Free Amanda Scott by Sisters Traherne (Lady Meriel's Duty; Lord Lyford's Secret) Page B

out the widow behind the banquette, she saw that he was right. Still, the thought of being alone with him in the saloon was an unnerving one. “Where do you suppose everyone else is?” she asked.
    “Where is the estimable Mrs. Peat?” he countered.
    “Laid down upon her cot. She managed to eat her dinner, but she felt queasy afterward.”
    “Then I surmise that most of our fellow passengers are in a similar condition. I do not feel the ills of the sea, and I see that you do not either.”
    “No, of course not. ’Tis too exciting to waste one’s time being ill.”
    “Then I suggest that we while away our time with a deck of cards, if one might be found in this saloon. Do you play piquet, ma’am?”
    “Yes, of course, but I daresay there will be no cards,” she replied.
    “I hope you are not a gamester,” he said a moment later, having lifted the bench top of one of the banquettes to reveal several packs of cards in a chest, along with a chessboard and a backgammon board.
    They spent the stormy afternoon at the deal table, playing for vast mythical fortunes, and Meriel enjoyed herself very much. Sir Antony, despite an occasional remark that told her he was still in a fret over his neckcloth and boots, proved to be an amiable companion. She soon lost her nervousness, and having remembered that he had never told her why he had not married, she asked him again.
    He shrugged but there was a gleam of laughter in his eyes. “Until now, I never gave the matter much thought, I suppose. What I cannot understand, however, is how it is that you have been left upon the shelf, my dear.”
    She grinned at him. “Turn about, sir? I promise you, I don’t mind at all. I simply have never had either the time or the inclination to look about me for a husband. Oh, to be sure, I had a Season in London. Papa took me there, and my Aunt Cadogan did everything one might expect to launch me. I enjoyed myself tremendously, I assure you.”
    “In that case, I find it a good deal harder to understand how you come to find yourself still enjoying the single state,” he said, picking up the hand he had just dealt himself and sorting through his cards.
    Meriel discarded three, drew her replacement cards, then continued, “’Tis not so difficult as you might think, sir. I simply met no gentleman that Season whom I could imagine climbing my mountain with me. And, of course, I expected to have a second Season in London the following year. Only as luck would have it, that was when Joss took it into his head to go to America. Papa was like a bear with a sore head as a result, and Mama was ill and so distressed that it was clearly my duty to remain at home with her. Nest had turned seventeen, so I persuaded Papa to take her to London while I stayed to look after Mama and the estate, as well. We have an excellent steward, of course, but there are still decisions to be made from time to time.”
    “And your father left you to make them?” Sir Antony asked, discarding two cards.
    She smiled. “Only because he thought there would be none to be made in the few short months he would be away, I promise you. But I was interested, and our steward was willing to teach me, which was fortunate, as matters turned out. Nest married, and I never did go back to London. Then Papa and Mama died in the typhus epidemic and I was left with the children.”
    “My poor dear.” Sir Antony leaned toward her as though he would comfort her, placing one of his large hands upon her forearm where it rested upon the table.
    “I declare a quart , sir,” she said, smiling. “You must not be thinking me a martyr to circumstance, you know. I promise you I love my home and my family. ’Tis my duty to look after them, and so I must, but ’tis not an unpleasant duty at all.”
    His hand gripped her arm more tightly, but he did not return her smile. Instead his lips pressed firmly against one another as though he restrained himself from speaking forcefully. A moment later