Sophia can't believe he'll come after her. There is endless character introspection in this, and a lot of "how could he want to marry a scrub at the inn". By 'a lot' I mean too fucking much. This book definitely had no editor, and if I have to read "a scrub at the inn" once more I will have to scrub my eyes out with bleach.
Anyway, guess what? He comes after her, surprise.
Wow, so hot. Anyway he's a decent gent, he says if she doesn't actually wanna marry him, he'll just give her money to go to London and do her own thing. But anyway he shows her his nice house and she agrees to marry him that afternoon with a lieutenant as a witness and then they're gonna come back to that house and she'll be happy ever after.
But FIRST: a lady needs a new damn wardrobe.
Is "fashion babies" a period accurate term for model dolls? Idk man, idk. Anyway now that she's all dressed up in finery:
Mmm, like a newly ripened fruit. They go back to their room at the inn before they're actually married, and they start kissing, and Sophia tells him since they last met she's learnt how to butcher pigs (Fortune: "Stop! Stop! You're not only beautiful enough to blind a man, but useful as well?") and Fortune has (~dark angsty man moment~) learned to kill people. Nevertheless:
So, they have their quickie wedding that afternoon, and after that they are duty-bound to attend the Admiral's ball instead of consummating the thing.
In spite of this picture, the newlyweds head off to the ball...
[sounds of incoherent fury]
...and everything at the ball goes well until Sophia is interrogated by some bitch called Caroline, where they have this venomous exchange:
It is soon explained that Fortune is not a cad, and Caroline just saw him get half-naked once to rescue a man overboard. It's all good. It is never explained why Nancy Price keeps flipflopping between "Admiral Hazelton" and "Admiral Hazleton".
But spelling is the least of our worries, because the gilt buttons are back. And hard.
Sexy. Or... not?
Sophia, please, don't say that to your husband. Anyway, oh no, shock and horror: there is NO TIME TO ACTUALLY HAVE SEX, because GUESS WHO'S BANKRUPT NOW? Fortune's prize agent ran off with all the prize money in his coffers so now it's Fortune's turn to be in major debt and on the run from the bailiffs. Cue: much angsting about who is poorer than who. We get it, guys. Neither of you is a catch.
We are holed up in a new inn and arguing some more about what to do. "I'm the millstone around your neck"; "no I'm the millstone", and so on. Finally they decide that Sophia should come to sea with him as the Captain's wife.
Sophia gets some last minute lessons from the landlady on how to be a Captain's wife at sea, and Fortune goes to ask the Admiral's permission to take her. He also leaves her a bunch of letters he wrote to her back in the day when she was rich and he didn't dare talk to her, and she reads these. They are... er... interesting. You may never know how I whisper your name under my breath when I stand along the wall and watch you dance. I wish death and damnation to every man who touches your hand. Mmkay.
Permission is emphatically granted? WHICH MEANS WE'RE FINALLY GOING TO SEA, HURRAH!
look ANOTHER beautiful bee!set <3