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By some time in September, if their fortunes held, the Miller house flag would whip through the wind asAlacrityreprised her prime spot at the West India Docks. Helen tried not to pay attention whenever Vassilis spoke of the newspaper reports about the speculation surrounding the exact date of the arrival; it seemed like bad luck. For all of their challenges finding an investor, plenty of speculators were betting on when—and if—Alacritywould make the sensational delivery.
“We shall see what happens, Pen. I…never planned to stay in England after Elijah’s return,” she reminded her friend quietly. She had to look down into her tea to avoid Pen’s hurt.
“Imagining you leaving—no. I won’t stand for it! The thought is abominable! Why, it makes no sense at all!”
Even as the conversation tugged at her heart, Helen smiled. “It makes sense to return to my own country, don’t you think? Why, you’ve said you dream of visiting America! You could come stay with me.”
“You’ve said you won’t be going home to Boston. Elijah said the same. Why would you go off alone when you’ve found all this here? What would you evendoin a new place?” She harrumphed like a miniature Vassilis.
Helen looked around at the increasingly busy tearoom. “I could open an establishment such as this. In New York maybe. Perhaps I could name it Miss Penelope’s. It’s thanks to you I even have the idea—I didn’t know that a place such as this existed.”
Pen didn’t respond; she only observed her through wounded eyes.
“In Boston, good society looks down upon New York. All the new money, the lack of reserve in the people there. Of course Americans deride England in one breath. In the next, we are desperate to emulate you. Anything more established, older, is better. A tearoom that is known to be modeled on this English one filled with titled ladies in this room and gentleman next door in the Oak Room—why, it would be all the rage, I’m sure.”
“I don’t understand.” Pen shook her head. “You probably believe I voice every thought in my head without consideration. It’s not true. I’m not spying on you like those Grays, but I can’t help but notice things. No mathematics tutoring is required to calculate that Nicholas visits the house at thrice—if not quadruple—his previous frequency.”
Helen closed her eyes, knowing that his family had to be more aware than she wished to think about.
“No literature tutoring is required to imagine what is behind the looks you two exchange across the dinner table. I don’t rely on spectacles to see Nicholas holding your hand as soon as Papa’s first snore trumpets through the drawing room. No consultation with a physician is needed to understand why your cheeks flush before you spirit away together afterward.” She raised her chin pertly. “Eavesdropping on Mama and Lady Clara has been enough of an education!”
Helen lifted her gaze, unable to hide how endearing and refreshing she found Pen…or her own discomfiture.
Leaning forward to lock eyes, Pen raised an eyebrow. “My family may be Greek, but we have no need for any more tragedy or melodrama than life has already delivered. You and Nicholas should marry! When Elijah sails into London, he’ll leap over the tea chests and ask for my hand. Imagine—you and I could be not just friends butsisters,twice over! Then I shall serve as navigatress aboardAlacrityand sail around the world!”
Oh, Pen.
“You will not deny wanting to marry Nicholas!”
She wished she could. “It’s more complicated than that, Pen.I’mcomplicated.”
Her eyes flashed. “I’m not the spoiled girl Lady Clara believes. Do you think it’s easy to be different fromeveryonearound me? Even in my own family? I’m surrounded, absolutely surrounded by friends and family, yet lonely. My friends are all married. Lady Sarah died, and my brother disappeared. Papa nearly did not make it into 1850. Am I not complicated, too?”
Helen looked at the young woman before her; she was intelligent, caring, and garbed in a gown full of carefree frill and whimsy. Great privilege and love had been bestowed upon her by her family, but of course, this world had not left her unscathed.
She sighed silently, then explained, “You have become a dear friend, Pen, and not speaking to you about my plans or your brother has nothing to do with you. I have the coming months to survive until I know whether the tea venture has succeeded. Then I shall think of the future.”
Pen looked pensive and nibbled a sponge cake. Helen gazed about the room, the appeal of opening her own tea shop for her countrywomen less and less appealing.
“Very well,” Pen announced sprightly after some time. “I myself have this afternoon to survive, haven’t I? Are you ready to counsel me about my presentation?”
Smiling, Helen nodded. “I’m ready.”
Pen settled her skirts again and sat up straight, then raised one forefinger into the air. “Thanks to the work of Joseph-Louis Lagrange and Carl Friedrich Gauss, we know that the flux of an electric field…”
After a few minutes, Pen sighed into her chair. “Ordo I beginthisway instead? If you were Mr. Macalester, which would captivate you more?” This time, she swept her hand through the air as she delivered the opening sentence.
Helen listened patiently, noting the differences in the gestures and intonation from the first delivery. She wasn’t certain what she would tell Pen at the end, though she had an inkling that no matter which of the two she suggested, the engineer did not stand a chance.
