Something unbearably aching and hard caught in her throat. Surely it was just smoke from the steam engines that rendered her eyes tender and stinging. Not the memories of Tristan giggling as they played hide-and-seek in Hawthorn’s attics or conspired to pinch treacle tarts from Cook.
Uffa.When would Tristan’s loss cease hurting?
In her peripheral vision, Mr. Penn-Leith leaned both elbows on the railing, hands hanging limp at the wrists.
All traces of Ethan Penn-Leith, lauded poet and shameless flirt, had fallen away. In his place was a quiet, steady man. The sort to exchange whispered confidences with on a dark night. To wipe the fevered brow of a fussing babe or to share outrageous gossip over an intimate dinner.
The sort of man with whom to build a life.
A life that would never be hers, even if she could bring herself to love and trust any man to that extent.
And didn’t that simple thought make her throat ache all the more?
How cruel of Kendall to rob her of such a simple pleasure. To coerce her into allying her future with some crotchety old man who would attempt to dominate her just as their father had their mother. And how bitter that every man she had ever known had only ever administered lessons in betrayal and distrust.
“My brother, Malcolm, is my best friend. He always has been.” Mr. Penn-Leith clasped his hands together. “But it is that closeness which gave him the power tae betray myself.”
Allie looked at Mr. Penn-Leith, startled by his unexpected and unprompted personal admission. “Betray you? How?”
He waved a hand. “’Tis not much of a tale, I suppose. Unbeknownst to me butnotto him, we both courted the same woman. She chose him over myself. Suffice it to say, it may have taken me a couple of years and a thousand miles of travel, but I no longer harbor anger toward Malcolm.”
Allie’s mind snagged on those simple facts. Mr. Penn-Leith had courted another woman—the same woman Kendall had mentioned? And she had chosen hisbrotherinstead? Was the woman mad?
“That is noble of you,” Allie replied.
The smallest grin flashed across Mr. Penn-Leith’s face. “My point is this—love that was once there simply doesn’t die. It may become battle-worn and weary, but it always remains. It merely takes time for hurt to heal.”
“Unless one party continually injures the other. In such a case, love becomes a bludgeoning weapon.”
“Perhaps. Though that is a rather grim way of—”
“There you are, Lady Allegra.” Kendall’s aristocratic voice sounded from behind them.
Allie stiffened and gave Mr. Penn-Leith a long-suffering look before turning around to face her twin.
Her brother loomed. “Providing a bit of a show for the crew, are we?” He glanced meaningfully between Allie and Mr. Penn-Leith.
“A show?” Allie peered around Kendall and noted that, yes, a number of the crew appeared to be loitering about, eyes and ears bent their way. She had been so engrossed in her conversation with Mr. Penn-Leith, she hadn’t noticed.
“Precisely,” her twin said, jerking his chin at the Scot. “You are dismissed, Mr. Penn-Leith. I believe there is an extra chair in the cabin where my man of business has set up. As I said when we discussed this trip, I expect you to limit your interactions with my sister. You are meant to dispel rumors, not create them. Do not make me regret inviting you along.”
Mr. Penn-Leith smiled, tight and controlled. “Of course, Your Grace.” He bowed. “Lady Allegra.”
Allie watched the poet’s broad shoulders as he walked purposefully across the deck, the confident set of the hat atop his head, the way the wind tugged at his coat—
“I expect you to abide by the contract we signed,” Kendall intoned.
Allie whipped her gaze to his. “I have. I cannot be blamed if your actions throw Mr. Penn-Leith into my path.”
“Ah. And that is why you spent a quarter-hour just now chatting with the man? He was in your path?” Kendall snorted in derision. “Of all the women in London, I would have thought you above making calf eyes at Ethan Penn-Leith.”
That dropped Allie back into reality with a jolting thud. “Pardon?”
Kendall spared a glance to where Mr. Penn-Leith had disappeared below deck. “Every woman in Britain adores that man. It’s practically a rite of passage these days. A young lady arrives at adulthood when she trades her plaits for a chignon, buys gowns for her first Season, and procures an unrequited tendre for the Highland Poet. Congratulations. You have accomplished all three tasks in less than a month. As a Gilbert, such perspicacity is to be expected. On the whole, however, I would have hoped you to be less pedestrian than other young ladies.”
Allie stared at her twin for a long moment.
Was her softening toward Ethan Penn-Leith so readily obvious? Or was her brother merely being cruel and needing to assert himself?
