He had meant to have the local tailor knock him up a new pair, but thanks to all the work that needed doing on the bloodyBoadicea, it had completely slipped his mind. It was too late now, and a long night of constriction beckoned.
“I cannot think of anyone…” The words dried in his throat when he saw Elizabeth’s name three-quarters of the way down, and not just hers, but her husband’s.
Splendid.
Now he wouldn’t only have to suffer the blasted reception in his too-tight dress breeches, he would have to suffer her too. For the first time since the last time he had seen her, when he had practically begged on bended knee for her to leave the vice admiral she had left him for. And worse, he would have to face her alone.
Unless…
Would it be improper to ask Georgie to accompany him?
With a beautiful woman on his arm, he would feel less self-conscious facing that treacherous witch again. “Obviously, I will be bringing a guest.” He thrust the list back at the officer. “A lady. So see that a space at the table is added.”
“Do you have her name, sir?” said the man, riffling in his coat for a pencil while Felix’s ears pricked up.
“Yes. Miss… um… Rowe. Miss Georgina Rowe.”
Felix grinned at that. It was the sort of irritating and knowing grin that confirmed his preoccupation with Georgie had become the source of much family gossip, but at least he waited until the officer had gone before he spoke. “So Ada is right and you do fancy Miss Rowe?”
“Of course not.”
“Then why else would you be taking her to your posh dinner?”
“Because it is expected for an officer to arrive with a lady, that is why, and because I can hardly take either Ada or Marianne, Miss Rowe is the only option left.” Harry tried to deflect by chivvying the boy toward the gawdy, daisy-painted sail which had earned him the unfortunate whispered nickname of Captain Petals amongst thedisgruntled but now hard-working shipwrights. “Let’s get out of the harbor and I’ll give you a go at navigating.”
Felix was still grinning as he hoisted the sail a few minutes later. “Ada says that you look at Miss Rowe the same way as Norbert does a sausage.”
“I do not.”
“You do stare at her funny, Uncle Harry. Especially when she isn’t looking and you don’t think anyone else is.”
He decided not to dignify that with an answer and gestured for them to change seats, reasoning that if his nephew was occupied with the rudder, he would be less inclined to make mortifyingly perceptive comments. “You see that ship anchored over there? Aim straight for that and then once you reach it, turn hard starboard and we’ll hug the coast all the way home.”
The boy did and then grinned again. “Miss Rowe looks at you in much the same way, so we all think that she fancies you too.” News that made Harry’s heart soar.
“I think you all have too much time on your hands if you’ve got nothing better to do than make up nonsensical gossip to amuse yourselves. Now kindly focus on our course or I’ll take the rudder back.”
“You’rethirty, Uncle Harry.” He managed to imbue enough horror into that number to make it sound ancient. “And Mama says that thirty is the perfect age for a man to settle down because you should have sowed all your wild oats by then.”
Huh!The chance would be a fine thing. But he was absolutely not having a conversation about his depressingly barren field of oats with a ten-year-old. “Firstly, for a man like me with a career like mine, thirty is far too young to settle down. Forty would be more convenient.” Although even as he said it, it depressed him that he had no choice but to eschew any chance of love for at least another decade.“Secondly, and most importantly, escorting Miss Rowe to a formal naval dinner is in no way a proposal of marriage, young man, nor is it confirmation of yours and Ada’s ridiculous theory that the pair of us fancy one another.”
“If you say so, Uncle Harry.” The wretch had the gall to wink. “But a fancy dinner might be a good start.”
Harry ignored him to focus on the looming ship that had been anchored in the Sound all week in the narrow channel between Devil’s Point and Cremyll. While it served as the perfect navigational marker for a novice sailor like Felix, as it kept the boy well away from the busy shipping lanes and the currents which this little sloop was no match for, it was odd that it was there when there were plenty of moorings in the merchant harbor a mile away. Odder still was the rowboat currently struggling to get toward it. Both the men in it were fighting the waves and making little headway while their boat seemed to be filled with supplies from the mainland.
“Ahoy!” Harry cupped his hands to shout above the stiff breeze then motioned to Felix to sail closer. “Is your vessel in distress?” That seemed the only conceivable reason that it was anchored in choppy sea rather than beside a tranquil quay.
“That depends on your definition of distress,” hollered one of the rowers back.
“We’re watertight and not sinking,” shouted the other, waving them away.
As that answer did nothing to calm Harry’s uneasy curiosity, and because something about this ship now felt off, he told Felix to keep heading for it before he shouted back, “Then allow me to give you a tow.” He didn’t think the fine-looking three-masted and at least three-hundred-and-fifty-ton ship looked like a pirate ship. Or even believe that there was any potential threat of pirates here in Plymouth withall of His Majesty’s superior naval firepower, but something about it was odd. As one of the king’s officers, he had a duty to investigate, and what better way to do that than to offer some help?
Help they gratefully accepted, so Harry tossed them a line, then swapped places with his nephew to steer his little sailboat close enough to take a peek at what was going on. “She’s a fine ship.” And she was. Beneath the peeling paint on her hull, he could tell she wasn’t much more than a decade old.
“Aye, she is,” agreed one of the men. “But sadly wasted on a useless man who cares more for the hazard tables and whoring than he does for his business.”
“Don’t speak out of turn.” His companion shot the first man a warning glare. “He’ll offload you if he hears you and then you’ll have no job, you fool.”
