Without looking at him Kenna asked, “Aren’t you going to have your eggs?”
“Weren’t you ever taught not to talk with your mouth full?”
Mortified, Kenna’s jaw clamped down on the bit of biscuit in her mouth which resulted in biting the tender inner lining of her cheek. “Oh!” Her head jerked up and pain welled in her eyes. She pushed away her plate and looked at Rhys accusingly.
Rhys slid her plate across the table toward him. “Thank you,” he said calmly, as if it had been her intention to share the better part of her breakfast with him.
Kenna watched incredulously and not a little enviously as Rhys coolly tucked into the remains of her meal. He smiled at her over a forkful of eggs. “Delicious.”
Kenna nursed the inside of her cheek with her tongue. “I’m glad you like them,” she said politely, refusing to be goaded by his complacency and amusement.
“What? You don’t hope I choke on them? That surprises me.”
I hope they give you indigestion. She said, “I am not so small-minded.”
“Oh? I hadn’t noticed. Dare I hope this morning’s altercation is responsible for the change?”
“If it pleases you. I shall strive to be accommodating.”
“I wonder,” Rhys said enigmatically, his eyes on her mouth. Almost immediately he looked away, buttering the remnants of a scone and popped it in his mouth.
Kenna watched him chew, wondering why it did not unnerve him as it did her when he stared. She added a generous dollop of milk to her tea and sipped it, refusing to let on the drink was so bland now as to be tasteless.
“My father is in London,” Rhys said quietly.
Kenna was not certain she had heard correctly. She raised her brows in question.
“Earlier you asked why I came to Dunnelly,” he explained. “My father is in London, staying at the duchess’s townhouse.” It was not necessary to add this was only part of the reason for his presence. Kenna would draw her own conclusions, accurate ones as far as they went.
“Have you spoken with him?”
“Briefly. It was enough.”
Kenna sensed his bitterness but chose not to remark upon it. “Your brother?”
“Richard is with him. They were part of President Madison’s diplomatic mission to work out the terms of peace between the United States and England. It was finished last month. They’ll be leaving soon. I understand Father’s business suffered great losses during the war.”
“And you? Will you go to Boston with them?”
“No.” He did not mention he had not been asked. “Neither has forgiven me for staying in London while the British and Americans fought. They were of the opinion I should rush across the Atlantic and make their cause mine.”
“Why didn’t you? There are many people here who say that war was avoidable, brought on by our single-mindedness. I believe the Americans took exception to our Orders in Council, barring their right to trade freely.” She paused as Rhys’s amused smile caught her attention. “Why are you laughing at me? I am not some whey-faced miss who knows nothing of what goes on in the world!”
Rhys’s expression sobered immediately. “Then you will recall the Orders in Council were adopted to stop the United States from trading with, and therefore supporting, Napoleon’s empire. England was at war with France.”
“How generous of you to defend your adopted land.”
Rhys shook his head, “Let us say I understand England’s position, but I don’t applaud it. For instance, I could never sanction the Royal Navy boarding American ships and impressing free men. There is a matter I could have fought for. It was that blatant infringement of those rights which rallied the Americans to war. The Orders of Council angered men in trade like my father. Impressment outraged a nation.”
“But you didn’t join the Americans,” Kenna pointed out.
“It was 1812,” Rhys sighed heavily. “I had just returned from the Peninsula, Kenna.” There was an ache, a weariness in his voice. “I was tired of the atrocities of war.”
Silence settled between them and Kenna looked away, unable to face the raw pain in his gray eyes. Rhys was more complex than she had suspected, loyal not to any one country, but to himself, to the principle he believed in. She wished she did not find him intriguing.
“The things you said to me in the woods,” Rhys said. “They’re not true, Kenna.”
She put her cup down sharply at his abrupt change of subject and the serious tone of his voice. “You’ve always said so.”
