Deborah Hale by The Bride Ship

Author:The Bride Ship
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

“I beg you to postpone a rematch until I have all my wits about me. I know I shall have need of them.”

Who would not shrink from taxing their brain in his condition? Jocelyn gave a resigned nod. “You do make yourself difficult to entertain, Sir Robert. How will I ever keep you awake until morning at this rate?”

He thought for a moment. “Perhaps we could use the opportunity to become better acquainted. If you would not find that too tiresome?”

“Indeed not!” She knew almost nothing about him except that he’d been a soldier before being appointed governor…and that he had never been wed. “I should like it very much.”

“Good. Then what if you start by telling me about this first Season you are so eager to relive? I expect it is a far more engaging story than most works of fiction.”

Jocelyn dismissed a momentary stab of disappointment that her curiosity about him would not be appeased. There were plenty of hours to fill between now and sunrise. Sooner or later he was certain to lower his guard and tell her something about himself.

“I marvel that you should be interested in such frivolous tales, sir. My first Season was nothing but balls and evenings at the theater and visits to the pleasure gardens—all the sorts of events you claim to detest. Why ever would you want to hear about them?”

He gave a cautious shrug, as if too vigorous a movement might jar his sore head. “I do not enjoy taking part in such activities—at least, I did not until recently—but I have no objection to hearing about them. Especially from someone for whom they do afford pleasure.”

At least, I did not until recently. Was that a roundabout way of saying he had enjoyed her company the other evening?

“If that is the case, I shall be happy to oblige you with an account. Let’s see—it all began with my presentation at court. Having overheard a number of sensational accounts from my father about the King and his spells of madness, I was heartlessly disappointed to find our sovereign such an unremarkable gentleman.”

“Indeed?” A look of amusement softened the tense set of fatigue and pain around Sir Robert’s eyes. “I felt rather cheated when the Prince of Wales had to deputize for His Majesty to confer my title upon me. Now I discover I was not missing much after all.”

This was just the kind of opening Jocelyn had hoped for. “How did you earn your title?”

“In battle, of course,” Sir Robert replied in a tone of wry deprecation. “Chance put me in a critical spot on the field, then I managed to survive the carnage. My men won the victory, not I. None of them received a knighthood.”

This was not a subject on which they should dwell, Jocelyn knew. But she could not let it drop before offering one observation. “Soldiers do not win victories without able leadership.”

Sir Robert did not acknowledge her implied praise. “Speaking of able leadership, pray give me an account of what happened this evening after all those men arrived.

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