Anthony is lonely and needs cheerful company.” He nodded to Meridee. “Nick, would I be wrong in thinking that Master Six left you a careful message about championing Mrs. Six?”
Nick’s head went up. “Aye, Master Ferrier, he did. I will go where she goes, if I have any qualms.”
Meridee couldn’t help the sudden tears in her eyes. “I should have known he would do that, Nick,” she said, and kissed the top of his head.
“Aw, Mam!” Nick said. She saw how pleased he was, and yet how dignified. “Very well. I will return to the dining room if you need some mature conversation.”
Meridee had to hide her chuckle at such a statement from a young boy. “We won’t be long, I promise you.”
“Quite the lad,” Master Ferrier said, when the dining room door closed. “I have been getting my own education here.”
“We all have. Yes, Master Ferrier, we do need your steadfast leaven in our loaf.” She considered the quiet man. “Perhaps you need us, too.”
“P’raps I do.”
There was room and food enough for Master Ferrier, and he quickly became a regular at meals. Meridee and Grace both began to suspect a deeper game, one that caused no pain. “He keeps us company, answers any questions we might have about the fleet, and is happy to read Euclid’s Elements – in English, mind you – to Ben,” Meridee said, following dinner one night when Nick labored over his homework and she and Grace adjourned to the sitting room, their now-regular dinner companion having returned to St. Brendan’s. “I think Thaddeus is determined we will not feel quite so lonely.”
“He would to that,” Grace agreed. “We know it wasn’t the evil butler’s idea.” They laughed together.
Meridee darned stockings while Grace calmly nursed Georgie. Grace’s eyes were closed, so Meridee had leisure to assess her friend. In mere days, she had begun to relax, her shoulders lower, the pinched look gone. Any fear that their home was too lively for a new widow dribbled away. Solitude would have been a monumental unkindness to a sociable lady like Grace St. Anthony. If regular visits from Sailing Master Harry Ferrier, RN (retired) was a plot to console two ladies, Meridee had no objection.
It was more, which only made him especially dear to her. Master Ferrier sought her out one evening after Grace had retired with Georgie, Ben was asleep and Nick studying in the dining room. She thought his return had something to do with her quiet-voiced comment to Mr. Ferrier earlier before dinner about Nick’s sadness not to be included in the voyage of the HMS Mercury.
“I need advice, Mrs. Six,” he said, when seated on the sofa. “In fact, if we could include Nick, that would be advantageous.”
Nick came quickly and sat close to Meridee. Only a woman made of stone would have been unmoved by his always keeping himself between her and anyone else. Nick was only thirteen now, but his protection was unmatched by men much older.
“Nick, I want to ask something of you, but I need Mrs. Six’s approval,” Master Ferrier began.
“Aye, sir, ask what you wish,” the boy said.
“You know what our seamanship class is like,” Mr. Ferrier began, with no preamble. “A little bit of this and that, probably as Master Six taught.”
Nick grinned and leaned back, relaxing. “As much as he moved from subject to subject, he left no idea abandoned, did he?”
“That is part of his genius,” Master Ferrier said. “He could cover a subject like no other.”
I agree, Meridee thought, as she threaded the darning needle. It has made him a wonderfully proficient lover, too, but that is my business alone. She felt her face grow hot, and turned her attention to putting the stocking on the darning egg.
“All that genius is locked in a most fertile brain, but us ordinary mortals need more structure. Would you agree with that, Mister Bonfort?”
“I think so, sir.”
“Here is my proposal, Nick. I have observed that you are most thorough in your note taking. What say you share your notes with me? At the end of this course, you and I can turn this hodge podge into a distinct manual.”
“Me, sir?” Nick asked, his eyes wide, becoming a boy again and not just a protector.
“You, Mister Bonfort. You have ability I see in no one else at St. Brendan’s,” Master Ferrier said firmly. “We will put our heads together and create a manual, which will have both of our names on it as collaborating authors.”