Shipmate: A Royal Regard Prequel Novella (3 page)

Lady Effingale’s eyes flashed dangerous fire
at Bella, so she looked away, face flushed, only to see Lord
Pinnester’s eyebrow and lip curl upward in unison, until his wife
stepped on his toe and said, “I vow you are a finer needlewoman
than any in London, and it is so important to patronize the shops
in one’s home village.” She addressed no one in particular when she
asked, “Do you not agree?”

“It is her first time at the Assembly
Rooms,” Lady Effingale apologized. “Isabella is surely tongue-tied
in the presence of such illustrious company.”

Bella’s forehead furrowed. She was not
entirely
tongue-tied, and was certain, given the chance, she
could manage polite discussion with the viscountess, though
probably not her husband. Lord Holsworthy’s eyes twinkled in a way
she was sure must be scandalous, but he had neither said nor done
anything inappropriate, and every word he spoke seemed designed to
put her at ease.

To fill Bella’s stricken silence, Lord
Holsworthy said, “I appreciate industry in a young lady. So many
place more stock than is seemly in feathers and furbelows, and have
little notion of a purposeful life.”

Following closely on Aunt Minerva’s heels,
Charlotte dragged Alexander across the room, and another round of
bowing and curtseying ensued, while the Effingales and Firthleys
did their level best to all speak for Bella at once. No one wanted
to see her make a fool of herself. No need, when she had perfectly
good family members to do it for her. Lord Holsworthy refilled her
glass and spoke under the din, standing near enough she could smell
the pleasing scents of ginger and cardamom on his clothes.

“I wonder, Miss Smithson, if you have ever
thought of traveling?”

She choked on her lemonade, and he thumped
her on the back to clear the coughing from her throat.

“Traveling?” she queried in a whisper.
Find yourself a seagoing baroness or board your new flagship
without one.

“I have spent my life at sea, and my travels
are the only things of which I can speak that might hold the
interest of a young lady. Though admittedly, she would have to be
quite unique indeed to find entertainment in my ramblings.”

He was very sweet to be concerned about
whether he might bore her, when boring one’s conversation partner
was her stock in trade. He was kind to carry so much of the
dialogue among his friends, since she clearly had no idea what to
say.

Since he had made the attempt to speak to,
not at or around her, like everyone else, Bella made the effort to
formulate an answer. “I find the idea of travel fascinating, though
I think it unlikely I shall be allowed to indulge my
curiosity.”

“And why is that, Miss Smithson?”

“It just seems improbable for a girl who has
passed her life in the countryside.” She stopped short of saying,
‘a girl without means’.

“Obviously, you have journeyed as far as
Bath. Have you not seen London?”

She dropped her eyes and wished he hadn’t
mentioned the capital. Even more, she hoped no one he knew had
attended the fateful party that had ruined her chance at a London
come-out before it had even been planned.

“Only briefly.” The lemonade shook in her
hand, like it might go flying across the room with the least
provocation. “I much prefer the country life.”

“I see.”

She quickly sipped the last of the liquid,
so it wouldn’t somehow end up on his breeches. Or his nose. He
cleared his throat, took the glass from her hand and placed it with
his on the table.

“I am forced to return to Town for a few
days on the morrow, Miss Smithson, but might I call upon you when I
return, perhaps for a carriage ride? If your family will join us,
we could make a picnic of it.”

April 12,
1805

Bath, England

The morning of the proposed picnic dawned
clear and bright. The Firthleys appeared at breakfast so Charlotte
could help Bella prepare for the engagement, not that Bella thought
it should take six hours to be made presentable. When Charlotte
asked what she intended to wear, Bella had suggested her russet
walking dress, at which both her cousin’s and aunt’s brows turned
down at exactly the same angle.

“That dress should have been given to a maid
years ago,” Charlotte nagged. “Why did you even bring your old
clothes to Bath? I thought that was the point of a new wardrobe.”
Had Aunt Minerva had her way, Bella would have come to Bath with
nothing but rags, but instead, Charlotte had hired a
modiste
with Firthley money, to outfit Bella as well as any other
debutante, and better than most. “No, the bronze green muslin and
Brussels lace is a much better choice. It is springtime
personified, and looks just lovely with your eyes and hair.”

“Charlotte is right, Isabella. You won’t
keep his interest by your conversation, and if you add that drab
gown, you might as well climb up onto the shelf this morning. You
are not precisely
decorative
, but you do not look so poorly
in that gown, provided you are corseted tightly enou—”

“Lady Effingale!” Uncle Howard snapped.
“Leave discussion of my niece’s corsetry for the dressing
room.”

“If only something could be done with your
awful hair. And a picnic, of all things! Any weather at all will
ruin the hours of work it will take to make you fit to be seen. You
should have suggested the theatre or a museum, where the lights
might be dim.”

After the meal, Charlotte, Bella, and Aunt
Minerva retired to Bella’s chamber with a bevy of maids, where no
fewer than seventeen attempts were made at a stylish presentation
of her fine, straight, thick mass of hair, and no less than
fourteen different lotions and unguents were applied to her face,
throat, hair, and hands. During this same occupation, each and
every gown, chemise, stocking, and slipper that had been brought
from Evercreech to Bath was removed from wardrobe and trunk,
inspected, mended, pressed, and evaluated for this
ever-so-important ensemble. For all the effort that had been
expended on Bella’s foray into the marriage mart, it seemed no one
had actually expected a gentleman might ask to call.

In the end, it took six-and-a-quarter hours
for Aunt Minerva and Charlotte to proclaim Bella ready for a
picnic, by which time, Bella had been well and truly reminded of
every fault her family insisted she possessed, and had added to
them a hundredfold, most notably by a decided lack of her usual
patience and calm forbearance.

“Lord Holsworthy values punctuality,” Bella
finally insisted to her aunt. “He said so to me, and it is an ethos
I share. He has been waiting too long already. Would you have him
turn around and leave?”

Finally, the three women entered the drawing
room, where Uncle Howard and Alexander had been entertaining Lord
Holsworthy. Bella went to him first, and curtseyed low. “I am so
very sorry for the delay, my lord. It is not my intention to
inconvenience you.”

Silence reigned in the room, as everyone
waited to hear what Lord Holsworthy would say.

“My dear,” he said, taking her hand and
helping her up. He held her at arm’s length to look at her. Bella
knew she was unlovely, but this afternoon she truly thought she
showed to advantage. Her green gown shimmered beneath an overskirt
of tight, intricate lace, and her bronze-gold hair, styled
à la
Grecque
, framed her bright, azure eyes like the settings for
precious jewels.

His lips turned up into a genuine smile.
“How can I make one word of complaint, when you look so charming in
green? You are as lovely as springtime itself.” He bent to kiss her
fingertips. “I hope your aunt will not find me too bold when I say
I believe your eyes are precisely the color of the waters off the
coast of St. Thomas.”

Bella could feel the heat rising in her
face, and she turned the blue-green eyes in question away from his
face. “She might not find you too bold, Sir, but I may.”

Of course, he had to be able to act the
courtier, since he did business among the nobility, but it was
difficult not to be moved by her first experience of flattery. No
one ever made her compliments.

Alexander traded a look with Charlotte that
suggested hurrying things along. Uncle Howard spoke and saved Bella
from having to try to flirt. “Shall we take two carriages,
then?”

“If I may,” Lord Holsworthy said, “My landau
is large enough, and I’ve had a wagon packed with a filled picnic
hamper and various comforts of home. I thought a trip into the
countryside might be welcome, as Miss Smithson said, when last we
spoke, she prefers open spaces to the city life.”

After a considerable effort, the picnickers
were assembled in the landau. Lord Holsworthy’s coachman drove the
team at a slow trot to take the air and find a meadow or a
riverbank or a ruin that looked to be a good place to stop for
luncheon.

Bella was sandwiched between Charlotte and
Aunt Minerva in the forward-facing seat, opposite Uncle Howard,
Lord Holsworthy, and Alexander. When placed right next to her
cousin’s new husband, Bella suddenly saw Lord Holsworthy’s age. He
was so much older than anyone else in the coach, including her aunt
and uncle, even taking into account the weathering inherent in
spending one’s life at sea. Her stomach dropped. He was more than
twice her age. What could she possibly say to hold the interest of
someone with so much more experience of the world? What did she
know of the waters off the coast of St. Thomas?

Alexander took on the conversational burden
at the start, by discussion of Lord Holsworthy’s opinions of
several matters before the Lords and how he intended to vote his
proxy during his travels. This was exactly the kind of discussion
Aunt Minerva insisted Bella and Charlotte should leave to
gentlemen, and there were precious few conversations Bella wouldn’t
avoid with gentlemen, purely on principle. Still, with no
conception of why or how, Bella found herself blurting out, “Do you
mean, my lord, you are consulted by the Privy Council, but then
must only hope they take your advice on the matters at hand?”

“Bella!” Aunt Minerva scolded.

Lord Holsworthy waved aside the
admonishment, smiling at Bella and explaining, “In essence correct,
Miss Smithson, though lacking in nuance. I was only recently made a
baron, so one can hardly say my opinions are solicited by
government. My value to His Majesty is almost entirely financial in
nature, by virtue of my private enterprise.”

“Come now, Holsworthy,” Alexander chided.
“That is surely an understatement. You have settled treaties.”

“You overstate my diplomatic responsibility,
Sir. In the main, my role is the making of money. And though I am
new to Parliament, I doubt, as a British peer, one can always
ensure the efficacy of one’s vote while standing on the floor of
the House of Lords; one certainly cannot from the deck of a ship
tens of thousands of miles away.”

Uncle Howard observed, “If you were not a
political figure, the king would not have elevated you to a barony
and appointed you envoy to the savages of the world.”

“Is that the nature of your mission, Sir?”
Bella asked. “Taming savages? Do you seek to save souls?”

“What a thing to ask, Isabella Smithson!”
Aunt Minerva snapped. “One does not just speak of savages in
company, nor speculate on whether they have souls.”

“Quite right,” Charlotte turned into her
mother in less than an instant. “Have you a destination in mind for
the picnic, Lord Holsworthy?”

Lord Holsworthy made Bella a lopsided grin,
showing he had heard her question, but it would be better answered
at some point later. “No particular spot in mind, I’m afraid. I am
new to the area and was told there is open countryside that will
do. The Holsworthy barony is too far a drive for an afternoon
jaunt, though it is but a long day away from here. It is not,
however, entirely habitable, as it has been abandoned for a good
many years. The same is true of my new house in London. My ship,
where I have lived the past ten years, is not even in the water,
but in dry dock under general refit, as still another ship is
prepared to be my next abode. I am currently a man of many houses,
but no home.”

Once they reached a landscape Lord
Holsworthy pronounced, “a serviceable meadow for a picnic,” his
driver and footman jumped down to assist the ladies out of the
coach, and the servants in the baggage wagon began to arrange for
the comfort of the party. The late afternoon sun dappled the long
grasses and shimmered off the stream burbling by. Lord Holsworthy
held out his elbow to Bella and said, “Shall we have a bit of a
walk while they arrange things for luncheon?”

Looking over her shoulder at the expectant
looks on everyone’s faces, she took his arm. Charlotte indicated
with her eyebrows that she and Alexander would follow, but there
was no way Aunt Minerva would overlook the chance to listen in on
Bella’s attempts at flirtation, and she insinuated herself and
Uncle Howard between the two couples.