"My back? Oh…those. Hmm…well…I got whipped." Allison let out a sigh of exasperation.

"Well, I know that. What plantation-raised girl wouldn’t know what those were. Why were you whipped?" Morgan wrapped her belt around her waist and buckled it, then looked up at Allison, a sad look in her eye.

"Well, Miss Allison, that’s a very long story, one that will have to wait ‘til some other time." Allison crawled out of the bed and padded over to Morgan to wrap her arms tightly around her. Morgan sighed softly into her hair as she returned the hug.

"Good luck," she whispered.

"Thank you. I think I’m going to need it." Allison stepped back and looked up into Morgan’s eyes.

"Does she mean that much to you, Morgan?" Allison asked bravely. Morgan cocked an eyebrow at her then flashed her a crooked grin.

"Well, Allison, she used to. Apparently things have changed." With that remark Morgan turned and left before Allison could figure out how to take the observation, leaving her staring at the door.

"Okay…so what’s changed?" she asked the empty room. Sighing to herself she curled up in her chair and picked up her box. Morgan had floored her when she sent the presents back with Jacob earlier in the week, and Allison found herself quite intrigued with the puzzle box. The captain had told her the next day that the craftsman had said there were secret compartments, three of them in fact. Allison had found two, but the third still had her stumped. She had been working at the box a little every day until it frustrated her, prompting her to put it away. She didn’t work at it long before setting it aside in exchange for her journal. She ran her hand over the soft leather cover, admiring the intricate tooling that decorated the binding before sliding her finger along side her marker and opening it. She’d filled quite a few pages since receiving it, and the pages were packed with her small, slanting script and the margins were filled with sketching. As she flipped through it her eye caught the full-page sketch she had drawn of Morgan as the woman sat at the desk bowed over her log. She was rather proud of the job she’d done and found herself wishing she had some charcoal sticks to use like her aunt had when she was a child. Pushing the thoughts aside for the moment, she started adding her next entry.

Allison frowned at the drying letters.

Allison paused and looked down at the page in front of her, surprised at the stab of jealousy that shot through her as she wrote. Sighing she wiped off the tip of her quill and placed the stopper back in her ink bottle. Laying the book open next to the chair to let the ink dry she got up and walked over to the window. She frowned as she saw the scruffy thug that she had seen following Morgan days before apparently answer a summons and go inside the hotel. A kernel of worry started to turn over on itself in her stomach and she moved away from the window and sat back in the chair, ears straining to hear footsteps in the hallway.

Morgan took a deep breath and knocked on the door to Carolyn's office, entering at the summons from within. Carolyn sat behind her desk, looking very business-like as she worked in a ledger spread open in front of her, her hair tied at the nape of her neck and wearing a demure high-necked gown. She glanced up at Morgan briefly when she walked in then turned her eyes back to her work, gesturing Morgan to one of the chairs on the other side of the desk. Refusing to give the other woman the advantage she walked around the desk and propped her hip against the corner, reaching out to gently tuck a stray strand of hair behind Carolyn's ear. The blonde looked up at her, emotions warring with each other behind her eyes, and Morgan took control of the silence, leaning down to brush a very soft kiss against her lover's lips. Carolyn sighed and leaned her head against Morgan's arm.

"I'm still furious with you." Carolyn said softly. Morgan frowned a little, thrown off balance by the lack of confrontation.

"I know."

"Why'd you leave?"

"I couldn't sleep... and I didn't want to wake you. You were sleeping so peacefully." Carolyn looked up at her, accusations ready on her lips. Morgan reached out and rested her finger against them. "Nothing happened, Carolyn. I promise you. I got up and walked around for a while then went up there and fell asleep. I woke up when you knocked on the door and didn't realize she was that close to me." Carolyn looked at her skeptically.

"Morgan, you spend all your time with her, coming to me only when you're so full of pent-up frustration you can't handle it anymore, then as soon as you're finished with me you go right back to her. Now I'm supposed to believe that you didn't want her in your arms? What do you take me for, Captain, a fool?" Morgan felt the taut muscles of her back relax a little as Carolyn's true nature crept out from behind the demure, vulnerable mask she had tried to influence Morgan with.