Sea of Grey

was a glimmer of joy in her eyes. She gave his hands a shake, then frowned.

'Sorry, I forgot your noble wound,' she said ruefully. 'Not the first you've borne,' she commented, releasing his left hand. 'Captain Lewrie was my rescuer in the Adriatic, Mobley. He took a wound fighting for my life there, as well.'

'Yes, madam,' the old servant replied, bobbing, blinking, and nigh fawning, admiring the two medals twinkling on Lewrie's chest.

'We'll have coffee, Mobley.'

'Right away, madam.'

She led him to a settee, each taking one end, with a space apart; again, decorously. There followed some idle chit-chat 'til the coffee arrived, delivered by an older maidservant.

'That should do for now,' Theoni said.

'Yes, ma'am,' the maid replied, bobbing a curtsy and departing.

'Man and wife,' Theoni announced after she had gone.

'Hey?' Lewrie could but gawp. Gawd, what'd she mean by …!

'Mobley and his wife… the maid,' Theoni explained. 'I took them both on, together. She also cooks. I try to run a small staff, now that the French have occupied the Ionian islands. The currant business is disrupted, you see. They now hold poor Zante, and the English House. My parents get a letter out, now and then. They say things are bad, though the French buy currants, as well. Even if they are tyrants. And tyrants never pay well, not like the days before, so…'

Right, she's out for blood and money, Lewrie thought, steeling himself for a 'touch' on his savings!

'You are not in, uhm… financial distress, are you? ' he asked, thinking he was getting to the point.

'Oh, no, Alan!' Theoni chuckled, with a generous grin. 'What my in-laws sell is dearer than before, and you English must have jams and preserves for your puddings and duffs! I merely take sensible precautions against wasteful expenses. An annual trip to Bristol, so Michael knows his late father's kin… but I do not aspire to a country house or acres, and I do not quite follow London style. I stay in town the whole year round.'

'Reassurin' for your servants, then,' Lewrie said, feeling as if he would exhale with a loud whoosh if allowed. 'No one laid off at the end of the Season, when most folks head for the country, and they end up broke and homeless 'til the Quality come back.'

'Yes. It makes for a certain… loyalty,' Theoni supposed as she poured coffee for them. 'Should I have sent for tea, instead? I prefer coffee… strong and dark, the Turkish way. All those tyrants were ever good for, but…'

Lewrie sugared his and sipped; it was ambrosia! Strong, dark, and heady, indeed, quite unlike most of the coffee served in London.

'The Turkish way is perfect, thankee,' he agreed most happily.

'Now,' she intoned, setting down her cup, leaning back all prim and folding her hands in her lap. 'The reason I asked you to call. I am so very sorry for what you suffered in the park, yesterday… at your hour of honour and triumph, after all! Alan, believe me, it was never my intention to… what we had… it was always my hope that it would remain only between us.'

'Have,' Lewrie added, turning glum, though able to look her in the eyes; and was puzzled to see her almost stiffen in response, those eyes of hers glittering too brightly, with the ghost of a grin upon her lips! 'Father says he has my eyes. Mean t'say…'

'Yes, he does,' Theoni cheerfully confessed. 'More than your eyes. Barely a year old now, and I swear that he already has your… boldness.

I know the world would say that I should feel shame, but I do not. I never will,' she vowed, slipping a tad closer to him on the settee, her voice gentle and cooey… loving! 'Your wife… did she know, or…?'

'Suspected,' Lewrie said with a sigh, outlining the anonymous letter and its results, despite his father's assurances back in the summer that he'd seen Alan Connor and saw no resemblance, how there were too many other affairs hinted at. Theoni nodded patiently, and sagely through it all, sipping coffee and pouring warm-ups, but with her gaze demurely averted.

Disappointed, cause she's findin ' out I'm a total rake-hell? he asked himself as he took note of her seeming discomfort; Christ, does she harbour some notion I'd leave Caroline for her, since we have that child, together, or … ?

'So… Caroline has left me, in essence,' he confessed at last, feeling alien, inhuman, in that he could say it without screaming out loud in anguish. 'No divorce, but…'

'Alan, you poor man! I never meant to cause you such a pain!' she vowed, shifting even closer and opening her arms into which he rather gladly sank.

'Didn't quite plan on it, myself!' he countered, trying for the light note and almost making it, though a tad shakily. 'Oh, hell…'

'I must say, though,' she mused as she stroked his hair, leant quite close, almost cheek to cheek, 'the look she gave me, just as we were introduced, filled me with dread. If only we had taken another pathway in the park, begun our walk earlier, or…'

'Had to happen, sooner or later, I s'pose,' Lewrie graveled. 'I expect, did her curiosity get the better of her, she'd have called on you on her own. Just what you need, a plague of Lewries 'fronting you in the streets. My father, my bloody in-laws…!'

'Well, Alan,' Theoni all but cooed, 'some Lewries are more welcome than others. I was quite surprised by your father's arrival. A very droll old gentleman.'

'He behaved himself, then?' Lewrie just had to ask; he knew his father too well to trust him around any available, and handsome, lass.

'Quite well.' Theoni chuckled again. 'Though he does have the… jaunty? Is that the right word? The jaunty leer in his eye?'

'Aye, jaunty,' Lewrie said with a wry smile. ' 'Tis the tamest way for what he had in his eye to be said in polite company.'

'Imagine my surprise when he did call,' Theoni said, sitting up and reaching for her cup once more. 'Mobley announced a General Lewrie, and I thought he had gotten it wrong… that it was you! He told me about that letter. He apologised for intruding, for… probing about at your wife's request. Barging in upon a total stranger.' 'What'd you tell him, then?'

'The truth,' she said, bald-faced. 'Though elderly, he is far too cynical to accept lies. He winced at that. Screwed up his face. But he nodded… as if he understood.'

She heaved a wry little laugh, a hitching of her shoulders. 'I expect that he left more than a few offspring in his path in his younger days,' she commented.

'Me, included. I'm the only one he owned up to, and took as his own. Not as a Willoughby, though. Trust me, 'tis a long, sad story, and there was a pot of money involved.'

'He is wealthy, now?' Theoni suddenly asked. 'Aye, he is,' Lewrie answered, suddenly on his guard, suddenly feeling a sinking in his innards. Of jealousy? he wondered. 'Some.'

'Then the world is no longer at risk,' Theoni said, laughing at that news. 'Well-fed sharks do not bite, usually. He might even turn mellow… into a safe supper guest who doesn't have to sing.' Lewrie burst into a side-aching peal of laughter. 'Oh, God! My father… safe!' He hooted. 'He'd steal the coins from his own eyes on his deathbed… and pinch the chambermaid with the winding sheet!'

'Then I see where you got your spirit.' Theoni tittered. 'Aye… blood will tell, they say,' Lewrie replied, sobering, recalling just where, and how, that adage had most recently been used. 'So what will you do now?' Theoni enquired. 'God knows,' Lewrie said with a frown, slouching back into the settee. 'Saw my solicitor, made some arrangements… safeguarded some funds and such… Most like, it's back down to Sheerness for me, to put Proteus back in the water and toddle off to sea. What I'm good at. Where I don't get in much trouble. Mostly.'

'But that was where you got in trouble with me, Alan,' Theoni pointed out with a becoming smirk. 'At sea.'

'Aye, it was,' he agreed, enfired by the look in her eyes, as if she wouldn't mind a tad more