Chapter Twelve #2
Michael swallowed. “I am not unhappy, Papa.”
It was the wrong thing to say. His father dropped his head into his hands, just for a moment, and when he lifted his gaze to his son’s, he said quietly, “I have failed you, lad, if all this is not enough.”
His mouth dry, his throat incapable of speech, Michael tried to think desperately of something to say, but there were no words. No words! No words at all because there was nothing to say.
He had let his father down, and yet what could he do with this yearning to be elsewhere, this need to be somewhere other than here?
The viscount sighed. “Come. Let’s go join your mother and Captain Seaton for luncheon. I hope he has a large appetite!”
He rose from his seat and walked around the desk as Michael awkwardly rose in turn and said, “Yes, I think… I think she does.”
His father halted in the doorway and turned with a raised eyebrow to examine his son. “‘She does’? ‘She does’?”
Michael drew himself up, ready to defend the honor of the woman he—oh, hell. Did he love Phylis Seaton?
He did. Oh, Christ, he loved her! He loved the way she smiled, and the way she frowned, the passion she felt for the sea, and the need she had to be in control of every conversation.
She taught rowing well and she was kind and she was so commanding, and when she looked at him, Michael wanted to get on his knees and beg her to stay with him forever.
And if my father, Michael thought resolutely, or anyone else in this family cannot see that she is perfect in every way and does not need to take those damned trousers off—oh, hell, now he was thinking about Phylis Seaton with her trousers off…
“Good,” said his father lightly. “I hear Cook’s made double dessert.”
He was striding along the corridor toward the drawing room and his guest before Michael could do or say anything.
Indeed, he almost tripped over his own feet following his father, and so managed to be right at his heels as the Viscount Pernrith entered the drawing room with, “Captain Seaton, how pleasant to meet you at last.”
Michael just about managed to step into the room as Phylis rose, flushing, and his mother said curiously, “‘Captain’? How intriguing!”
“Yes, I—I own my own ship,” Phylis was saying, faltering but holding her head high.
As he had known she would.
Pride roared through Michael at the sight of his father gesturing that Phylis should be seated, and his mother smiling and leaning forward with a little joke that made Phylis laugh.
His parents. And the woman he loved—blast it all, but he mustn’t make it too obvious, not now that he knew he was in love with her.
How was it possible that he could have fallen so irrevocably in love with the woman so quickly?
The door opened beyond him.
“Ah, and here are the girls,” his mother said affectionately. “Here, girls, meet—”
“You’re Captain Seaton? I had no idea when we were introduced at Almack’s!
” Gwen launched herself onto the sofa beside Phylis and barraged her with instant questions.
“Have you got your own ship? Can I visit it? Is it big? Do you find sunken treasure? Have you been to America—I’d love to go to America, but only so I can see how they’re doing after estranging themselves from us, the rotters.
Do you have a hat? Do you have a parrot? Can I—”
“Maybe take a breath, Gwen,” Michael said wryly as he sat in a chair opposite the pair of them and tried not to laugh. “Poor Phylis—poor Mrs.—poor Captain Seaton doesn’t want to be flooded by your nonsense.”
Phylis gave him a brief smile, then turned to his sister. “I have my own ship, which you can visit. She’s a schooner about so large. I have never found sunken treasure yet, but I have been to America. I have a captain’s hat and no parrot. Is that everything?”
A stunned silence settled on the Pernrith drawing room.
And then several things happened at once.
The viscount roared with laughter, the viscountess applauded warmly, Gwen’s eyes widened and she laughed while taking Phylis’s hand in hers, and Teddy started playing a sea shanty on the pianoforte with flushing cheeks.
Michael blinked. When the devil did Teddy come in?
“You are a marvel,” his mother was saying.
“Gosh, you really are the most impressive woman I know,” said Gwen. “After Mama, of course. Where’s the best place you’ve ever sailed?”
“Oh, it has to be Casablanca,” Phylis said, and Michael watched as her shyness faded away as the enthusiasm for her topic rose. “It was a dark night, and we were waiting for dawn before we docked…”
“She’s very nice, you know.”
Michael jumped. His father was standing close to him now, his arms crossed and his attention focused on their guest.
On his guest.
Michael’s possessive nature had never been one for doing anything.
In a family of five children, most things were shared—and anything particularly masculine never had to be shared, for he was the only boy.
In truth, Michael could not recall feeling particularly possessive about anything in his life.
Until now.
“Yes, she is,” he said aloud, probably too defensively, given the circumstances.
His father grinned. “I hope you’re being respectable, young man.”
Hell’s bells, this is not a conversation I want to have now!
Or ever, come to think of it.
Mrs. Kinley poked her head around the door. “Luncheon is served.”
“Oh, thank God,” Michael said hastily as he rose to his feet with relief. “Phylis—blast, Mrs. Seaton—”
“May we call you ‘Phylis’?” asked the viscountess lightly, as though this were a perfectly natural question to ask, and not one that entirely ignored all precedence and proper manners.
Phylis looked instinctively at Michael.
He tried not to puff out his chest. Why was it so giddying, when one’s woman looked over at you for guidance, for support?
And when the hell had Phylis become his woman?
“It’s up to you,” Michael said quietly with a shrug. “If you’d prefer ‘Mrs. Seaton,’ or ‘Captain Seaton’—”
“‘Phylis’ will be fine,” she said softly, stepping over and slipping her hand around his arm. “My friends call me ‘Phylis.’”
Michael stepped forward with her on his arm as they crossed the hall to the dining room attempting to untangle two very powerful, and two very conflicting thoughts.
Firstly, that she considered both him and his family friends.