Chapter 13

The next day, late in the morning, Phileas made his way downstairs. It was still raining. The city would be washed clean of last night's activities. Melody was still asleep.

She had taken quite a scare and a large piece of splintered wood in the arm as they had run from the ship. In shock from the sound of the cries and explosions, Melody hadn't taken notice of her injury until they were in a carriage on their way back home. And even then, her reaction had been mild. "Oh, I've damaged my dress."

Phileas had turned in the dim light of the carriage lamp to see blood spilling down her sleeve in a steady flow.

The wound had been seen too as soon as they had reached home. Not severe, but it required careful bandaging. Roles had been reversed as Phileas and Rebecca tended her. Phileas had become the tyrant, seeing to Melody's care while she was forced to submissively accepted orders.

They had sat talking together a long time last night. Phileas had told her what Rebecca had shared with him. How he had pursued and taken to wife and how he had, in Rebecca's words, overwhelmingly charmed her slippers off.

"Mind you," Rebecca had related after she had cracked under his interrogation, "it wasn't an unwilling seduction. Melody was already taken with you. Apparently, you had been taking advantage of an older couple aboard ship for chaperone cover. Rebecca's eyes had narrowed when she told him the rest. "With them to lend you respectability, you had were with her constantly. And after what happened in Tripoli, you turned the full force of Fogg charm on her, convincing Melody that she needed your constant company for protection."

"Odd that," Rebecca teased. "Last I knew, it wasn't considered proper for an agent to pursue someone one under their protection. Wasn't it you who told me becoming emotionally involved with one's mission was a folly that would lead to one's downfall? At any rate, you had her so taken with you, the only reason she broke down was for the suddenness of it."

"Really Phileas," Rebecca said. "You could have at least waited until you had returned to England. She could have had a proper wedding with her brother to give her away. What was your hurry for? Did you think Charles Anderson would refuse you?"

"If Melody told you the entire story, she told you that the timing was out of our control. The ceremony was at our captain's insistence," Phileas said. "I was in no position to argue."

"I'll allow you that," Rebecca said, "but I would lay bets you didn't lift a finger to resist. Not the way you were actively seducing her, accompanying her on shore excursions, monopolizing her company, walking her about the ship at sunset dripping flattery… Melody didn't recognize she was being hunted down, but I did when she told me of it." Your captain's scandalized sense of property put Melody right where you wanted her."

"Really Phileas," Rebecca said, having trouble keeping the amusement out of her tone. "I would have never imagined you as a Casanova of that sort… deliberately setting out to seduce a proper young lady as she traveled unescorted… And enlisting an elderly couple to facilitate it!"

Phileas still didn't remember much about what she was saying, but was abashed enough to look sheepish about it. His face went red at what he must have thought she might say next.

Rebecca had been sorely tempted to push him farther by giving him a word-for-word report on her and Melody's heart-to-heart girl chats. "Magic, she called your kisses," Rebecca said in summary. "Let's just say you two spent your first four days of marriage on the panicle of wedded bliss. But then overnight you transformed from an ardent bridegroom to a horrified bachelor, dashing her heart to bits! When we get her back, I would strongly suggest you straighten that out!"

"I will," Phileas had promised, bemused and embarrassed at what Melody must have told his cousin. "I will also put to rest her brother's threat to have the marriage annulled. It may make an enemy of Charles Anderson for me. After the two references you had sent to him, I am surprised he has not come to take her away."

Rebecca grinned evilly at him, the expression of a cat contemplating a cornered mouse, knowing she could pounce at her leisure.

Phileas shuddered. "Rebecca, what have you done? Have you deliberately set up poor references for me? Lord, Rebecca! This is serious!"

Rebecca chuckled despite the discomfort it had caused her overtaxed ribs. "I arranged for you to be given the very best of references, cousin, one from Sir Jonathan, one from the former Prime Minister's secretary, one from Lady Weatherby, and one from my godmother. The two you saw were for your eyes only. You can just reverse everything written in the letter Sir Jonathan wrote. His was quite complementary. And Sir Vance's letter had been written for fun, nothing more. He said to remind you of a certain Spanish lady in Toledo and to call things even between you. Her brother never saw the letters you read Phileas. I suspect the next time you hear from Mr. Anderson, he will be more than properly impressed by your sterling qualities."

"Why?" Phileas had roared, coming out of his seat.

"Because you robbed me of the chance to see your wedding," Rebecca shouted back. She rose to meet him toe to toe! "And because you have been walking around here, insanely in love with that girl, and refusing to admit it! I thought the fear of losing her might wake you up."

Phileas had not been sure whether he should strangle Rebecca or kiss her for her interference. Wake him up, those letters had. Fogg had been setting himself for the fight he had been certain would come when his brother-in-law came to take Melody away.

Now, with her back home again, all Phileas felt was relief. So, all that had been left was to convince Melody of his feelings.

Left to her own devices, Melody always set herself for the most pessimistic scenario. He could relate to that, but considered it a major flaw in both of them. A flaw he intended to do away with, at least in his wife. One morose person in this house is enough.

After leaving Melody sleeping, Phileas spent the morning unearthing his grandmother's wedding ring. All this time, Melody had had nothing concrete to show that she had married. Keeping their unorthodox marriage a private matter seemed the best way to go, until now.

Jules had been right. My reluctance to acknowledge her openly fueled Melody's fears, keeping a wedge between us.

After Melody wakes, I will give it to her.

As he reached the main floor, Phileas didn't hear any movement in the kitchen. That surprised him, as he was certain he had heard Passepartout go downstairs already. Rebecca, he had heard moving around in the guest room as he passed her door. She would be downstairs soon. He intended to take a tray up to Melody once breakfast was ready. Between the excitement of the day before and their lovemaking last night, Phileas would insist that she spend most of the day resting.

Phileas walked into the kitchen. He was stopped cold at the sound of a cocking pistol.