Page 61 of Unforeseen Affairs
“Quite alright?” Beaky echoed in disbelief. “I thought you meant to do right by her.”
His eyes were rimmed with red, and his fine hair looked flat and greasy, like he hadn’t yet had a wash that morning.
“There were never any promises,” Colin said, an edge of warning to his words. “Not from me, nor given by her.”
Beaky stared at him, incredulous as Colin bit into a roll with some dripping.
“But she wrote to you! She begged me to send it along with mine.”
“She did.” Colin swabbed at his mouth with a napkin. “But it was only to implore me to make haste on your behalf. Along with a bit about this Captain Samuels of hers.”
Privately, Colin was quite glad that Alice seemingly harbored no bitterness toward him upon finding some happinesselsewhere. It made this all the easier. Alice had no designs on him, and was clearly far more taken with this Army captain than she’d ever been with him. Which meant that, in kissing Miss Sedley, he’d not violated an unspoken agreement between them.
Colin felt a warm flutter in his belly as he recalled that night. But he quickly set the thought aside.
This matter with Beaky was more urgent, and more difficult. But it had to be done. Colin was putting an end to their long-running friendship, and once he’d fulfilled his promise, he would extricate himself from their association entirely. Colin thought of the sketch Beaky had drawn, of a little yapping spaniel, and he swallowed his anger.
“Captain Samuels,” Beaky muttered scornfully, rubbing his face with both hands. “I’m so bloody tired of Captain Samuels. Constantly muddying up the house, he is.”
“I say, have you slept?” Colin asked.
“Of course I haven’t,” Beaky replied, glaring at Colin. “You requested such a godawful hour. I figured I might as well come here straightaway.”
“From where?”
At that Beaky chuckled derisively. “Oh, not a place you would dare to tread, I should think. No place fit for such a good, upstanding young man as yourself,SirColin.”
Colin brought his hand down flat upon the table, just hard enough to clink the flatware. “Where?”
Beaky jumped at the sharp sound, then glanced about, squirming under Colin’s stare. “The Argyll Rooms,” he finally spat out.
Colin said nothing, only stared, hardly believing what he’d heard. Barring men from brothels and prostitutes was futile, every Navy man knew, but any decent officer ought to scorn the practice rather than join in.
“I never—” Colin finally started, but he didn’t get any further than that.
“Of course you’d never!” Beaky laughed, with a hint of cruelty glinting in his eyes. “You’re so frigid, so nervy. Wound tighter than an eight-day clock!”
As if to prove Beaky’s point, Colin clenched his jaw as his head began to sway. He shut his eyes.No. He imagined the waves, the seabirds. The smell of salt. He breathed deeply.
“Besides, that’s why we’re here, isn’t it? At the crack of dawn? So you can recite some pious screed against me, and scold me for tupping some girl in a far-flung Italian port? Did your father put you up to it?”
“Crack of dawn? It’s half past six,” Colin said, slightly dumbfounded. Just how had Beaky gotten on as a lieutenant? He’d no discipline—at least, not anymore.
“I counted you as a friend,” Beaky hissed, ignoring what Colin had said about the time.
“I was,” Colin said morosely. “But no longer.”
“You made a promise!”
“I did. And I will keep my word—I always do.”
Colin picked up his fork to poke at a bit of sausage, then decided he was no longer hungry. He set the fork back down.
Beaky stared at the table with a hollow expression, as if he’d just heard something he’d suspected was a long time coming. And yet he said nothing, did nothing. Offered no apology. That stung Colin more than he expected it to.
It was a terrible thing, realizing a friend was false. Colin bolstered himself and pressed on.
“I intend to discredit Mr. Bass, but I no longer think we can get on as we once did,” he said sadly. “Besides being beholden to you, I’ve also given my word to someone else with the same aim.”
