Page 39 of The Governess and the Rogue

Maberly didn’t answer.

Which was answer enough in itself.

“It’s been three days,” Jack said. “I’d have thought that ample time to smooth your ruffled feathers where Miss Layton’s concerned.”

Maberly made a chuffing noise, somewhere between a scoff and a grunt.

Jack cracked an eye open to glare at his batman. They’d been through too much together over the years not to speak plainly. “If you’ve something to say, then say it and be done,” he commanded. “I won’t have you glowering all over the ship, telegraphing your displeasure to all and sundry. This engagement is meant to solve problems, not create new ones.”

“Your problems?” Maberly inquired darkly.

“And hers,” Jack said. “It was the only way I could help her.”

“Don’t know why it’s up to you to help a governess you met on a ruddy ship,” Maberly grumbled. “Not your business, I’d have said.”

“Is it her you disapprove of?” Jack asked. Both of his eyes were open now. “Or merely the haste of the announcement?”

Maberly straightened. He wiped his hands on a towel. “I disapprove of the entire scheme.”

“A scheme,” Jack repeated. “That’s what you call it?”

Maberly frowned. “Isn’t it?”

Jack felt a flinch of conscience. He sat up from his berth. “If it is, it’s not the sort that will hurt anyone.”

The batman uttered another disbelieving grunt. As he helped Jack dress, his dour expression left no doubt as to how he felt about Jack’s engagement to Bea. “Chill night tonight,” he said, assisting Jack into his coat. “Better you should spend it resting your leg than traipsing about.”

“Probably.” But Jack had already told Bea he’d be meeting her. A little cold wasn’t going to stop him. Speaking of which…

“Where are those gifts I bought in Cairo?” Jack asked.

Maberly’s forehead scrunched. “Them packages for her ladyship and your sisters?”

“Those are the ones.” Jack had bought an excess of presents for his mother and Kate, and for his sisters-in-law, Hannah and Meg. Not to mention the countless trifles he’d purchased for his nieces and nephews.

Maberly grudgingly removed one of Jack’s leather cases from a short stack of luggage on the opposite wall. He sat it on a chair and opened it. “They’re here, sir.”

Jack came to stand in front of the open case. His weight resting on his cane, he rummaged through the paper-and-twine-wrapped parcels within. There were several of them that were soft and relatively flat. He picked one up. “This is one of Kate’s, I believe,” he said. “She won’t miss it.”

Maberly’s face darkened with unspoken censure.

Jack paid him no heed. Tucking the parcel in his coat, he exited his cabin in search of Bea.

The sea air was indeed chill tonight, stinging his face as he ascended to the upper deck. He didn’t like to think of Bea, standing at the rail in her thin gown and threadbare shawl.

Yet, it was precisely where he found her. There, in the moonlight, hands at the rail as she stared out at the stars.

“You’ve anticipated me,” he said.

She cast him a glance over her shoulder. “You said you’d be joining me. I took you at your word.”

He limped up to the rail. “Have you been here long?”

“Not long, no.” Her mouth curved in a fleeting smile. “I’ve been pondering the mystery of the stars.”

He inwardly winced to hear the sardonic words he’d uttered in the gaming saloon volleyed back at him. “Ah.”

“Is that what you do when you look at the night sky?” she asked. “Consider its mystery?”