Tasherit, being an immortal, was strong enough to operate the gangplank without assistance. She cranked it down manually and with enviable ease. The three came trotting up.
Even living together for weeks on end, Tasherit up close always took Rue’s breath away. She was so beautiful it hurt, like breathing deep on an icy evening. She was all exotically strong features, tea-with-milk complexion, and long, thick dark hair. It was most upsetting, or would have been, if she hadn’t been so nice about it. One couldn’t really resent Tasherit for her beauty; that would be like resenting a sunset.
“Has Percy come aboard recently?”
“He has.” Tasherit spoke English well, with only a touch of lilting vowels. Weeks spent talking regularly to Rue and Prim had coloured her vocabulary with the upper crust. “Off to his library in a funk.”
Prim and Rue exchanged relieved looks.
“Well, thank goodness he’s here.” Prim’s eyes were less worried.
“Has anyone been around asking after him?” Rue perused the decks by habit; everything seemed in order.
Tasherit was surprised. “No. Should there be? Does our dear professor have friends?”
“No, quite the opposite.”
“Ah, no. But I’ll bring up the gangplank and keep a careful watch, if you wish.”
“Yes, I think that wise. And if you wouldn’t mind, perhaps a lioness might be a bigger dissuader than a stunning diaphanous woman.”
“Mmm. Quite right. I’ll just go and change, then, shall I?” Tasherit winked at them both and disappeared below, only to return a moment later as a large silken-furred lioness. She blinked her slanted brown eyes at them and went to pace the railing.
Primrose let out a long breath.
Rue wasn’t certain if it was relief at having Percy so well protected or relief at being no longer under the scrutiny of the werecat.
They found Percy sulking in his library.
“Percy, there you are.” Primrose bustled in.
Percy looked up. His expression suggested that his sister was akin to some kind of shoe fungus. “Would you care to make any more banal comments?”
“Percy! I was worried about you. So was Virgil.”
“The answer is clearly yes, banal comments will continue.” Percy was extra grumpy this evening.
Aren’t we lucky? “What ho, Percy. I wasn’t worried.” Rue grinned at him.
“What happened to make you storm off so?” Primrose was nothing if not persistent.
Percy was rather fond of Rue, so it was startling to everyone when he rounded on her at this juncture. Rue had never seen such anger on his face and she’d known him since they were in nappies. She took a tiny step back.
“That French boy of yours! Have you any idea what he’s gone and done?”
“Quesnel? Isn’t he still overseas?”
“He can go to the devil for all I care! What has that to do with anything? Traitorous beast. I don’t know why I’m surprised given his ancestry and inclinations. French engineer indeed!”
Rue and Primrose exchanged looks. All Percy seemed to be accusing Quesnel of was, frankly, being himself. True, Quesnel was theoretically French, but he’d been mostly educated in England. And there was nothing wrong with being an engineer. It’s not like Percy would get his lily-white hands greasy; someone had to keep them floating while he navigated.
Rue shifted her stance. “Yes, yes, but what did he do, Percy?”
Percy went all broody. “If you don’t know, I’m not going to tell you. I shall enjoy watching you find out exactly as I did. The shock of it. In the meantime, I’ll have my revenge. Just you see if I don’t.”
He sounded like the villain in a gothic novel. Rue hid a grin. “Percy, darling, I realise, unlike some, that what I don’t know could fill the Library of Alexandria. Hence the reason I keep you around, charming though you may be.”
Percy puffed a bit at what he took as a compliment.
“Oh really, Percy!” Primrose did not find her brother funny. “Do try not to be so ridiculous. Have a nice cup of hot tea and you’ll be more the tick in two shakes.”
“I was thinking the same thing.” Rue was slightly concerned about what Percy might do to get back at Quesnel for this perceived slight, but that was Quesnel’s problem. If past experience was anything to go on, Quesnel could handle Percy. He could also rile Percy up like no one else. Since it was clearly some gentlemen thing, Rue refused to dignify it with her concern.
She pierced Percy with a glare. “So, why are these men looking for you?”
Percy stopped at that. “Men? What men?”
“Exactly what we wish to know.”
Percy lost some of his pique in confusion. “I’ve no idea what you’re on about, Prudence. Now, I will kindly ask you ladies to leave me in peace. I have some vital research to conduct and I need chatter-free quiet in which to conduct it. Is that my valet skulking in the background?”
Virgil moved further into the library. “Sir?”