Read "Beauvallet" by Georgette Heyer online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
"And so we came off," says Joshua Dimmock, sure of the last word. "You say a miracle? Ho, we do not count such trifles as miraculous in my master's service! Yet I allow it to have been a feat, and do not look upon my own part in it as contemptible. Sir Nicholas owned himself to be somewhat in my debt: a very unusual thing in him, I may say. However, we had some talk together whiles I was trussing his points that next day in his cabin, and ‘Joshua, my man,' says he, ‘be sure you are a rogue and a windbag, but I owe you some thanks for this month's work. ' This was very acceptable to me, as you may be sure, not less so than a certain token that went with it. I wear it upon my finger to this day. Ay, a rare stone: it came out of the Indies.
"But I run on. Sir Nicholas having said as much, and more, and maybe puffed me up a very little in mine own esteem -- for I took no account of certain holiday terms such as toss-pot and hemp-seed that went with his words, these being no more than the genial way he uses -- he did me the honour to inform me that he was to be married that morning.