“I pray it is not too simple,” she said.
“Unlike the others you may have encountered from society, Miss Moreau, I am an Irish lord elected to serve in England’s Parliament. When I am home, I am often found in a less-than-plush setting.” He crossed to a long table and began to set out what he brought over from the watch house. “I am not saying,” he continued, “that I am a heathen, but many in Ireland live a much simpler life than do their English counterparts, though Dublin has a society that is comparable to London’s.”
“I have always wished to see Ireland,” she said as she came to stand beside him. She was a bit taller than he had expected: She came to his shoulder. “Uncle avoided the Irish Sea, however.”
“Lord Honfleur owns a ship?” he asked, not considering his question, but rather to keep their conversation going.
She stiffened. “My uncle once owned several trading ships,” she explained. “He came for me when I was in the West Indies.”
Navan purposely did not comment on her disclosure. Instead, he said, “The Irish Sea can sometimes be unsafe. There are both pirates and French privateers operating in the area, but one can also travel to Ireland from Wales and from Scotland, which is less dangerous.
“I never knew,” she confessed.
“Yes, many travel to Dublin and then inland,” he explained, “though I, generally, travel to Cork City or beyond when returning to my homeland. It depends on whether I mean to be at Beaufort Court, which is some thirty miles to the northeast of Cork City or my maternal grandparents’ home above Neidín.”
“How does such make you feel?” she asked. “I mean, always spending part of each year in a country with many, I assume, who despise you.”
“It is not easy,” he admitted, surprised by her intuitiveness, for few asked him of how he felt about the responsibility placed on hisshoulders, “but if I do not stand against the anti-Irish sentiment, who will? I am eager to see what occurs with the next session of Parliament in the new year, with Robert Jenkinson, the Second Earl of Liverpool as the Prime Minister. With the assassination of Spencer Perceval and Liverpool’s ascension, we must wait to see if there is a change of sentiment or not.”
“Would you explain what you see as the problems?” she asked as she set out the plates. “I would truly be interested in hearing of the conflict from your point of view.”
He paused to study the honesty upon her expression. “If you wish, but you must tell me if I go on and on. Many in English society do not wish to hear of the Irish complaints.”
“Then you are fortunate, my lord, that I am not English nor part of society,” she retorted.
“Let us fill the plates with good food and then enjoy a conversation rarely shared between a man and a woman in an English household—a conversation about life, not one regarding the lateston ditsupon which thebeau mondeconstantly thrives.”
