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.“Notice how well he holds up? A butler is the triumph of science over nature.I should like one for my own.”Jeannie laughed in spite of herself.Captain Summers finished his biscuit and thoughtfully brushed the crumbs from his coat.He poured himself another cup of coffee, and as he did so, Jeannie took the moment to observe him.He was as neat as wax, sitting there impeccable in his morning coat.He was not in uniform, but no one, not even the downiest slow-top, could ever have mistaken Captain Summers for other than a military man.There was an air of pride about him, a superiority that reminded Jeannie forcefully of Tom, even as she told herself that they looked nothing alike.She would have continued her scrutiny and her idle speculation on what was the certain something that gave a man such an air of command, but he was looking at her now with his own intensity.Jeannie waited for him to speak, but he only watched her.She did not think to be upset by his acute observation.She had only just that moment given up watching him, so could scarcely cry foul.There was nothing insolent in his manner.He regarded her carefully, as he would have an opponent.Finally Summers leaned back slightly.He sipped his coffee and eyed her over the rim of the cup.“Pringle tells me your husband was with the Fifteenth Dumfries Rifles.”“He was, and so was my father-in-law.”“I remember the lads.Didn’t the Rifles make up the rearguard in the retreat to La Coruña?”“They did.That was where my husband sustained his fatal injuries.”Captain Summers nodded.There was nothing in his face of sympathy; there was something better.Jeannie saw an understanding of the harshness of war, a matter-of-factness that was bracing but infinitely superior to sensibility, no matter how well-meaning.“We did everything we could from the sea,” he said simply.“I threw so much lead at the Spaniards behind them that I am surprised the land did not sink.” He looked down at his hands.“Swear to God my ears rang for days.”There was a brief pause while Captain Summers took another sip of his coffee and then set the cup down.“General Moore commended the Dumfries before he died,” he said.“We came in as close as we dared, and took off as many soldiers as we could.I remember the Dumfries pipers on the headland, when every other man was running and dodging.God, I shall never forget the sound.”“It is a regiment well-known for bravery,” she whispered, and the thought stung her.She turned away so he would not see the desolation in her eyes.He pushed himself away from the table and stalked to the window, as if the memory was too big for the breakfast parlor.Jeannie drank her tea in silence, curiously warmed by his words.Galen McVinnie had never told her anything of the beach at La Coruña.Probably he remembered nothing of it himself.The whole terror came into focus for the first time as she sat at a breakfast table in Mayfair, and she discovered that she could look at it with equanimity.Thank you, Captain Summers, she thought suddenly.He turned back to her.“And now, Mrs.McVinnie, can I persuade you to change your mind and remain here in our house?”Jeannie blinked and gulped the tea in her mouth.“You cannot be serious, not after the deception I practiced.”“Are you not Jeannie McVinnie?” he asked in vast surprise.“Oh, you know what I mean,” she said with asperity.“I am the wrong Jeannie McVinnie, as you well know, and I will not do.”“Granted you are much too young, scarcely more than a baby.”“Sir, I am twenty-four,” she declared, stung to admission by his observation.“Good God, Mrs.McVinnie, on the day you were born I was probably climbing a rigging in a high wind.”She stared at him and opened and closed her mouth.The captain knelt by her chair.“Silly girl, I ran away to sea when I was twelve.And, by God, you do have brown eyes.” He stood up and began to pace the room, his hands behind his back.Jeannie watched him, fascinated, forgetting to be offended by his curious manners.“We have already granted that you are too young, and you know nothing of London, but by God, if you don’t have that McVinnie spirit!” He rubbed his hands together with an expression close to glee on his face.“The answer is still no,” Jeannie said as she rose from the chair.“And now I should see if Mary has returned with my traveling dress.I must be off, Captain Summers.It remains only for me to apologize again for my foolishness and return to Scotland.”“But I need you here,” the captain insisted.“And I have already said that you will do.”Jeannie looked him straight in the eye.“Captain, I was looking all of you over last night myself.This is a most unhappy household and I refuse to be part of it.”“All the more reason you should stay, Mrs.McVinnie,” Captain Summers said.The note of command was creeping into his voice.The door to the breakfast parlor opened and the captain turned away in disgust, muttering something about “damned intrusions.” Jeannie hoped that her face was not as red as she feared.She would have turned away, too, but it was Edward who stood before her, dressed neatly for the day and bearing a large, leather-bound red book with the title A Young Gentleman’s Guide to London stamped on the cover in gilt letters.“Edward, this is a surprise,” Jeannie said.“I was just preparing to go upstairs.”Edward looked doubtfully at his uncle, who glared at him and then sat down at the table again.“You and I need to have a talk,” the captain said, his voice all business.Edward paled noticeably and Jeannie found herself moving closer, standing slightly in front of him.She stared back at the captain and then turned her attention to the boy.She could see in the daylight that he bore a slight resemblance to his uncle, although he was thin where Summers was not.His arms dangled out of the ends of his sleeves, and Jeannie knew that, although he was small now, he would be as tall as Captain Summers someday.There was a sweetness of expression about him that owed nothing to his relative, she decided.The sweetness ended before his eyes, which regarded her with disconcerting desperation.“May I sit down?” he asked.Captain Summers nodded and poured himself another cup of coffee.Jeannie sat down next to him.Without a word, he opened the book and placed it before her on the table
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