And how much did she care?
“Unlike some gentlemen I know,” she said, “Mr. Penn-Leith is unfailingly gentle and kind to me.”
“Every lady thinks so. It’s part of the man’s legendary charm—his ability to make each woman feel seen and valued.”
Yes, but one woman had chosen another man over Mr. Penn-Leith. His own brother had played him false. Wounds that had cut deep and required years to heal.
The sort of pain that Allie herself well understood.
The dratted Scot weaseled his way under her formidable emotional defenses with terrifying ease.
Anima gemella, indeed.
“Do you even hear yourself, Kendall?” she said in return. “Disparaging another man for the talents you so clearly lack? Mr. Penn-Leith, at least, had the courtesy to explain to me why he was on your ship in the first place. Something you yourself declined to do.”
Kendall’s nostrils flared. “I do not habitually tell you of my dealings with inconsequential servants or hangers-on, my lady. Why should the matter of Mr. Penn-Leith be any different? It never surfaced as important enough to bring to your attention.”
Mmm. Allie wasn’t sure she bought that arrogant logic. It was just as likely that Kendall had wanted to assert his supremacy over her.
“And now that you have closeted me on a ship with Mr. Penn-Leith, how am I to avoid him?”
“You are clever. I am sure you will figure it out.”
“How typical.” Allie glared up at him. “You place me in a nearly impossible situation and plan to crow victory when I slip up.”
“Avoid the Scot, and there will be no issue,” he shot back. “But heed my words of warning, Lady Allegra. Ethan Penn-Leith is nothing more than a showman. An actor playing a part. Do not confuse such superficiality with genuine sincerity. Charswood will be the gentleman for you.” He waved a hand for Allie to precede him. “Lady Whipple has requested your company below deck.”
Ah, yes. Her aunt’s promised gossip awaited.
With a grimace, Allie allowed Kendall to lead her away.
Her brother was wrong, of course.
Yes, Ethan Penn-Leith was a performer of a sort. He had to be, reciting and dramatizing his writing. And if the persona of the Highland Poet were the sum total of his substance, he would be easy to dismiss.
But, no.
It was the brilliance of Ethan, the man himself, who held her captive.
Allie heeded herbrother’s directive and attempted to avoid Ethan. She did not approach or speak with him for the rest of the day.
But the close quarters of the ship thwarted her nonetheless.
Mostly, as Allie acknowledged, because Ethan Penn-Leith was just so damn likable.
After being summarily dismissed, instead of licking his wounds with Kendall’s man of business, Mr. Penn-Leith set about charming the crew.
And so, for the rest of the day, Allie watched Mr. Penn-Leith laugh with the first mate and captain. He regaled the officers with a story of his time in Rome. Something about a pickpocket, a lemon, and a monkey that involved a lot of screeching and flapping of his arms.
Allie had looked on, helplessly bewitched along with the crew.
It wasn’t that she was unaware of Mr. Penn-Leith’s magnetism. Her mother had cultivated relationships with similarly engaging men during their years in Venice.
It was more that Mr. Penn-Leith, for all his brilliance and success, didn’t take himself or his craft too seriously. Though he was easily the most famous person in London, he hadn’t let the fact go to his head. Instead, he laughed at his own foibles. He took the officers’ ribbing with a chuckle and self-deprecating grin.
Case in point, after a lunch of cold meats and cheese, Allie found him in the midst of a group of midshipmen. The men were ostensibly repairing ropes around the main mast, but two sailors begged Mr. Penn-Leith for a story. Ever amiable, Mr. Penn-Leith recounted a garden party he had once attended where an amorous ram decided that Mr. Penn-Leith was to be his next conquest. Though hilarious, the account would have been mortifyingly embarrassing to any other human being.
But not to Ethan Penn-Leith.
