Heloise took a tentative sniff. Her eyes watered and she blinked rapidly. “Is the idea to get me so drunk I pass out?”
“No. But it should stop you from feeling queasy. Even Admiral Nelson used to get sick at the start of every voyage. And he first went to sea when he was twelve.”
“How reassuring.”
He chinked the rim of his own glass against hers and downed the contents. “Bottoms up.”
With a mental shrug Heloise did the same. Her throat caught fire. Tears sprang to her eyes. When she could catch her breath she croaked out, “Good Lord! That’s vile.”
Raven grinned and took her empty glass. “Good girl. Now, as you rightly said, I have to ‘go captain.’ Is there anything else you require?”
“Only your absence,” she managed.
He backed out the door with a mocking flourish. “Your humble servant.”
Heloise scowled. Ha. There was nothing humble or subservient about him.
As soon as the key turned in the lock she made a thorough search of the cabin. One box was full of charts. The other was a foreign-looking carved chest that held clothes. The interior smelled like pencil shavings. The desk was unlocked but contained pens, paper, ink, and nothing remotely interesting. She hadn’t really expected to find anything. Raven wouldn’t be much of a spy if he left information all over the place for inquisitive people to find.
Perhaps it was the motion of the ship, or the potency of the gin, but she was beginning to feel a little light-headed. Heloise flopped down onto the chair.
“Be careful what you wish for,” they said. She grimaced. Her list of “things to do before I die” had included a wish for her mundane life to be more exciting. She’d always been jealous of the closeness the boys shared, that unbreakable bond of friendship, forged in the crucible of war. She’d wished for a chance to travel, too, but it had always been too dangerous; England had been at war with France for so long she’d never had a Paris season or a Grand Tour.
She’d known, on a theoretical level at least, that her code-breaking was important to the war effort, but the comfort of her own home and the genteel luxury of Lord Castlereagh’s Whitehall offices had been so far removed from the shadowy world of covert operations inhabited by Raven and her brothers that she’d never truly imagined she could be in danger. Tonight that nebulous threat had become terrifyingly real.
A wave of exhaustion rolled over her. The bed looked extremely inviting. She loosened the laces of her corset, her fingers oddly uncoordinated. That gin must have been extremely strong. She shouldn’t have had it on top of the champagne; her head was swimming. She kicked off her cream silk ballet slippers and regarded them dolefully. Ruined. Grass stains never came out.
The boat was definitely moving now; the floor seemed very unreliable. She staggered a little as she crossed the cabin and sank gratefully onto the bed. A key grated in the lock; Raven was back.
Heloise blinked at him owlishly. “Oh, itsh you again, ish it?”
The words came out slurred. She frowned.
Raven affected a scandalized expression. “You’re notdrunk, are you,Miss Hampden?”
She drew herself up in an insulted affront. “Of course not.” She tilted her head to one side and gave the matter grave consideration. “I don’tthinkI am.” Thinking washard.“It’s possible I’mtipsy,” she conceded.
She leaned back against the wall and gave him a slow smile. She was all warm and tingly. “That’s one thing I can cross off my list, then.”
“Your list?”
She glared at him. He was being particularly dense. “I told you about it. My list of things I want to do before I die.”
“Ah. That list. Getting drunk was right next to finding an insatiable lover, I assume.”
“Yup. You men all drink with alarming regularity. There must be something to recommend it. Now I see why. It’s quite pleasant. Although it does produce the oddest sensation of the floor moving about. That might just be because we’re on a ship, of course.”
He smiled. “What else?”
She wrinkled her nose. “What else, what?”
“What else is on the list?”
“Oh, all the things I was never allowed to do and wanted to.” Her eyelids drooped and she yawned. Raven sat on the edge of the bed. She didn’t have the energy to scold him. She listed sideways until her head hit the pillow. Ah. That was better. “I might just take a little nap.”
“Not worried I’ll ravish you in your sleep?” he teased.
She gave an unladylike snort. “Ha. You don’t want me. Never have.”