“Are you quite well? You’re looking rather pasty, old bean!” Cavell asked with concern. I mopped my brow with my napkin and took a long draught of iced water.
“I do not dine publically often, and rarely with strangers. I’m finding this quite the challenge.” I admitted. Cavell’s brows knitted at hearing my explanation.
“Oh, come now dear heart. We’re hardly strangers, are we?” Cavell sat languidly in his chair and winked at me. I felt heat rise as if I were a youth in the first flush of romance, I tightened my jaw. I did not appreciate his mocking tone. Sebastian appeared to note the unmanning effects of my discomfort and then, in a softer voice said,
“Apologies, Benedict. I did not know that your inquietude was the cause of such distress. Is it the fact we are dining in public or is it me in particular that is making you so… distracted?”
I did not want to be rude but my first thought was a gruff and angry response, which I repressed. Was it not obvious as to why I was nervous? I was dining with a man who had unleashed a reign of terror against the aristocracy, pilfering their prized possessions in the most daring robberies imaginable. His questioning did not help matters.
“I would rather we did not discuss this,” I said sternly, and then awkwardly I added.
“Forgive me if I am presumptuous, but I’ve reserved a room for…later… we can talk then, yes?”
Sebastian’s grin became wolfish and self-satisfied. He leaned his elbows on the table, which was terribly bad manners, and placed his chin resting on clasped hands. In a low, devilish voice he said,
“Let us converse about other subjects then, my friend. What would you like to discuss?”
I bit my lip and diverted my gaze. I could not look him in the eye when he spoke to me like that.
I leaned forward, “Well, for a start… do not turn around!” I said quietly.
Cavell furrowed his brow. “That boy you are looking for is dining at the far table.”
“What! Are you sure?” Cavell asked in an excited whisper.
“Yes, it comes to me now. This where I saw him before Christmas, dining with Benjamin Cavendish, if I’m not mistaken.” I did not know much about Cavendish other than he was a Tory Member of Parliament, was in his mid-thirties, and had married into wealth.
“Who is the Baron dining with today?”
I took another inconspicuous glance over Sebastian’s shoulder. Including Leopold, there were a total of four men together,
“The American, Lawrence Blake, Cavendish and, yes, that’s Lord Arthur Spencer!”
“Who is this Blake fellow?”
“I had no idea until this evening. He is an American theosophist, quite famous apparently. He garnered quite the crowd earlier, spouting all kinds of utter nonsense about the body as a vessel for the spirit.” I said smugly.
Sebastian sent me an unnerved look, then he pushed his napkin off his lap and onto the floor and sighed a self-deprecating, “Oh you silly Billy!” then pushed his chair out from the table and bent down to retrieve the napkin. I saw how he took a sly look behind at the dining party. When he straightened I noted that it was Sebastian’s turn to blanch this time.
“Are you alright?”
Cavell tossed back a full glass of wine and sat with his hands over his face for a moment. When composed, he removed his hands and took a breath. He wore a mask of indifference as his guise of Foxford Robins had returned.
“Quite alright. We shall talk of this later.” He said hurriedly, his voice sounding strangely high-pitched. “Now, we need some polite dining conversation…what shall we discuss?”
I was confused by his behavior and it appeared that there was a great deal to discuss later!
“Hmmm. Okay, you seem to know a lot about me, so, let’s talk about you, ay? You said you were born in India, was your father in the Military? Where did you school?” I suggested.
Cavell refilled his wine glass and sat back. Then he gulped the wine but he did not seem to have heard my question and did not offer a reply. He was far too distracted by eavesdropping on the discussion at the table behind us.
A waiter placed bowls of steaming Beef broth and fresh bread rolls on our table. I said grace, thanking the Lord for our meal and for a companion to share it with me. We ate silently and when the broth and fresh bread rolls were consumed the bowls were removed. The waiter then returned delivering plates of mutton with roasted vegetables and lashings of gravy. The food at my club was hearty fare and always reminded me of the comforting meals of my school days. I hoped there was Spotted Dick for dessert!
Inhaling the scent of the food I realized just how famished I was. I dug in and wolfed down my meal as if I had not eaten for a week. It was most unlike me but I found that since our liaison my appetite was ravenous, and not only for food. The thoughts I’d held back for so many years flooded my mind as if a dam had broken, and they came to my mind
