cheek, and politely spilled her off his body. “You’re going to sleep, Meri. See you topside in a few hours, my love.”
“I hope Mrs. Munro does not want this. I can’t surrender it to her.”
Able thumbed through his mother’s prayer book as they walked to Jasper Street, Meri’s arm through his. He wanted to walk, and she knew the exercise was good for her. He had told her earlier in their marriage that confinement to a quarterdeck for long periods made walking more than twenty feet forward and back a true luxury and not to be wasted.
“Surely Mrs. Munro won’t ask for it,” Meridee said. “I believe your mother left it with you on purpose.”
“That’s what I have told myself through the years.”
What else have you told yourself through the years? she asked herself, kind enough to let him keep his private thoughts private. She needn’t know everything. But she wanted to know. She wanted to know everything. She tugged on the arm she already held and stopped him.
“Aye, miss?” he asked in his teasing way. She had never seen kinder eyes.
What could she say here on the street, with people around? “I don’t know.” She leaned her forehead against his arm, speaking softly in this public place. “I feel so much love for you. I…I wish I could know everything you know. Even more than that, I wish…I don’t know what I wish, but it fills me.”
He moved them closer to the noisy ropewalk they were passing, wanting a quiet place, too, but seeing none. He seemed to know what she wanted to say. “Dear Meri, you’ll never know everything I know. You wouldn’t want to, believe me. Here’s what you do know: you know my heart. The rest is fluff.”
He enveloped her in his arms, putting his cloak around her, too, turning her face into his uniform. “Woman of mine, how I love you,” he said. “I don’t mind telling you that these past weeks have been nearly overwhelming, meeting my father, and soon my grandmama.” He loosened his grip. “Can you breathe? Am I holding you too tight?”
“I am finer than frog’s hair, as I heard Nick say once,” she said, which made him laugh and accuse her of adopting schoolboy cant. He kept her cocooned with him in his cape another minute, then gave her a little pat. “If we don’t move along, a constable will come by and ask me my business. This is sinful Portsmouth, after all.”
They held hands the rest of the way to Jasper Street. “I would like to dream that you and the Mercury will be in port now for a few weeks, but I am not that feeble-minded,” she said as they stood in front of Mrs. Munro’s house.
“This is for your ears only, but I doubt that will happen,” he said, his arm around her now. “Captain Lapenotiere and I compared notes at that mid-Channel meeting. He transports agents in and out of Cádiz, too. His sources indicate a stiffly-worded ultimatum from Boney to Villeneuve, ordering him to lead out the Combined Fleet and go on the attack. It’s coming, Meri, and soon.”
“I don’t mind telling you that war is a confounded nuisance and cuts up my peace,” Meridee said, which made him laugh and assure her, “Mine, too.” He looked up at the house. “I don’t know what to say to her.”
“You sound like me a week ago! ’Hello, I am pleased to meet you,’ is always a good beginning,” she said.
Her eyes lively, the maid let them in and gestured toward the sitting room, a place Meridee was familiar with, after spending so much time in it during the past week. Before they reached the door, Mrs. Munro hurried into the hall.
Meridee glanced at Able, enjoying the little smile that turned into a big one. He walked toward her, his arms out, and Mrs. Munro hurried into them with a sob. She wept, patted his back, tried to talk, then gave it up as a bad business. She clung to him, and he to her, until Meridee felt tears in her own eyes.
“Did she look like you?” was the first thing he said. “I’ve seen my father’s miniature of her, but miniatures are sometimes misleading.”
“Aye, Mary did look like me,” Mrs. Munro managed, as she fumbled for a handkerchief up her sleeve. “She was taller, and her hair was more auburn than mine.” She held him off for a better look. “You greatly resemble your father, but