Jack did not answer. He stood on a tinderbox.
“And you present yourself this evening,” Gavin continued, “in front of all my company, as a delegation from another country? You would deny your nationality, the very essence of who you are?Father was a bastard—”
Gavin sounded as if the statement had been dragged from the depths of his being, as if he’dneverspoken such words before, and there was a chance he hadn’t. Jack had never heard him say such a thing. When they were lads together, Gavin had always defended their sire’s decisions. Even Ben dropped his jaw in surprise.
“However,” Gavin continued, suppressed anger behind every word, “whatgave you the license to treatus, who loved you, as if we werenothing?” He leaned on the desk. “We believed you murdered or worse. And you were merely playing devil-may-care—?”
Jack rooted his feet to the ground. “I had reasons for not returning.”
“What were they?”
The rebellion that was a strong part of Jack’s nature bristled at his brother’s tone. When he was younger, he would have told him to sod off and be done with him.
However, he was wiser now and he had a mission to accomplish. An important mission. The future of his adopted country was at stake.
Besides, his family was owed an explanation, as much as it galled Jack to be forced in the matter.
“Do you remember the acting troupe that came to Windsor the week before I left?”
Gavin frowned and shrugged.
“Of course you don’t,” Jack agreed. “You were so busy studying that you seemed indifferent to girls—”
“I was not.”
“You gave that impression.”
“If one can’t act on the desire, why allow it?”
“I’m not that stoic, Gavin. Back then, women were always on my mind. In that acting troupe there was a particular young lady I took a fancy to and she liked me as well. I decided to go with them when they moved on.”
Gavin held up a hand for understanding. “You left school to pursue an actress? Was that a mature action?”
“It wasn’t my maturity doing the thinking.”
Jack’s comment startled a snort out of Ben, one he quickly stifled after a glare from the duke.
But Jack was not put off by Gavin’s disapproval. “You wanted the story. I’m giving it to you. I traveled with them to Portsmouth. The troupe was playing in a fair and I found myself cast in a role. I rather liked acting and I certainly enjoyed the lass, so, if someone was searching for me—and on my word of honor, I was not aware of any search—then, no, I did not want to be found. Unfortunately, my life took a bad turn. I was taken by an impress gang.”
“You were impressed?” Ben repeated.
“Aye. I served on His Majesty’s ship theHornet. They needed a crew for the Indies since most of theirs had succumbed to fever on the last run, and they chose me.”
“Did you tell them who you were?” Gavin demanded.
“So often it earned me a lashing,” Jack assured him. “They had no desire to hear me claim to be a duke’s son, especially to a man as important as Father. It would have been far easier for them to toss me overboard than reckon with the Duke of Baynton.”
“That was not right of them,” Ben said.
“True, but I found I liked the roving life. I’ve seen Bombay. I’ve sailed around the Horn and enjoyed my time in the West Indies. I became theHornet’s storekeeper. However, the first chance I had, I jumped ship.”
“And you didn’t think to come home?” Some of the anger had left Gavin’s tone.
“I would be a wanted man,” Jack explained. “The Crown does not look kindly upon deserters.”
“We would have taken care of that misunderstanding for you,” Gavin said.
“Aye, but after four years of living by my own wits, I’d come to like it. I was in an American port, Charleston, and I started walking until I couldn’t see the ocean.”
