He bowed in her direction. “I would not deny you that pleasure, Miss Harrow.”
She took the card and looked at it, then giggled and moved closer to him, arching her hand over the top of the card so that no one else could see it, in a great and unnecessary show of secrecy since they were far enough away from anyone else that no one but them could possibly see what was written on the card.
Odysseus and Penelope.
Sebastian stifled a chuckle. He knew that Isabella would have been the perfect partner for this charade. He was sure she would have readThe Odysseyand know the story perfectly, but from the confused look on Felicity’s face, he could tell that he would have to explain it to her.
“You do not know the story?”
She shook her head. “Is there something in it about a loom?” she whispered.
He nodded. “Yes, Penelope spent hours at her loom weaving while waiting for her husband Odysseus to return from a long journey. If you just go over there and pretend to be weaving on a loom, I will do the rest.”
“Shall I gaze longingly at you?” Felicity asked, batting her eyelashes at him flirtatiously.
He suppressed the urge to wince. “Well, yes, perhaps something like that. She is supposed to be missing him after all.” He paused. “Perhaps just look a bit wistful if you think you can manage that?”
“I shall do my best,” she simpered, then sighed softly. “How romantic!”
She walked over to the other side of the makeshift stage and began to mime the act of weaving on a loom.
Sebastian glanced over at Isabella and was sure he saw her rolling her eyes. He tried not to laugh. Of course, she had written all the charades so she would know immediately which one they had been given.
He forced himself to go through the motions of acting the part of Odysseus. First, he pretended to be on board a ship, looking out at the horizon, then he somehow managed to mime out being tempted by Calypso.
All the while, Felicity was staring at him, sighing and tugging at a loose curl that had escaped from the complicated arrangement of hair on top of her head. He could hardly concentrate at all when her behaviour was so far-fetched, and all the time, he felt Isabella’s eyes on him.
He glanced across to Isabella and saw a half smile on her face. Her eyes were shining with amusement as she watched the spectacle before her. He could not help returning her smile before forcing himself to return his focus to the game in hand. He was just trying to figure out the best way to depict the fight with the Cyclops when, thankfully, Adrian called out the correct answer, saving him from further embarrassment.
Sebastian dropped out of his role immediately and returned to his seat, crossing Adrian on the way, who seemed to be much more excited by the prospect of the game than he had been.
“I hope you get your chosen partner,” he whispered as Adrian passed him.
Adrian grinned. “So do I!” He walked towards Lady Evermere with an obvious spring in his step.
***
As Sebastian and Felicity performed their charade, another person’s eyes were fixed upon them besides Isabella’s. George Langley watched as events unfolded before him. He could not shake the feeling of unease every time he looked at Sebastian. Lord Ashcroft. He was glad that Julian’s son had a title, at least, albeit a rather modest one.
He seemed to be a confident, well-adjusted young man, but he was definitely holding something back. He had avoided conversing with many of the other guests at the house party throughout the day, preferring to spend most of his time with Mr Sterling, his stepbrother. And now there was clearly something going on between him and Miss Harrow, from how she looked at him. It was as if she wanted to eat him, the way her hungry eyes were fixed upon him.
It was all rather baffling, and George did not know what to make of it. But regardless of whether Sebastian had got himself entangled with Miss Harrow somehow, George found that he could not look at the young man without remembering his father, and all those memories from the past came flooding back.
He remembered how excited they had been when the idea had first come to them. They were so young then and so naïve. But trade with the East Indies had flourished at that time, and it seemed they could not lose. Everyone had said so. They had ploughed almost all their money into the venture to send a ship to New Guinea.
Those islands seemed so exotic, so unexplored. It had felt as if nothing could go wrong. There would surely be a wealth of rare spices and textiles they could obtain and bring back to England to sell at a vast profit.
Both George and Julian had been confident in the success of their plans. So sure, in fact, that they had had no idea what to do when everything had gone so horribly wrong. The ship had simply disappeared. They had never known whether it had been taken by pirates or had fallen victim to the merciless sea. But all was lost: the ship, their investment, and their pride. George had felt as if he would never recover from it, but worse was yet to come.
He remembered the moment he heard the news that an informant had come forward and accused Julian of deliberately undermining the voyage with a view to monopolizing the profits. He had not believed that it was true then, and he did not believe it now, but he had been unable to do anything to exonerate his friend. Events had taken over, and Julian had faced trial and then prison, then an untimely death behind bars.
The whole situation was tragic indeed, and as George watched Sebastian acting out the trials of Odysseus, he could not help seeing the irony in the story that had been chosen for him to depict. He felt a sense of unease stirring within him. If Lord Ashcroft wanted answers about what had happened to his father, then George was never going to be able to fully satisfy him.
***
A little distance away, Victor watched as his daughter batted her eyelashes at the young viscount. He thought that perhaps she was going a little overboard, but she probably knew better than he did what was appropriate when it came to these things.
He glanced across at George, whose eyes were fixed on Sebastian. His friend’s response to meeting the young man the previous evening had been rather disconcerting. George seemed to be responding rather dramatically to the appearance of this face from their shared past, and Victor was worried.
