Regency Admirer/The Merry Gentleman/The Gentleman's Demand

by Meg Alexander

  Perry winced. What an uproar that would cause. The girl would certainly refuse to marry him, and the captain would not tolerate open defiance.

  He made his way to the captain’s cabin, expecting to hear raised voices, but there was no answer to his knock.

  “Miss is taking a turn about the deck,” a helpful crewman told him.

  When Perry reached the quarterdeck, he realised that his initial fears were groundless. Elizabeth greeted him with a smile of unaffected pleasure, and the captain’s expression was unclouded. In fact, he radiated benevolence.

  “Captain Robsart has been telling me about his prize,” Elizabeth said eagerly. “Did you know that she was carrying royalist prisoners?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Was that not a stroke of luck?” she continued. “Now they are to sail the Vainqueur back to England when their mainmast is repaired. Captain, have I got that right?”

  “Quite right, Miss Grantham. We shall make a sailor of you yet. You are not too cold, I hope. You must not take a chill.”

  “Oh, no!” Elizabeth snuggled deeper into her warm cloak. “This is splendid! I love to feel the wind upon my face. How I envy you your life at sea!”

  Perry glanced down at her. The fresh breeze had brought the colour to her cheeks and her eyes were shining.

  “You still say that in spite of storm and warfare?” Captain Robsart teased her.

  “No, not that!” she told him quickly. “May I look in on the injured men today?”

  “Later, if you please, my dear. I think you will not wish to attend the committal.”

  “The committal? What is that?”

  “The burial service, ma’am, when we commit the bodies of the dead to the deep.”

  Elizabeth paled, but she turned to him with an air of resolution. “I should like to join my prayers with yours,” she told him. “How...how many died in the engagement?”

  “Just two. We shall not lose more, I believe.” He frowned. “Mr Wentworth, shall we be short-handed? I have been forced to send a prize-crew aboard the Vainqueur.”

  “We shall manage, sir. Apart from Summers, who may lose a leg, most of the injuries were not serious. Many were caused by flying splinters.”

  Elizabeth shuddered as she recalled the frightful wounds inflicted by dagger-like shafts of oak. As deadly as spears, they had flown across the deck, wreaking havoc among the men as they buried themselves deep in the flesh of some unfortunate victim.

  “You think some of them are still able to bear a hand?”

  “I believe so, sir. They are a hardy lot.” Perry looked at the lower deck, where the men already swarmed like ants. Under the direction of the ship’s carpenter, order was taking the place of chaos as wreckage was tossed overboard, and the masts and rigging were restored to working order.

  “Very good! Carry on, Mr Wentworth. I must prepare for the service.” With a brief smile for Elizabeth, the captain went below.

  Perry was silent for some time, but his superior officer’s instructions were not to be ignored. Yet he had no idea as to how to broach the subject to Elizabeth.

  “You are quiet this morning,” she said at last. “Is it because of this sad occasion?”

  He did not reply to her question. Instead he asked another. “Has the captain spoken to you?” he said bluntly.

  “Of course!” Elizabeth looked astonished. “He has been speaking to me for this hour and more.”

  “Upon what subject?”

  “He asked about my father, and my life at Genoa...” She gave him a puzzled look. “Is that so strange?”

  “Nothing more?”

  She coloured a little. “The captain likes to tease, I think. He wished to know if I had received many offers, and if I had a particular tendre for any of my suitors. Of course, I did not mention Cesare.”

  “I see.” Perry hesitated. “Forgive me, I have no right to ask, but Chris mentioned that when he offered for you, you said that the Count no longer held first place in your affections. Is that true?”

  “I did not lie to him!” Elizabeth’s chin went up. “Though I do not take it kindly that you have been discussing me.”

  “How could we fail to do so?” Perry ignored the flash of anger in her eyes. “You have not answered my question fully.”

  “I did. I found that I had mistaken my feelings for Cesare. It was just a childish infatuation. I was very young when I first met him...”

  “And now you are bowed down with age?” Perry’s lips twitched.

  She saw the smile, but to his surprise she didn’t take offence. “I think I have grown up a little,” she admitted sadly. “Those injured men! My own concerns seem petty by comparison.”

  At the sight of her troubled face, Perry longed to take her in his arms and comfort her, but he restrained himself.

  “Elizabeth, will you listen carefully to what I have to say?” he asked.

  She was struck by the grave note in his voice, and she turned to face him fully. “What is it? Is something wrong?”

  “Not exactly. At least, you may or may not think so when I tell you—”

  “Go on! Don’t keep me in suspense.”

  Perry fixed his gaze upon the foaming wake of the ship. “The thing is that Captain Robsart feels that you are in a difficult position. He pointed out to me that to travel alone, without a male relative to protect you, must necessarily cast a shadow upon your reputation—”

  “I see!” Her voice had turned to ice. “You explained, of course, that nothing untoward had taken place between us?”

  “Didn’t it?” Perry tried to take her hands in his, but she drew away. “Have you forgotten that I kissed you?”

  “A momentary impulse, sir, as you were careful to explain. I suppose you felt obliged to confess it to the captain?”

  “No, I didn’t!” His anger flared. “What kind of a man do you think I am?”

  “I have no idea, but I’m sure that you’ll enlighten me. Pray let me know the worst. Am I to be cast adrift as a scarlet woman?”

  “Now you are talking nonsense. The captain has your interests at heart, as you must know by now.”

  “Then what does he suggest? Am I to dress in sackcloth and beat my breast while covering my head in ashes?”

  “Try to curb your lively imagination, ma’am. He...er...he suggests that under the circumstances he should marry us.”

  “What?” The word escaped her lips with such explosive force that the helmsman turned to stare. “If you intend this as a tasteless joke...?”

  “It is no joke, believe me. Captain Robsart thinks that it is what your father planned from the first.”

  “That isn’t true!” she cried hotly. “He would have told me.”

  “On the contrary, I’m afraid that it is true. He wished me to offer for you, but...” His voice tailed away.

  “But you refused? Is that it? Why, sir, you surprise me! Just think, you have turned down an heiress!” Her look of contempt struck him like a physical blow.

  “Don’t!” he begged. “Won’t you hear me out? Elizabeth, we did not know each other. It would have been wrong of me to have agreed to a suggestion made in panic. You yourself would not have countenanced the idea.”

  “In that, at least, you are right. Tell me, sir, what has changed your mind? You fear for your career? Is that it, if you disobey your captain’s orders? I won’t be sacrificed to your interests, Mr Wentworth.”

  “It isn’t that,” he told her doggedly. “I had no thought of such matters.”

  “I don’t believe you,” she continued in the same hard tone. “You have not exactly overwhelmed me with your passion. You must forgive me if I find myself lacking to the same degree. Shall you be flogged if I refuse you?” The martial light in her eye told him how much she welcomed the prospect.

  “You don’t understand,” he told her miserably.

  “I think I do. As a naval officer, you must obey your captain, but I need not. Nothing in this world would persuade me to accept
you, Mr Wentworth, and so I shall inform him.”

  Elizabeth felt that she had tasted gall. Her bitterness threatened to overwhelm her. To be offered marriage merely as a sop to convention, and coming from a man who was acting under orders, was too insulting to be borne.

  And it hurt the more because she loved him. She knew that now. Coming from another man, the forced offer might have made her smile. She’d have dismissed it without a second thought, but for Perry to have made it? She felt wounded to the heart.

  For a wild moment she found herself clutching at straws. She could have accepted him, gone through the marriage ceremony, and hoped that he would grow to love her in the years to come.

  She dismissed the thought. Always, in Perry’s mind, would be the feeling that he’d been coerced. His offer was not made from choice, but from a sense of duty. With that eating like a canker in his soul, he might come to hate her. He did not care for her. She could not delude herself. He had not spoken a single word of love.

  Her face flaming, she turned her back on him. Then, as she looked down, the lower deck began to fill with men. Half-dreading what was to come, but determined to show her respect for the dead, she went down to stand beside the captain.

  Two shrouded figures lay on boards beside the rail. Then the captain’s firm voice read out the opening words of the service used for burial at sea.

  Elizabeth bent her head. It seemed all wrong that the sun should still be shining on the sparkling sea, and that the calls of the gulls could be heard so clearly as they wheeled about the rigging. She closed her eyes as the boards were tilted over the side. With barely a splash, the weighted corpses vanished beneath the waves.

  It was an awful sound. She found herself thinking of the purser’s wife and family, and the tears ran unchecked down her cheeks.

  “Come, my dear!” Captain Robsart took her arm, and led her below.

  Chapter Eight

  “A sad business, Miss Grantham!” Captain Robsart poured out a glass of brandy and offered it to Elizabeth, but she shook her head. “These occasions affect even the roughest of the men.”

  Elizabeth nodded, but she could not trust herself to speak, fearing that she might break down again.

  “They know the risks of naval life, and they accept them,” he continued in an effort to comfort her. “They would all appreciate your wish to attend the service.” He looked at her troubled face. “Perhaps I should not have allowed it.”

  “Captain, I’m glad you did,” she said simply. “I wanted to pay my respects. It is just that I had no idea...until yesterday I had not seen the face of death.”

  “But, Miss Grantham...yesterday...in the hold, you did not flinch...” The captain was amazed.

  “There was no time to think about myself.”

  He patted her hand. “Well done!” he said. “You are an example to us all.” He took a turn about the cabin. “Even so, you cannot face the world alone. Has Wentworth spoken to you?”

  “Yes, sir.” She did not pretend to misunderstand him.

  “Then am I to wish you happy?”

  Elizabeth shook her head.

  “You will not tell me that you have refused him?”

  “Sir, I cannot marry Mr Wentworth. We should not suit.”

  “But why, my dear? He is of good family, and he has a fine career ahead of him. I am no judge of such matters, but I imagine that his appearance cannot be thought distasteful to a lady.”

  Elizabeth made no reply.

  “Perhaps he has offended you? I questioned him but he assures me that he has not attempted...I mean...that he has not made advances to you.”

  “No, sir.” Elizabeth was scarlet with embarrassment. “It is nothing like that.”

  “What, then? Have you taken him in dislike? I’ll admit that he has a deplorable tendency to levity, but that will pass with time. He is an excellent seaman, and I have great hopes of him. Before long, he will have his own command...”

  Goaded into indiscretion, Elizabeth began to speak. “I am sure that Mr Wentworth is everything you say, sir, but I shall not wed him. He offered for me at your order. How could he disobey you? Yet, I know that it was much against his wishes.”

  Her face was a mask of anguish, and the captain cursed beneath his breath. His first lieutenant might be a splendid seaman, but where women were concerned he was a fool. Before the day was out, Mr Wentworth would feel the rough edge of his tongue.

  He did not pursue the matter.

  Later, however, when he sent for Perry, he did not mince his words.

  “Well, sir, you have made a pretty mess of matters,” he snarled. “Is this your idea of wooing? Tactics, bah! A child would have managed better.”

  Perry’s face was wooden. “Sir, I don’t understand...I told you that Miss Grantham would not have me.”

  “And I’m not surprised! Great heavens, man, is it any wonder that she sent you to the right-about? What possessed you to tell her that you were acting under orders?”

  “Captain, I had to explain to her the reason for my offer.”

  “Lord give me strength!” Captain Robsart ran his fingers through his bristling crop. “Sir, you are a blockhead! Had you no consideration for her feelings? Her pride? No woman of sensibility would take kindly to an offer made under duress.”

  “I had to tell her the truth,” Perry said helplessly. “She was surprised, you see, and when I mentioned your belief that it was what her father had intended, she didn’t believe me.”

  “You were unable to convince her?”

  “I tried, sir. I told her that Mr Grantham had suggested it when we were in Genoa...”

  “Pray don’t keep me in suspense. What was your reply to him?”

  “I refused, of course. I could not marry simply to oblige him.”

  “And you explained this also to Miss Grantham?”

  “I did, sir. I felt it only right—”

  A bellow of rage prevented him from saying more.

  “She should have hit you over the head with a belaying-pin! Get out, sir! You put me out of all patience with you.”

  Perry turned to go.

  “One moment, Mr Wentworth. For the rest of this voyage you will make yourself agreeable to the lady—that is, if she deigns to speak to you again. I won’t have her upset. Do you understand me?”

  “Perfectly, sir.” Perry was suffering from a sense of injury, but his face betrayed nothing of his feelings.

  “And there is one more thing,” his captain continued. “When we arrive at Portsmouth you will take extended leave. This is not an expression of my high regard for you. It is to enable you to see Miss Grantham into the care of her aunt.”

  “Very good, sir.” Perry escaped at last. His collar felt uncomfortably tight, and he had the notion that it would have been preferable to be keelhauled, rather than to undergo the experience of the last few minutes.

  He could not defend himself. The captain’s voice had echoed his own feelings. What must Elizabeth think of him? No word of love, or even of affection, had passed his lips when he made that unfortunate offer. He couldn’t believe that he had been such a dolt.

  But it was too late now. In her eyes he must be sunk beneath reproach.

  It shouldn’t have mattered to him, but it did. He’d fought his feelings for her for so long, but now they wouldn’t be denied. He’d learned to look for the determined little lifting of her chin, and the way emotions chased each other across the lovely flower-face. And her smile. Ah, that smile! It made his heart turn over in his breast. Now he remembered how it started in her eyes, and then those sweet lips curved...

  His face grew grim. She would never smile at him in quite that way again, and the knowledge pierced his breast. He had lost both her friendship and her trust.

  If only he might go back to the moment before he made his offer. He’d sensed a growing bond between them. The chess games, the cards, the teasing and the laughter had eased their enmity.

  She was such a stalwart! He could not bani
sh the memory of her small figure kneeling beside the dying purser, her skirt stiff with drying blood. The experience had taken its toll on her. He had guessed as much this morning, when she’d stood beside him at the burial service. He’d been convinced at one point that she was about to faint, but she had not done so, though there was naked agony in her eyes.

  Perry straightened his shoulders. He would not lose her. He would regain her trust if it took a lifetime, and her affection, too. All he wanted was the chance to protect her, to banish that oddly vulnerable look which sometimes appeared when he’d caught her unawares.

  If only he’d agreed to her father’s suggestion, Elizabeth might now be his wife. The prospect brought a smile of tenderness to his lips.

  Then he remembered. Elizabeth would have refused him. She must be won by subtler means. With a firm resolve to mend his ways, he went about his duties.

  He found the way back difficult at first. The constraint was evident between Elizabeth and himself.

  Chris was moved to remonstrate. “Next time I take a voyage for my health, I shall insist that my companions speak at least one word in the course of any hour,” he told them with a smile.

  In unison they begged his pardon.

  “What are your plans when we reach England?” Elizabeth asked.

  “Family first, I think. My mother counts the days to my return.”

  “And then?”

  “London, and a visit to my Lords of the Admiralty. I hope to keep my name before them.”

  “A wise plan,” Perry agreed. “I intend to do the same.”

  “You will visit London, then?” Elizabeth asked stiffly.

  “Naturally, ma’am. I must escort you to your aunt.”

  “More orders?” she murmured with a disdainful look.

  Perry bowed. “My pleasure entirely, ma’am.”

  The irony was not lost on Chris. He glanced from one face to the other. Something had happened between these two, and on this occasion he felt powerless to mend matters. The rift was clearly deep and wounding.

  “This aunt of yours?” he said. “What do you know of her? You have not yet met her, so I understand.”