Page 53 of The Lord's Compass
CHAPTER17
Eric had been expecting this. What other result could there be when the two of them had taken a journey to the continent together without a chaperone?
He was not opposed but rather pleased about the situation, since he and Faith were getting on so well.
What he wasn’t prepared for was the look of horror on Faith’s face.
“Father, you cannot be serious,” she said, looking from him to Eric and back again.
“Oh, I am very serious,” Lord Embury said, crossing his arms over his chest. “Come, Lord Ferrington, we shall sit in my cabin and work out the details as we set sail.”
He began to lead them across the deck to the cabin that he had claimed as his own, one which Eric would guess was the most spacious on the ship, when he stopped suddenly and whirled around with rather surprising dexterity for a man of his girth.
“Where do you think you are going?” he asked Faith, who was following along.
“I am accompanying you,” she said resolutely. “If my fate is going to be discussed, then I am going to be there to discuss it.”
“This is not how these things work, Faith,” her father said, but she crossed her arms and remained rooted to the spot. Eric loved her stoicism.
“I am not my sister,” she said. “I know Hope allowed you to make these arrangements, but I will not be sitting outside the door with my ear to the keyhole while you and Eric decide everything. Besides, do you want me to remain out here alone in plain sight for all of the crew members?”
Her father let out a sigh and scrubbed a hand over his face, indicating that Faith had, at least, won this argument.
“Fine,” he said through gritted teeth. “But you will just listen to the conversation.”
Faith snorted in obvious disagreement but she wisely said nothing until they were within the cabin, seated around the small dining table that was shifting back and forth with the ship as it began its crawl out to sea, although Eric knew that a frigate such as this would quickly pick up speed once it reached the open water.
“So tell me, Father,” Faith began, ignoring her instructions not to speak, “how did you know where I was? And why did you travel all this way yourself?”
“One of your mother’s acquaintances, Lady Maude, sought out Hope and Whitehall upon her travels to Scotland,” he explained. “She wrote to us, and imagine our surprise when we learned that you were nowhere near the pair of them. Being that your sister also ran off not too long ago, I was immediately suspicious. I hired a private investigator to find you. It didn’t take long to find someone who could place you on the packet ship to Bilibao.”
Eric wondered whether their detour to Bilibao was fortunate or unfortunate.
He knew the packet ship they had sailed upon had been heading there originally. Eric had convinced the captain to make a stop for them in San Sebastian – for a bit of extra coin.
As unhappy as Lord Embury was now, if they had missed him, he didn’t want to think about what could have happened to the Englishman while he was searching for his daughter in Spain.
“As you know, I am well aware of this treasure hunt due to my involvement in the clue that Hope and Whitehall found not long ago,” he said, to which they nodded, remembering very well the codes that Lord Whitehall had been asked to break, and the role Lord Embury had to play. In the end, they’d had to share with him the reason behind their work.
“What were you thinking?” Lord Embury asked Faith now, continuing before she had a chance to answer. “How could some treasure be so important that you were willing to risk everything?”
“That’s the thing,” she said, slowly. “What did I have to risk? My reputation, sure, but I have no wish to marry anyway. So I am a scandal. Since Hope is already married, what does it matter? I wanted to do something that had meaning. To have a bit of adventure, see the world? Is that so bad – if no one ever finds out?”
Eric admired Faith for her words, knowing she was likely realizing the truth as she spoke it. He understood that thirst for adventure, that need for something more. He had everything an Englishman could ever want, and yet he was always chasing after the next dare.
“You know, ever since you and your sister were born, people have always said to me, ‘Lord Embury, you poor man, to not have a son,’” Lord Embury said, leaning toward Faith, and Eric found himself ready to stand and defend her, even if she was the man’s daughter. “I always told them it didn’t matter, that I was blessed with the two most wonderful daughters a man could ever ask for and that was enough for me. Between you and your sister and the actions you have taken in the past few months, however, I am now beginning to wonder if they were right!”
“I assure you, Lord Embury, that they are still the daughters you always thought they were,” Eric said, attempting to appease the man, but Lord Embury ignored him.
“I thought I had raised you better. Now, you have no choice but to marry the man you attached yourself to upon these travels,” her father said, sitting back in his chair as he finally assessed Eric.
Eric shrugged. It was what he had wanted all along, anyway. True, he would have preferred that Faith came to this decision on her own, but if Eric was going to be forced to marry, he was glad it was to Faith.
“Understandable, Lord Embury,” he said.
“Understandable?” Faith said, her mouth opening, her agreement not as ready. “Father, when you first caught Hope with Lord Whitehall in the middle of the night, you said you would forget it ever happened. You didn’t allow that to bind their fates until they chose it.”
“That is true,” he said. “But that was in the study of my home. This is an entirely different situation!”
