‘I think he is. But he doesn’t think he is good enough for me.’
‘You could do better,’ the duchess remarked dispassionately. In a shaft of morning sunlight the three naval officers, Tompion the secretary on their heels, paced back and forth along the Rose Garden terrace, hands behind backs, as though on the poop deck.
‘Only in worldly ways,’ Clemence retorted, then subsided at her aunt’s smile.
‘Indeed. Don’t you want a title?’ Clemence shook her head. ‘Or a great deal of money?’
‘I have quite a lot of money, that’s the problem—or a big part of it. He doesn’t wish to figure as a fortune hunter. I had an idea about that.’ The duchess’s eyebrows rose. ‘I don’t intend giving it away, or gambling it or anything foolish. I am going to speak to Mr Wallingford the lawyer this morning, with Cousin Sebastian. They will advise me.’ The energy that speaking about her idea had produced ebbed away again. She shrugged. ‘At least I can guard against fortune hunters in the future.’ Her eyes followed the three men who had come to an abrupt halt. Captain Melville was shaking Nathan by the hand. ‘I wonder what that is about.’
‘Doubtless Captain Stanier has had a brilliant idea for dealing with the pirates. He will be back at sea soon, no doubt.’
‘No doubt,’ Clemence agreed, biting her lip. ‘Aunt Amelia. You very kindly invited me for the Season, and I expect it is going to take some months to work matters out and deal with my uncle. But in the spring, I would like to go back to Jamaica.’
‘Alone?’ The duchess’s fine brows rose.
‘I will find a companion. I am going to run the business.’ She wiped her fingers on her napkin, surprised at how comforting that declaration felt, now she had made it. ‘I am enjoying England and London will be a great treat,’ she added, politely. ‘But Jamaica is my home.’ If she had to nurse a broken heart, home was a far better place to do it than a chilly foreign land.
‘I see. You believe that despite your scheme for removing your wealth as an obstacle, you will not secure an offer from your gallant captain?’
‘No, not now. There was a moment last night—if he had been going to speak, then surely it would have been then. It seemed I tempted fate to believe that somehow it would all come right.’ Clemence shrugged again, struggling against gloom again. ‘I only really believe it at three in the morning.’
‘Compromising yourself will not help,’ the duchess mused, earning a startled glance from Clemence. ‘There is nothing worse you can do that has not already happened.’ Clemence felt herself go scarlet and opened her mouth in protest. ‘Well, you know what I mean! Proposing to the man will only have him reiterating all those noble sentiments. You will just have to shock him. I don’t suppose Street could turn pirate again and kidnap you for ransom?’
‘He wouldn’t dare.’ Clemence smiled at the thought. ‘Eliza would give him the rough edge of her tongue. Oh, look, there they go now, walking the dog.’
‘That is one expression for it,’ her aunt remarked tartly as the three figures vanished into the deep shade of the shrubbery.
‘They will get married soon,’ Clemence assured her, making a mental note to speak to Street, very firmly, on the subject.
‘So I should hope. Now then, do you intend telling me what sent you flying from the drawing room last night?’
‘I do not know whether you would wish to hear, Aunt Amelia. It is something that happened on board the pirate ship. Something very…unpleasant.’
‘I have nerves of steel,’ the duchess said, pouring herself another cup of chocolate. ‘Come along.’
‘Very well.’ Perhaps talking about it would help chase the nightmare away. ‘I told you that Nathan had managed to send the Sea Scorpion after the decoy ship and when they came alongside there was a battle with men boarding and hand-to-hand fighting? Nathan had sent me below to free the merchant sailors locked in the hold and when I came up again he was fighting. I found myself with Street. A sailor came in with a pistol, he raised it and aimed it at my head.’
‘Oh, my goodness, the dance!’
‘Yes. It went off and for a moment I thought I was dead, but he missed me and Street shot him. In the face.’
‘Right in front of you,’ the duchess said faintly. ‘I can imagine what that must have been like, coming on top of fearing that you were about to die yourself. But that fat rascal saved your life.’
‘Yes, ma’am. Then, when Nathan left me here, I started to dream about it. Horrible nightmares. Poor Eliza tries to wake me, but she finds it hard.’
‘You know, deep in your mind, that you are safe when he is near? Yes, I can see the logic in that, although it never occurred to me that nightmares might have a basis in logic.’ She tossed her napkin on to the table, her face sombre. ‘Leave speaking to Street about your maid to me. It is not something that an unmarried girl should have to deal with.’
A footman came in. ‘Lord Sebastian’s compliments, Miss Ravenhurst, and he and Mr Wallingford will await your convenience in the library at ten.’
‘Thank you.’ Clemence stood up and squared her shoulders. Time to think about those hideous months after her father had died. Time to set the wheels of justice in motion. That at least she could achieve.
Two hours later Sebastian was looking grimly satisfied and Clemence felt drained. Mr Wallingford, who must, she thought wearily, be the human equivalent of a terrier crossed with a mole, tapped his piles of notes into a neat stack and beamed. He had burrowed after every detail and, having found it, dragged it out for inspection and shook it vigorously to see if anything else fell out. He appeared to find the process extremely stimulating.
‘Oh, very nice. We have him, we have him. He won’t be able to wiggle out of this.’
‘But he says he can forge my signature,’ Clemence fretted.
‘Nothing a smart young lawyer can’t deal with—and I have just the man in my offices. He’ll have the help of the naval representative out there, I understand—and the Governor will be receiving a communication from the highest level, informing him that he is to throw Naismith to the wolves. In the form—’ he smirked ‘—of my Mr Gorridge.’