Taryn's Snippit Sundays~ She was a beauty all right. CASTAWAY HEARTS #historical #excerpt

Twice orphaned, Catherine Barrett arrives in Virginia a stranger to her closest kin and secretly engaged to the one man her family would disapprove of—her seafaring grandfather’s apprentice. Add to her troubles, the rich and intriguing older brother of her secret betrothed, Dawson Randolph, a plantation owner who is as heartless as he is handsome. Heartbroken when her intended sets sail for his maiden voyage, Catherine finds it difficult to adjust to her new life, hoping to befriend the one man who is, undoubtedly, the match her grandparents wish for her. Dawson’s distaste for her secret engagement to his brother makes it clear he has no designs for marriage to anyone. Especially her.

Ten years since the tragic loss of his young wife and infant son, Dawson Randolph is convinced love and marriage is a fool’s game and resents being pardon to his brother’s hidden engagement. Damned by his instant attraction and his own growing desire, Dawson vows to befriend her against his better judgment. Determined to bring her happiness in a time of fear and uncertainty, Dawson puts aside his animosity to become her confidant, only to realize Catherine holds the key to his heart. When tragedy strikes at sea, Catherine’s guilt pushes Dawson to the fringes of her life as madness consumes her.

Can his love save her before she drowns in her own grief? Or is he doomed to love her from a distance, always in the shadow of her love for his dead brother?

Picking up where we left off last Sunday-

     At eighteen, she was a beauty all right, just as Nathaniel said. Young and filled with the glow of purity, she could easily break a heart without knowing she had done so.

      Catherine’s soft auburn hair, though done in pinned up ringlets, had obvious length and he wondered how far it fell when let loose from its restraints. Her eyes were pristine blue, the color of jewels, and her days on the ship for those few months gave her a brilliant glow.

      Yes, Catherine Barrett was something else, but his brother would be better off to forget this one. She carried herself with propriety, much as her grandmother did, and he could not fathom what his brother found intriguing about her. She was stiff and prim and seemed snobbish. What had drawn Nathaniel to her to begin with?

      Without a doubt, Mrs. Barrett would never stand for her granddaughter to marry a lowly ship captain, though she herself married one. In his opinion, the older woman held herself higher than her station in life for as long as he knew the couple. If Catherine was as proper as her grandmother was, he could neither fathom what had drawn her to his brother, unless she believed he would make a wealthy living as a sea captain. Perhaps Miss Barrett was wiser of the world than he suspected. Perhaps she hoped to align herself with a man who could provide her with the lifestyle to which she seemed accustomed.