دانلود رمان انگلیسی “نامزدی”

Ifaced certain death, so agreeing to marry a woman I despised in a harmless bet could hardly be held against me. The arm of the Atlantic Ocean was royally throttling our small packet ship, and I daresay my six comrades and I were incapable of thinking sensibly under the sound beating. None of us cared to be leg shackled, yet a marriage wager seemed to be the only form of distraction any of us could imagine. The boat pitched, and I clung to my berth to keep from rolling off. Leonard was lying in the short bunk opposite me, scowling at the wall, and my leg just stopped him from going over the edge. It was my turn to commit to the bet, and I planned to do it before we capsized. “If I live, I swear I’ll do my duty by Miss Delafield.” I had to yell the words to be heard over the roar of the storm. “You’ll never marry her,” Leonard growled, his mood especially foul. “She hates you, or did you hit your head too hard to remember?” Thomas —the man I had to thank for this asinine bet—hollered back with a laugh from the berth opposite mine. His dark hair was matted in sweat, with only a straw-filled pillow between him and Ambrose—who we affectionately called Rosie. Rosie, always the planner, looked ill, and it was hard to say if his shiver was from the icy December temperatures or the talk of marriage. Standing beside the bunk, Andrew—always responsible—desperately tried to keep the lantern swinging from the deck head from going out. There were only three beds in our cramped private cabin, but once the storm hit fever pitch, we somehow squeezed all seven of us into the crowded room. If we were going to die, we would die together.