18. Isla #2
Pris, who could read a room better than anyone Isla had ever known, looked more than slightly amused. “Just say it, Lord Jonto. Robert and I aren’t as stiff in our behavior as you’ve possibly come to believe.”
Catching her childhood friend’s eye, Isla murmured, “I’ll say.
” While their wild behavior in their teens didn’t rise to the level of debauchery and drunkenness, as young adults, both Pris and Robert were far from angelic regarding the high standards expected of those in the higher echelons of society.
Much had changed when Robert had assumed his familial position among the ruling elite, but she knew and loved them both and delighted in Pris’s more playful side.
On the other hand, Pris was downplaying her husband’s strict adherence to protocol and the class system.
He was a member of the King’s Privy Council and, as such, always presented a dignified front.
Isla doubted whether Duchess Pierpont had been forthcoming with him about the real reason for this trip. Plausible deniability, after all.
Jonto glanced from Pris to Robert and back to Pris again.
“Then, I’d ask that you treat the woman you’re about to meet with the utmost respect.
She was a lady’s maid for a princess and, against all odds, fell in love with one of my pursers.
Ilona is beautiful, elegant, and um.…” Here, Jonto lowered his chin and stared Priscilla in the eye, “Quite deadly. The royal family in her home kingdom trained her for the dual purposes of being the princess’s bodyguard and lady’s maid.
You’ll be as safe with her as you would be were I to assign one of my fighters to guard you. Just, please?—”
“I’m not in the habit of mistreating my servants, My Lord.” Priscilla’s cold tone said she’d taken offense even though Jonto had been careful to phrase his words in a way he hoped would avoid such a reaction.
Robert put his hand on his wife’s back. “I don’t believe that’s what the captain was saying, Pris. It’s a fair warning. One that I appreciate.”
Everyone turned to see a green-eyed beauty gliding up the stairs to the quarterdeck.
In her mid-thirties, she wore skin-tight, black leather breeches that emphasized every sway of her sensual, rounded hips.
Despite her billowy silk blouse being tucked into a wide sash, there was no disguising a pair of undeniably alluring breasts.
She wore her golden-brown hair in a short yet professional cut, and as Isla’s gaze returned to the sash, she saw what she’d missed during her initial head-to-toe assessment.
A knife with a well-worn hilt took pride of place on her left hip.
The woman prowled forward and stopped a few paces away. “Captain.” Her honeyed voice, sweet yet robust and intense, held lower undertones of dark, rich molasses.
The serious way Jonto greeted her said he gave her the same respect he’d asked of the Fitzgeralds, although Isla doubted he feared the woman, or any of his people, for that matter.
Respected, yes. Feared, no. “Lord and Lady Fitzgerald, this is your lady’s maid, Ilona du Pont.
Ilona, may I introduce you to the Marquis and the Marchioness Fitzgerald? ”
Ilona turned that intense, confident gaze onto the people Jonto had indicated.
For their part, the Fitzgeralds were stunned into silence. Luckily, since they outranked this woman, who moved with the grace of a panther and held herself like a ranking member of the royal family, it was up to her to greet them first.
The green-eyed woman’s grace impressed Isla as she lowered herself into a perfect curtsy sans the spreading of the nonexistent skirt. “My Lord. My Lady.”
Since neither Fitzgerald said anything, Isla, who was standing slightly behind Jonto and Ilona, caught Pris’s gaze and raised her brows, telling her to snap out of it.
Pris blinked several times and then nodded courteously, offering a polite, “How do you do?”
“Very well, My Lady, and I stand at your service.”
As a high-ranking lord, Robert wasn’t inclined to offer greetings to a servant.
Instead, he pulled himself out of his initial shock at seeing a woman who dressed in so blatant a disregard for what was proper in society and met Ilona’s gaze with a steady one of his own.
“I understand that should the need arise, you have the training necessary to protect my wife. I find that more than acceptable in a woman who is to be Lady Fitzgerald’s lady in waiting. ”
Isla was impressed that Robert had elevated Ilona from merely lady’s maid to the more prestigious rank of lady in waiting.
“She’ll be my first priority, My Lord, along with…” she returned that steady gaze to Jonto, “…Lady Brighton?”
Turning to Isla, Jonto made the introductions.
“Lady Isla Brighton, may I introduce you to Ilona du Pont. Ilona, this is the Viscountess Brighton. And yes, should the unthinkable happen and some captain is insane enough to attack the Jest, you’ll be responsible for her safety as well as that of Lady Fitzgerald. ”
Once again, Ilona dropped into an elegant curtsy. “My Lady.”
This woman fascinated Isla. She’d thought that female swash-buckling sailors were few and far between.
Plus, never in her wildest dreams did she think they would dress in such a provocative fashion.
Ilona would be arrested were she to walk down the streets of Fachan’s Bay wearing those tight pants.
All of this flashed through Isla’s mind in the time it took Ilona to rise from her curtsey.
Isla smiled slightly and inclined her head. “Miss du Pont.”
With the introductions out of the way, Priscilla glanced at the wardroom door, apparently trying to remember the interior design. “Where will she—” She trailed off, hoping Jonto knew what she was asking.
He did. “I don’t know whether you noticed a door in the alcove where the Stubbs is displayed, but the servants’ quarters is behind that door. That’s where Ilona will stay.”
With a telling, amused smirk, Ilona faced Jonto. “And Babette, with your permission, of course, Captain.”
The sparkle in Jonto’s eyes wasn’t lost on Isla. She could hardly wait to see Pris’s reaction to this ‘Babette’ if the slight upward tilt of his lips was anything to go on.
The captain tilted his head and asked, “Babette came with you?”
A loud shout traveled up to the quarterdeck. “Aye, Cap’n! Three weeks without me missus were too long fer th’ both of us!” A woman Isla realized must be Babette raced up the stairs, stopped at the top, and walked the rest of the way with long, happy strides.
Babette was the polar opposite of Ilona.
While the lady’s maid matched Robert in height, Babette was perhaps a head shorter than Isla.
Her body ran to pleasantly plump, and where Ilona’s clothing fit her as though they’d been tailor-made to her proportions, Babette’s was a slightly rumpled version of what the other sailors on the ship were wearing.
When she stopped next to her wife, Babette glanced questioningly up at her and then looked as though she were going to attempt a curtsy. She faced the Fitzgeralds, ready to do just that.
With an affectionate eye role, Ilona set her elegant fingers on Babette’s back and drawled, “Please don’t.”
Relief washed over Babette, who grinned at the two aristocrats and then respectfully tugged her forelock. “Pleased t’ meet ya.”
Jonto pulled in a deep breath and once again made the introductions. “Lord and Lady Fitzgerald, Lady Brighton, Miss Smythson, and Miss Culfirth, may I introduce Ilona’s wife, Babette?”
Celie smiled and winked at the young woman. “I can tell we’re going to be great friends.”
“Oh, aye. I kin show ya all over th’ ship, bein’ th’ purser an’ all. Well, I were th’ purser on Jest before I moved to th’ Syren. So, I still knows where all th’ nooks an’ crannies be hidin’.”
“Wonderful.” With her typical bonhomie, Celie acknowledged Babette’s friendly gesture.
Relieved that Babette’s introductions had gone so well, Jonto said, “Babette is a genius with numbers and organization. Whether she’s keeping books or organizing the stores, she’s indispensable to me.”
Babette beamed at his praise.
Jonto gave her a stern look. “That being said, while Ilona and Miss Culfirth will be with us during meals, you’ll eat in the officers’ mess. You’ll report to your cabin no sooner than eight bells. Understood?”
A change from playful clown to ship’s purser had Babette straightening her shoulders and pulling her forelock. “Aye, Cap’n. Eight bells. I got plenty to keep me busy durin’ th’ day, and if Miss Smythson or anyone else fer that matter wants a tour, just have ’em ask fer Babette, aye?”
“Dismissed.”
As they watched her hurry down the stairs, Robert cleared his throat and stared at Ilona. “Your…wife?” Same-sex relations were illegal in their kingdom, and both Robert and Priscilla stared in shocked disbelief.
Ilona unapologetically returned their gazes, and Jonto stepped in to explain.
“On board my ships, we’re not confined to the narrow thinking practiced by the many cultures we encounter worldwide.
I believe people should be allowed to love anyone, regardless of their sexuality or social standing.
You came on board my ship to broaden your horizons, and I would request you have an open mind when experiencing the different cultural differences you’ll find along the way. ”
Not surprisingly, it was Priscilla rather than Robert who responded first. “Captain, despite being a member of the ton, I have long disagreed with the religious and moral objections to homosexual relations. However, you’ll have to excuse my husband and me if it takes us some time to…
adapt…to some of the more unusual practices we encounter on board your ship.
” She glanced over her shoulder at Robert, who was still staring at Ilona with a barely suppressed expression of distaste twisting his aristocratic, well-defined lips.