And then?he wanted to prompt.
Tell me. Tell me who you truly are.
But of course she should not be rushed. He took a coin from his pocket and rubbed the ridged insignia between his fingers. After two beats, he flipped it in the air.
Casually, he asked, “Sir Jeffrey is... your mother’s brother?”
She chuckled and shook her head. “Sir Jeffrey is no blood relation to me at all. I am his wife’s niece. My aunt Bonnie.Shewas my father’s sister.”
“But Bonnie Starling is sister to the late Earl of Cranford,” said Jason.
She turned her head and raised an eyebrow, an expression ofAnd so she is.
“Your father was the Earl of Cranford?” Jason nearly shouted. “But your mother—”
And now he trailed off. He gave the coin another flip.
Ah. So that’s it.
Isobel turned away, staring again at the sunset.
Jason’s brain churned like the waves. So Isobel Tinker’s mother, renowned stage actress Georgiana Tinker, had had an affair with the Earl of Cranford. Isobel was the earl’s illegitimate daughter.
Jason hadn’t asked about Isobel’s parentage because it hadn’t seemed relevant. Her mother was an actress—this he knew. Isobel provided for her own living. She’d mentioned no brothers or guardian. The specifics of a father hadn’t come up.
“But were you acquainted with your father, the earl?” Jason asked. “Before he died?”
“I was,” she said simply. “When I was young. We saw him quite a lot until... well, until we didn’t. My mother and he had a falling-out. Not long after, she and I left England. She packed up the two of us and we sailed for France.”
“During wartime?” Jason asked the question, but his brain was hung up on the fact that she was the daughter of one of the wealthiest and most revered aristocrats in England. And she toiled away in a Mayfair travel shop.
Isobel was shaking her head. “It was ’99? So the war had not begun, but we remained in Europe, even after the fighting started. Officers and parliaments need a night out, don’t they? My mother lent her considerable talents to stages all over Europe. She was highly sought after and never wanted for work. It was... it was an irregular youth, to say the least, but it prepared me for the work I do at Everland Travel.”
“You never had a desire to perform?” he asked. Hedidn’t see Isobel as an actress; she was too sensible. It took too much effort to get her talking.
“Acting is my mother’s calling,” she said. “Before I went to live with my aunt and uncle, I’d given very little thought to my future whatsoever. Even when I was a guest of the Starlings—even when IknewI couldn’t remain with them forever—I’d not thought of my future. I was too occupied recovering from my past. Lack of planning is yet another reckless oversight of my youth.”
Why not plan to marry?Jason’s first thought. But then he remembered Drummond Hooke and his doomsday proposal. Who was she meant to marry? Her speech and manners were impeccable, and she was educated and well traveled. No common man—say, the butcher’s son or a sailor or miner—would suit her. Meanwhile a gentleman would...
He glanced at her, and her expression said,And now we can all acknowledge that I am a bastard daughter of an earl.
Jason frowned, indignant and frustrated on her behalf, but also frustrated with himself. It was thoughtless of him to compel her to spell it out.
“What?” she asked.
“Planning for one’s future,” he mused, the first, most innocuous thing that popped into his brain. “I, myself, have not managed this for shite.”
She narrowed her eyes. “One does not simply wake up and find himself working for the Foreign Office, Your Grace.”
“One does,” he countered. “Or rather, I did. For better or for worse. And then I became duke almost the same way. Although more relatives had to die for the second bit.”
Jason picked up his hat and reseated it over his eyes.He hadn’t wanted to talk about himself, and especially not the bloody dukedom, but he could have embarrassed her by raising the topic of her parentage. He’d say anything to salvage the conversation.
“You’re waiting for me to ask?” she said.
“Hmm?” He flipped the coin again.
“How does oneawaken in the Foreign Service?” she prompted.
