Heath turned to see Bianca’s twin strolling across the deck to them, his gait uneven as they rolled over the swells.
“I’m offended, Brody,” said Heath cheerfully. “I don’t know why you’d think that.”
“Yes, you do,” said Brody, unimpressed. “For one thing, if you weren’t doing something you shouldn’t be, you wouldn’t have given Percival the slip.”
Heath rolled his eyes, leaning on the railing as the wind caught at the sail ahead of him, sending the canvas billowing out, and propelling the ship eastward.
“I’m not answerable to Percival,” he said. “Besides, there was nothing stopping him from coming to Bexley Manor with us. He prefers to be in Bryford, where the action is. You know that.”
Brody gave him a look. “Something tells me he would have joined us if he’d known that you intended to charter a ship and sail into the sunrise instead of spending a week resting your injuries at the manor, like you claimed.”
“I never said that,” Heath cut in quickly.
“You allowed everyone to assume it, though,” Bianca interjected. “You know you did.”
Heath just grunted. “Percival wasn’t exactly itching to come with me, Bianca. You’re wrong if you think I made a show of hiding my plans. Percival stopped hovering over me a couple months ago, and he certainly didn’t ask what I planned to do on my trip home.”
Bianca frowned slightly. She had clearly also noticed Percival’s descent from solicitous older brother into surly bear as the date of his loyalty ceremony drew closer. Percival hadn’t done anything outrageous. He’d just complained a lot, and in all honesty, Heath had been counting down the days to his leave just to get a break from it.
Plus his grandmother had proven right. Heath would know no peace until he knew Merletta’s fate for certain. In the weeks that had passed since their conversation in Kynton, the tension of the unanswered question had grown to such a fever pitch inside him, he could barely sit still for more than five minutes at a time.
“Forget Percival, then,” Bianca said, drawing his attention back to her. “I’m sure your parents wouldn’t have been so relaxed about staying behind in Bryford if they’d known you intended to set off on a mystery voyage.”
“Probably not,” Heath acknowledged. “But I am nineteen years old, you know. I don’t actually need my parents’ permission to travel where I please during my leave of absence from my duties.” He saw that Bianca looked unconvinced, so he added, “It’s been months, Bianca. My injuries are well and truly healed now, honestly. There’s no need for anyone to be concerned about me.”
She eyed him with a motherly air, although she was only two years older than him. “You do seem more yourself,” she acknowledged. “And I’m glad of it. But we’re straying from the point. You still owe us an explanation of what you’re up to. Normally I wouldn’t care what you choose to do with your free time, but I have a bad feeling that you embroiled us in some kind of mischief when you convinced us to join you at Bexley Manor.”
“To be fair, I didn’t actually invite Brody,” Heath pointed out. “I only wanted you.”
“True,” said Bianca, with the hint of a laugh. “But my brother is as difficult to shake as yours.”
“I could tell you were up to no good,” said Brody airily. “I wasn’t about to let Bianca go off on a dangerous quest without me.”
“Which brings us back to the question of where we’re going,” Bianca pressed. “And why you wanted me to come.”
Heath sighed. “It’s a little hard to explain.”
“My Lord?”
Heath turned to see the captain approaching.
“We’ve set the course due east, as requested. But as I warned you, the waters that way are impassable after about two days’ sail.”
“I understand,” said Heath quickly. “We’ll be there before then.”
The captain gave him a long, hard look. “I’m not asking questions, My Lord. But I won’t do anything that endangers my crew or my ship, not for anyone.”
“Of course not,” said Heath. “I’m not asking you to put your people in danger.”
With a curt nod, the captain strode off across the deck, no sign of unsteadiness in his firm steps.
Heath turned back to his cousins to find Brody staring at him with a raised eyebrow. “How much did you have to pay to find a captain so willing to ask no questions? You spent your whole quarter’s allowance on this, didn’t you?”
Heath shrugged one shoulder. “It was worth it.”
“So where are we going?” Bianca asked. “What’s less than two days’ sail east of here?”
“Actually,” said Heath, with a sheepish glance over his shoulder to where the captain had disappeared below deck, “it’s more like three days’ sail away, under normal circumstances.”