Miss Fanshawe's Fortune - Linore Rose Burkard Page 0,62
not, if his affairs are in order, it can only look suspicious, and I fear, must have to do with the trust. In which case we must think him a blackguard.”
“How could he have known about your coming?”
“Harley and I discussed that. No doubt his wife got word to him before the ship reached port. She is cunning and desperate for that fortune.” He put on the spectacles and became the mild-looking bookish gentleman. “She might have sent a note by an outgoing ship—for one sea captain is always pleased to deliver messages or letters to another—or by smuggling a word to him even while we waited on the dock.”
His lips firmed into a line. “Depend upon it, we will find the man. He cannot evade us forever.” While she watched, he tipped his head and emptied his glass. After putting it down, he said, “We took the precaution of calling upon the captain at his home, Captain Jennings, his name is. We had first to discover his direction, but that was easily accomplished once the home office understood we were not endeavouring to arrest one of theirs.”
Frannieʼs eyes glowed. “You did all that on my account?”
A glimmer of mirth shone from his gaze. “I believe I am almost as eager to understand your mysterious history as you are.”
“Thank you,” she said, but couldn’t help wondering if he meant he was eager to understand whether she was respectable or not. It was a lowering thought.
“The captain was reluctant to help,” Sebastian continued, “but eventually he gave us to know that he tries always to set sail with the same 1st Officer if he can help it. So we will find out when Captain Jennings next goes to sea, and, if we have not already discovered Fanshawe on land, be ready to nab him before the last mooring rope is loosed. The ship that carries him will not set sail without our seeing him first.”
Frannie thanked Sebastian earnestly. She was sure she hadn’t meant to put him to such trouble, nor Mr. Harley or any land agents. But she was equally certain, and could only thank him again on account of it, that without their help, and particularly Sebastian’s, she would be without hope or means in the world. Sebastian stood, bowed, and said, “I am pleased to be of assistance.” With a little smile he admitted, “I enjoyed the chase, if you must know. I fancy I now understand to a small degree what makes a man become a Bow Street Runner.” To Frannie’s answering smile, for with his spectacles on Sebastian did not look the part of a wily Bow Street man, he added, “I’ll leave you to your own amusements.”
“Won’t you have tea?” she asked, with a glance at the unused cup.
He hesitated. “A quick cup, then. Only because you’ve ordered it.”
He watched as she poured and thanked her afterwards, their eyes meeting as she handed him the porcelain with hot liquid. “One would think you’d been to finishing school,” he said, with a little smile. Frannie beamed with pleasure. “Not finishing school, but my mama felt the importance of social graces, and, as I am a gentleman’s daughter—as she often reminded me, though she evidently told me precious little else about my father—she hired fine governesses.”
“Which explains your love of literature?” he asked.
She smiled sheepishly. “It explains only my appalling lack of familiarity with literature. My governesses only taught me useless things like how to pour tea, and how to walk and talk properly, and I had dancing masters to teach me to dance. But literature and mathematics were sadly neglected, as was history. My French is nominal at best, and Latin” she said with a little impish grin, “is Greek to me.”
He smiled and sipped his tea. “But those ‘useless’ graces, as you call them, are not useless in society. Many ladies must have a servant pour, for example,” he said, with a glance toward the tea pot, “because they are clumsy at it themselves, to the point of spilling. And if you can dance nearly so well as you pour tea, you will enchant everyone who watches.” Their eyes met as he spoke. Frannie felt breathless. He finished his tea in a gulp, thanked her again with a polite bow, and left the room.
Frannie remained in her seat, glowing from Sebastian’s unexpected praise. First, the kiss on the cheek in the morning, and now this! But did it signify? Did any of it signify? That,