Shipmate: A Royal Regard Prequel Novella Read Online Free PDF

half of your furniture to make certain I am
comfortable and am never required to dirty my dress sitting on the
ground,” Bella said, teasing him before she realized she might be
flirting. Flushing, wishing to turn her attention elsewhere, she
surreptitiously made arrangements with one of the footmen for
service of luncheon at Lord Holsworthy’s dining table, the
expansive surface covered in pristine linen, fine china, sparkling
crystal, and intricate silver.
    For a man with little confidence in his
comportment, and manners that sat uneasily, Lord Holsworthy hosted
a good table. He waited for someone else to start eating, and Bella
saw at once he wasn’t sure what fork to use, so without delay, she
broke protocol and ate before her host. Charlotte and Alexander
followed, and Aunt Minerva, miraculously, held her tongue, in part,
because Uncle Howard looked as though he might make a scene if she
did not.
    After that, both food and company were
generous, flavorsome, and satisfying, and his conversation was
intelligent, broadminded, and showed evidence of a contemplative
nature. With dinner came talk of Lord Holsworthy’s travels, and the
exotic viands with which he was most familiar. The spit-roasted
pheasant and venison pasties called up the American West, where the
savages were red Indians and one might also eat buffalo or snake.
The Jerusalem artichoke a la crème inspired a tangent into
his last voyage to the Holy Lands, which inspired Aunt Minerva to
great heights of intolerance that embarrassed everyone else at the
table, before Uncle Howard told her to finish her supper. Following
on the heels of her sudden, sullen silence, with roasted root
vegetables, the discussion turned, once again, to philosophy.
    “Earlier, Miss Smithson, you asked if I
looked on secular thinkers with disfavor, and the answer, though
some might not credit it, is no.” He tore a piece of bread from a
long baguette , buttered it, and gestured with it in his
right hand, his left indecorously draped across the table next to
his plate. “I do not believe Our Lord wishes us to close our eyes
to alternative viewpoints, or He would not have designed so many. I
have, in fact, done business with some of the fomenters of the
American Revolution, after they won their war, during which I
earned my money robbing their ships under His Majesty’s letters of
marque. We have shared many late-night hours plumbing the depths of
the question of the rights of man.”
    “The rights of man,” Uncle Howard suggested,
“is too intellectual a topic for our young ladies.”
    Aunt Minerva punctuated that thought with,
“Indeed.”
    Alexander disagreed, “I should not like to
think any topic held out as too intellectual for Charlotte,
certainly nothing to do with politics. She has a fine mind, and was
well-educated alongside Bella, and I would not be as successful in
The Lords without her counsel.” He cast a glance at Lady Effingale.
“She wanted only confidence to become an excellent political
hostess.”
    Charlotte, then, under the baleful glares of
her mother and father and proud gaze of her husband, continued the
political dialogue over the brandy-poached pears and Stilton
cheese, even drawing Bella in, culminating in a revealing and
insightful depiction of the delicate role Lord Holsworthy played as
the owner of Seventh Sea Shipping.
    He acted as an economic lever into areas of
the world not yet civilized, reporting back to his investors—chief
among them, the Prince of Wales—on what might be gained by
incursion into uncharted lands, with an eye for portable value.
That he was now being given royal authority and backing might
signal real change in other parts of the world, but, as yet, Lord
Holsworthy was reticent to speak in much detail about his
charge.
    He did say it would begin in India, where he
had made his start many years ago, and earned the money to buy his
first ship, and now he would take possession of a sizable tea
plantation and a place in the