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I grinned. ‘Not a proper young lady, remember?’
He grinned back. ‘Yes! I’d be delighted to dance with you.’
The rest of the evening passed in a whirl of flying skirts and disapproving glares from my aunt. And the best thing was: she couldn’t even say anything! She had told me to spend my evening dancing and smiling, and there I was, dancing and smiling. The only thing was - I wasn’t pretending.
When the evening finally came to an end, and people were rushing through the room, trying to say their goodbyes to everybody, I stayed beside the captain for a moment longer.
‘When will you be leaving for your not-so-secret secret mission?’
He winced. ‘Blast! I should never have told you!’
‘Out with it! Or do you want an elbow in the ribs, or a smashed foot?’
‘Please, gentle lady, spare me! I’ll probably be leaving the day after tomorrow, if the ship is ready by then.’
Instead of trampling on his foot, I gave his hand a squeeze.
‘I’ll miss you,’ I told him, and found to my surprise that I actually meant it. My arms reflexively crossed in front of my chest. ‘You… well, you’re one of the few men I don’t actually despise.’
He swept a dramatic bow. ‘Why, thank you! You really know how to compliment a gentleman, Miss Linton. May I say that I don’t actually despise you, either?’
‘You may.’
Bending still a little farther forward, he took hold of my hand and, before I could rip it from his grasp, pressed a kiss on the back of it.
‘Goodbye, Miss Linton. Or should I say au revoir?’
My eyes narrowed. ‘I prefer pip-pip, or cheerio.’
‘Pip-pip, it is, then, Miss Linton.’
He turned and walked away. And I, for some reason, stood there looking after him long after the crowd had swallowed him, remembering the feel of his arms around me.
*~*~**~*~*
By Monday morning, I was no longer thinking about Captain Carter’s arms - or his feet or nose, for that matter. In fact, any thought of any man existing on this earth had been expunged from my brain, excepting that one representative of the species homo masculus masculus lentus[7] that I would have to confront in no more than an hour.
It won’t be long before you are begging to be sacked, and I’ll be rid of you.
His words echoed in my mind while I got up and dressed. They still echoed when I went downstairs for breakfast. They hadn’t faded by the time I got up from the breakfast table.
‘Where are you going?’ my aunt demanded, sharply.
‘To the park,’ I lied. ‘For a rendezvous.’
Her face brightened. ‘With that nice young man, Captain Carter?’
Somehow, she had been able to compartmentalize the events of last night in a way that allowed her to be furious with me because I had displayed such an atrocious lack of ladylike behaviour and spent the evening dancing frivolous dances, while she was simultaneously ecstatic about Captain Carter, although he had been the one to ask me to dance said dances. It was really amazing what levels of unjust nastiness an ambitious aunt could work herself up to if she put her mind to it.
‘Yes,’ I lied. Lying was such a useful skill.
‘Excellent!’ Her eyes narrowed in suspicion for a moment. ‘There won’t be any dancing, will there?’
‘In the park? No, I don’t think so.’
There! That one had even been true.
‘Good. You may go. And see that you don’t return before two pm. I don’t want to see you near the house before then!’
