."
Her father nodded.
"Turning several unhappy clients upon them will also buy us some time. And if they say they were tricked, it will help us win our case. That all of us were deceived. If that's the case, then perhaps the courrs will even award us some damages to assist in recovering our desperate situation."
"Maybe," her father said, though he still looked grim.
"In any event, gathering material for the courts will all keep the Cookes busy for a while, and we will be just as busy trying to work out the best way to recover our fortunes."
She peered at her father's suddenly gray face uneasily. "Don't look so doubtful, Father. It's worth a try. It has to be done if we're to save our company."
Her father shook his head. "It is no use. You don't know how unscrupulous they can be. Far easier to just marry Hugo and-"
She thumped the arm of the chair with a balled up fist. "Easier for you, but not for me! I keep telling you, I won't do it. All the browbeating in the world is not going to make me agree. If you have so little backbone that you'll just give in to the Cookes at the first sign of trouble, then you're not the same man I once admired and respected.
"I could be wrong, but I personally feel that the Barnes shipyard is worth fighting tooth and nail for. So I intend to fight, even you if need be."
He sighed heavily. "I would have agreed with you once, but the death of the boys--"
"You still have one child left! Stop pining for what's gone and look at what's right in front of your, Father," she pleaded, slapping her chest with the flat of her hand. "Look at me. Have faith in me." She punctuated each sentence with another slap.
He sighed heavily. "I try, honestly, but this isn't what I expected or wanted, not at all."
"I'm sorry to be such a disappointment, but there it is," she said stiffly.
"I don't mean it that way! Well, not exactly. You're a woman. Your destiny is expected to be--"
"Whatever I choose to make of it," she said with an arrogant toss of her head. "Do you really think I'm just going to bow to your commands, when they make so little sense? You and I both know you've been cheated. That the Cookes are out to ruin us. I'm not going to let them get away with any of this! And I am certainly not going to give them any more power over us or the yard by discussing for one second longer the absurd notion of marrying him."
"You have to marry one day. Why not merge the businesses—"
She shook her head. "We were the best on the eastern seaboard until you tried to get the boys more involved with the business, and then became embroiled with Cooke. And all this despite the fact that you knew then, and know now, that I'm more than able to take over the day to day running of the whole shipyard.
"I love the yard, not just the money and prestige, but every aspect of shipbuilding. I don't blame you for trying to make my brothers in your image. I do blame you for selling me short.
"So give me the chance I deserve now, Father, before it's too late for both of us." She leaned forward in her chair, her eyes burning with eagerness. "Let me try. Give me a few weeks to get this all sorted."
He shook his head. Her heart almost sank, until she heard his next words. "We've been in decline now for months. A few weeks aren't going to be enough to turn the tide."
She put her hand on the desk firmly. "I don't care how long it takes, so long as you have faith in me. I'm not saying it will be easy. I'm not completely naive. I know this is a man's world. I don't want to take over, not until you are dead, and my God bless us both that that won't happen for a long time.
"But I do want us to work as a team. It will be far easier for us all if you don't force me to do all of this on my own. Please, Father, don't be my enemy. Let us be allies against Hugo Cooke. It's not too late, if only you'll cooperate with myself and Mr. Barker."
Samuel Barnes sighed. "It is too late. All the fight went out of me when John and Adam died. Marry Hugo, and save what you can of the business. As for the rest, well, I don't care what happens to me any more."
Samantha rose to pace once more in front of the desk, feeling as if the weight of the world had just descended upon her shoulders. "I'm sorry, Father, but I do care. I am not going to throw you to the wolves.
"So you might want to give up, but I choose to fight. The price you ask is too high. I have loved our company as I would a child. But you didn't trust me, even though I helped steer the business through troubled times in the past. Your indifference to my opinions and feelings has hurt me more than I can say. So if you're presenting me with only one choice, to ally myself with Hugo Cooke, I shall have to leave."
"Leave! But-"
"I will take only a few necessities and some past wages, equal to what you would have paid a clerk for the services I have rendered. You owe me that much at least. I will tell Mr. Barker what has happened. I suggest you try to work with him to get some of your money back. And that's the end of that."
She made a gesture as though she were wiping the dirt from her hands. She wondered at her own calm as she did so, at the words coming out of her mouth. It really was over...
"Samantha, you can't mean--"
"Oh, but I do," she said, and it was no lie she told, though she still felt stunned by them as they poured out. "If you won't work with me, then by all means, try to work with the Cookes, and see how far you geet. I wish you luck, Father, for I have the feeling you're going to need it. And in the meantime, I shall be looking at other ways to restore our fortune, so that when the Cookes have stripped you of everything they can get their hands on except your daughter, you shall have a place to lay your head at night."
Mr. Barnes leapt to his feet at the sight of his daughter's retreating figure. "This is absurd. You can have it all, if only you will reconsider!"
She spun to face him once more. "I don't want it all! Don't you see that some things are more valuable than money or jewels? I know there are, and I'm going to set out on a journey to find them."
He opened his mouth to argue again, but Samantha had heard enough. She whirled on her heel and left the shipyard office, eager to be away from her father and the appalling trap he had tried to set for her.

Journey of the Heart
Volume One of The Starbuck Saga
Word Count: 77,000
Setting: Nantucket, USA, 1836
Rating: Sensual
Format: Instant PDF Download
Price: $4.99

Or get all THREE Starbuck Saga Romances for ONE low price:
Journey of the Heart, The Stolen Heart, Voyage of the Heart=Save $5 off the list price
The Starbuck Saga Bundle, Jacinta Carey=~~$14.97~~ ONLY $9.97

Reviews:
"This novel has all the fabulous elements we have come to expect from a top-class historical romance novel: the brave heroine, larger than life hero, and cataclysmic events which threaten to separate the loving couple and thwart their happy ending.
Dare Starbuck is a fantastic hero, a great ship captain and legend in his own time. Married to the sea and the job he loves, only a woman as determined as Samantha can ever win his heart and show him that females can cope at on board a whaler. The history is fascinating, the romantic scenes are explosive: this is sensual historical romance at its best." Evelyn Trimborn, Italian Interlude
"Talk about a whirlwind romance! This adventure on the high seas will leave you breathless. I found the historical background really gripping, turning page after page to see how the couple's relationship advanced and grew to the most sensual proportions. Action-packed and sexy, this is a wonderful start to a fantastic new series by this talented author." Erin Kennedy
"Pure delight, from the fantastic historical detail seamlessly blended into the background of this superb couple, Dare and Samantha, to the exotic locales and sensual love scenes. This one sizzles!" Annabelle Stevens, Love's Sweet Song

Journey of the Heart
Volume One of The Starbuck Saga
Word Count: 77,000
Setting: Nantucket, USA, 1836
Rating: Sensual
Format: Instant PDF Download
Price: $4.99

Or get all THREE Starbuck Saga Romances for ONE low price:
Journey of the Heart, The Stolen Heart, Voyage of the Heart=Save $5 off the list price
The Starbuck Saga Bundle, Jacinta Carey=~~$14.97~~ ONLY $9.97

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