Page 29 of Unforeseen Affairs
“Why not?”
Where to begin? She damn well knew this sort of conversation was highly irregular in any company, but he and she were two young people of the opposite sex, neither one married, dining alone! In public, where anyone might see! Did she not possess an ounce of caution?
In addition to that, Colin had never before been presented with even the implication that any Gearing was anything but a paragon of chivalry and honor. He would not hear it.
A wave of lightheadedness washed over him, but he refused to acknowledge it. In his experience that only made it worse. He would not allow Miss Sedley to see him that way.
“Because,” he said curtly, reaching for his own mug of punch, “a Gearing is nothing if not loyal.”
“Is that so? To his wife, as well?”
Something about her eyes twinkled. She was having a go at him, wasn’t she?
“Of course,” he said resolutely, punch in hand. “To one’s country, to one’s commander, to one’s wife. Perhaps above all else.”
He took a determined swig.
Huh, he thought, glancing down at the mug. Miss Sedley had been correct on the way over—thiswasthe best punch he’d ever had in the city. Colin set it down warily. Just what was she about, frequenting establishments such as this? And without a chaperone?
He ought to tread carefully, or this association could stain his hitherto pristine reputation. She might not have a care for her own, but it very much mattered to him. Colin recalled Beaky at the Army and Navy Club that morning, slumped atop a table in the Coffee Room. Face unshaven, cheeks dark and puffy under the eyes. Utterly defeated. Colin could not allow that to happen to himself, especially as he had to contend with this business about his head. The specter of Commodore Gearing loomed over him.Some will think you… unfit for service.
Feeling spooked, Colin hastily took another drink.
“My father was not married to my mother,” Miss Sedley said, with something tantamount to glee.
“What?!” Colin coughed down the punch.
“She was an actress,” Miss Sedley said with a shrug. “He fathered me when he was similar to your age. They never married.”
Colin racked his brain for all the Sedleys he’d exchanged pleasantries with at parties. There weren’t many he could recall specifically, aside from a witty and charming young woman with golden hair and a crusading member of Parliament who was perhaps ten years Colin’s senior. Neither was a likely candidate to be her sire.
“But you’re—”
“A Sedley? Oh yes, undoubtedly. But my father did not claim me until I was fifteen.”
Egad. Just within the last hour he’d stood before Miss Sedley in the Egyptian Hall, recounting the hateful charges against Beaky, and had gone so far as to say the abandonment of the mother of one’s child was a spectacularly egregious act.
Colin felt the heat of embarrassment prickling across his shoulders.
“I… I did not mean to slander your father, when I spoke of my friend’s own predicament earlier. You must accept my—”
“Your apologies?” Miss Sedley tilted her head. “You promised to never apologize to me again.”
“Yes, for the same transgression twice!” Colin cried out, frustrated and perplexed by this odd and vexing creature. “This one is new. You must allow me to do the decent thing.”
Far too late, he realized someone was standing alongside their table.
“Sir Colin?”
Colin looked up. “Quartermaster Crosby,” he choked out.
“Well met, sir,” Crosby said, glancing at Miss Sedley with curiosity. “I confess I was a bit surprised when I thought I had spied you from over there, but now I see it truly is you.”
Of course a quartermaster could not help but verify his hunch, whether it be with a sextant and a navigational chart or, as in this case, simply his own eyes. Thankfully, the thought of navigationput Colin back in a working mindset, and he settled easily back into the usual talk.
“And how are you getting on? Are you on leave?”
“I’m posted to theHercules, sailing in a week’s time, sir.”
