“Thank you, my dear Lady Challoner, but I can hold it, as you can see. I am steady on my feet.” He took it from her. “Now step aside so I do not crush you!”
“Dear lord, yes,” someone said fervently. “He’s a terribly clumsy fellow.”
Iris did not retreat; she just moved to stand next to Nathan and looked up at Theo. Why did looking at this man make her feel fluttery inside?
“‘Why, Mr. Poddington, what has you here?’ Lady Nauticus cried.”
“He has the silliest voice,” a woman said.
Iris had noted that people insulted Theo and did not care if he overheard them. She thought it rude.
“‘I did not disappear like you believe, my dearest love. I was abducted and sent on a boat to America, but I escaped by diving overboard. However, the island I found myself on did not have passing ships. I then sailed on the back of a Dermochelys coriaceato civilization to reach you.’”
“Sea turtle,” Nathan whispered.
“Wait, wait!” the Duchess of Raven called. “Do we believe this utter rot? Diving overboard and swimming to a conveniently located uninhabited island. Catching a ride on a sea turtle indeed!”
“Good lord, he’s lying!” Dimity cried.
The murmurs suggested to Iris that some agreed and others did not. She wasn’t sure without having the background but felt the man’s story was not entirely plausible.
“He could eat coconuts,” Cambridge said. “Milk and food, after all.”
His sister shot him a glare.
“‘As I was ravaged by the sea and sun and struggling with weakness due to lack of nourishment, you were always in my head, my darling Lady Nauticus.’”
“He could have caught fish to eat, in fairness,” Gabe said.
“‘But I am now back and determined to find the scoundrel who sent me from you, my one true love,’” Theo added dramatically.
“I struggle with the turtle business if I’m honest,” the Duchess of Yardly said.
“Does anyone else feel he is laying things on a little thick?” Michael Deville asked. More murmurs.
“‘No!’ Lady Nauticus gasped. ‘Who would do such a thing?’”
Theo changed voices as he spoke, slipping effortlessly between them. But then she’d witnessed this for herself. His Plunge and Theo voices were vastly different.
“Old friends are perhaps the best friends,” Nathan said.
“Indeed,” Iris agreed.
“They knew you before circumstance forced you to change,” he added. “Some would say they knew the real you.”
She’d certainly felt that she knew Theo better than anyone as a child.
“‘I am your love, not him!’ Captain Broadbent declared.”
“Where did he come from?” Lord Raine demanded. “No one mentioned he’d entered the scene. Exceedingly shoddy writing from the author.”
“It’s getting awfully crowded on the covered parapet walk,” the Duchess of Yardly added.
“There are three people there. Hardly a crowd, Duchess,” Zach said.
“‘No! It is me you love, Captain Broadbent,’ Cerise cried,” Theo said.
“When did she appear?” Michael Deville said.
