Page 18 of The Tides of Time (Storm Tide #1)

I ’d wager Lili doesn’t know how to make a poacher’s pie.” Grandfather dished himself a hearty helping of the aromatic dish.

“My attentive substitute aunts were here for hours,” Armitage said. “Them made the pie.”

“How long has Lili been sleeping?” Mikhail asked between forkfuls.

“For most of those hours.” She’d fallen asleep in his arms. And when he’d had no choice but to leave and rejoin the cleaning after the storm, he’d carefully laid her on the sofa with a throw draped over her. Only with effort had he forced himself to leave her there.

“I can sit watch tonight,” Mikhail said to Grandfather. “You could get a touch more sleep.”

“I might take you up on that, nipper.” Grandfather savored another bite of poacher’s pie.

“It’d also give last night’s rescue more chance to rest,” Mikhail said. “Poor chap’s been sleeping heavy every time I’ve looked in at the barracks.”

“The cold water exhausts a person.” Grandfather nodded slowly, with emphasis. “Too many are rendered unable to keep fighting the waves.”

Heavens, Armitage was grateful he’d found Lili in time the morning she’d been tossed into those deadly waves.

“How’d your self-appointed aunts take to Lili?” Grandfather asked him.

Armitage laughed. “Them are almost as attached to she as you are, Grandfather.”

“As them ought to be,” Grandfather said. “I’ve some hope that if Lili finds a welcome among the people of Loftstone, her’ll want to stay.”

“Because Miss Lili makes you hot meals?” Mikhail asked with a laugh.

“Because Lili is important.”

Important was an odd word to use. Armitage might have predicted kindhearted or lonely or a source of happiness . Why had Grandfather chosen important ?

They all ate for a time in comfortable silence. Armitage’s thoughts, as was increasingly the case, were on Lili. She’d passed a difficult day. Sleep would be doing her good, but he also wished she were with them during the meal. He missed her when they were apart.

“Whereabouts in France does Miss Lili come from?” Mikhail asked. Fortunately for the half-truths they’d been telling about the connection between their families, the lad continued on without getting an answer. “Must be an odd corner of the place. She ain’t never seen a match. Didn’t have the first idea how to strike one.”

That was strange. The list of things Lili didn’t know of that she really ought was growing. Trains, stoves, paraffin lamps. Now matches.

“An odd corner, for sure and certain,” Armitage said.

Grandfather didn’t seem to have any observations on the topic. He simply kept eating.

The sound of movement in the parlor pulled all their eyes to the door. A moment later, Lili stepped inside the galley. She was adorably rumpled.

“ Je suis désolée . I fell asleep.”

Grandfather was at her side before Armitage could manage it. “You needed the rest, ducky.”

Lili looked at Armitage, confusion in her still-sleepy eyes. “Ducky?” she mouthed silently.

He grinned. “It isn’t an insult.”

“I didn’t think it was.”

Grandfather led her to the table and saw her seated.

“We are not to be joined by la personne Armitage pulled from la Manche?”

“Still sleeping,” Mikhail said. “I had a wager going with myself as to which of you would wake up first.”

Keeping his expression entirely serious, Armitage asked. “Who won?”

Mikhail laughed.

“One of you had to cook for me.” Lili sounded frustrated. “ Je suis désolée .”

Grandfather shook his head. “The women cooked for we so you could sleep.”

“They are très gentilles —very kind.”

Armitage spooned a helping of poacher’s pie onto a plate for her. “Them are hopeful you’ll attend the village fete.” He set the plate in front of her.

“ Fête is a French word,” she said, “but I do not know how it is used in England.”

“What does it mean in French?” he asked as he sat once more.

“A festival or ... a feast.”

“A fete is like a festival,” Mikhail said excitedly. “Food and booths. Raffles. Food. Games and sport. Auctions. Food. And sometimes dancing.”

“But will there be food?” Lili spoke perfectly somberly.

Armitage nearly choked on his sudden laugh. He didn’t think he had heard her make a joke before. Hers was a wonderfully subtle sense of humor.

She turned to Grandfather. “Do your English fêtes have music?”

“Usually,” he said. “My Peony made certain of it when her was with us.”

He spoke so easily of Grandmother.

“The women what were here today gabbed with me a spell before they walked back toward the village,” Mikhail said. “They said the fete’ll be in three weeks’ time.” He watched Lili closely. “You’ll still be visiting then, yeah? You’ll not be sailing back to France yet?”

Lili turned to Armitage. “Am I remaining here until the fête ?”

“Are you?”

She tipped her head to one side. “This is your maison , Armitage. You decide when a visitor has visited too long.”

“Right you are.” Armitage hooked a thumb toward the door. “Out you go, then.”

Her eyes danced a bit, sending his heart into unfamiliar rhythms once more. “ Tu es terrible! ” She turned to Mikhail. “Is he not terrible? Threatening to toss me out when the women of the village like me so very much?”

“Entirely terrible.” Mikhail spoke firmly but with unmistakable laughter hovering around the edges of his words. “I’d never toss you out, Miss Lili. If it were my house, you could stay as long as you want because I like you very much.”

She looked to Grandfather, her eyes still amused but no true smile on her lips yet. “Will you be tossing me out, then, Monsieur Pierce?”

“Not a chance of it, Lili Minet. Not a chance of it.”

Chin tipped at a comical angle, she looked to Armitage once more. “You are outvoted, mon Armitage. You will not be rid of me so easily.”

“I’m not trying to be rid of you, Lili.”

She smiled. Not broadly, not widely. A tiny, soft smile, one that seemed entirely for him. No, he was decidedly not trying to be rid of her. Quite the contrary. He was falling in love with her.

“There’ll be dancing at the fete,” Mikhail said to her. “Do you know any country dances?”

“Not a one.” Lili tucked into her supper.

“I can teach you after we eat.” Mikhail’s words bounced with excitement. “We can shift the furniture in the parlor. There’d be room enough.”

“You will discover I am not an elegant dancer,” Lili warned.

Mikhail shook his head. “My mum always said enthusiasm’s more important than elegance.”

“You will discover I’m not a very enthusiastic dancer either.”

“That’s only on account of you not knowing the steps.” Mikhail rose and dropped his now-empty plate into the wash basin. “I’ll teach you. You’ll be brilliant.”

“Right this moment?”

Mikhail shrugged. “I’m on watch right after supper. Hard to teach you if you’re down here and I’m up in the lamp room, i’n’it?”

“I can’t argue with that.” Lili reached over and snatched hold of Armitage’s hand, pulling him to his feet. “If I have to dance, so do you.”

He made a show of being annoyed at her tugging him along into the parlor, but he kept hold of her hand even after they’d stepped into the room. He didn’t let go when Mikhail began moving furniture about either. The young man could manage it on his own. And Armitage would get to stay close to Lili.

“You have a music box.” Mikhail rushed over, holding the mahogany box in his hands. “What does it play?”

“Play?” Lili seemed to ask the question to herself.

“‘Queen’s Jig,’” Armitage said. The box had belonged to his mum, and she had been particularly fond of jigs.

“Brilliant!” Mikhail declared. He set the music box on the table beside Armitage’s pile of half-read newspapers. He opened the lid, then turned the crank. “Jigs are fun and not difficult to learn.”

Mikhail placed himself in the middle of the area he’d cleared of furnishings just as the music box began playing the familiar tune. Lili’s unexpectedly intense gaze was entirely on the box. She didn’t look terrified as she had when faced with the train, but she looked every bit as shocked. And as confused as she’d been about the stove. And the paraffin lamp. And apparently, the parlor matches.

“Have you never heard a music box?” Armitage asked.

She shook her head. Her “odd corner” of France was confusing.

“Your family was very poor?” he guessed out loud.

Lili didn’t answer immediately. But it wasn’t confusion or awe at the unfamiliar music box. He was absolutely certain she was trying to decide how to answer. Dishonesty had been his earliest impression of her, but he’d come to know her better. She kept things to herself. She was hesitant and cautious. But he no longer felt she was inherently duplicitous.

And yet . . .

“We were not wealthy,” was the eventual vague response. “I did not realize how little of the world I knew until I came here and have seen so much.”

Her hesitancy, it seemed, was embarrassment. He’d been unfair to her, allowing himself to suspect again, even for a brief moment, that she was intending to lie to him. Unfair of him to do.

“Mr. Armitage, you’ll need to be the other couple in the square.”

“Grandfather didn’t join we, which means I’d need to dance two parts at once. I’m a main good dancer, but I can’t do that.”

Mikhail shook his head. “Just stand where you need to be standing so Miss Lili’ll know where other people are in the dance.”

Armitage placed himself directly beside the eager young man.

“Come stand opposite Mr. Armitage, Miss Lili.” Mikhail waved her over.

“I am to be a partner with him?” she asked as she walked to her place.

“Partners stand at corners from each other,” Mikhail explained.

The music box had finished playing. He didn’t wind it again but talked Lili through the steps.

“Us walk around each other,” Armitage said.

Lili made a valiant attempt to do so but bumped into her teacher.

Mikhail, true to form, simply laughed. “Now step back to your corner again,” Mikhail said.

She did.

“And turn around each other again.”

Lili stepped forward to make the turn but managed to run into Armitage. He set his arms around her to stop her from toppling over.

“I warned you I am not an elegant dancer.” Lili leaned into Armitage’s arms with an amused shake of her head.

“You need practice is all,” Mikhail said.

“And you likely need to hop up to the lantern room.” Lili set a hand on his arm. “We can practice again on a night when you aren’t on watch first thing.”

“You ain’t wrong on that, Miss Lili. I’ll get myself labeled an unredeemable neversweat and see myself tossed right back to London.” He flourished a bow. “Until we’ve time for more dancing.”

“I cannot promise to be any better at it.” Lili shook her head.

Mikhail shook his head as he turned to go. “Dancing isn’t just about skill. It’s meant to be a lark.” He went back into the galley when Lili turned to Armitage.

Her amusement had ebbed. “There will truly be dancing at the fête ?”

“Always is.”

Her lips pulled tight. “Will the village be ... disappointed that I do not know any of their dances?”

“Disappointed?” He got the impression that wasn’t the word she was going to use.

She pondered a moment. “Disapproving. Or—” Her eyes squinted in thought. “Suspicious.”

“Why would not knowing dances make they suspicious?”

“That I don’t know about trains or Barry or music boxes makes you look at me with suspicion.” She shrugged but not in a dismissive way. “I do not want all the village to look at me the way you sometimes do.”

He should have known she would have taken note of those moments. She was observant and intelligent. He suspected that very little escaped her notice.

“I’m sorry, Lili.” He took her hands as he’d done before. “I’ve been unfair to you. I’ve come to know you better since you first arrived, and I know I was unfair to distrust you as much as I did that first few days.”

“I was unfair to you as well.” Again, a fleeting and tiny smile made an appearance, tugging at his heart so fiercely. “I suppose we would do well to forgive each other for that.”

Armitage raised one of her hands to his lips. “I agree.” He pressed a kiss to her fingers. “I do hope you’ll stay for the fete.”

“And after the fête ?” She asked the question quietly but also with inarguable hope.

How much of his heart ought he to lay bare? He didn’t want to frighten her away with how quickly his affection had grown. But being dishonest after having only just acknowledged the unfairness of his previous suspicions regarding her dishonesty felt wrong.

Someone bumped into the table in the kitchen. Grandfather, likely. Mikhail would’ve gone up to the lantern room. Although Armitage would have expected Grandfather to go up with him. Mikhail was a quick study and had learned a lot since coming to Loftstone, but there was always something to be taught about the lenses and equipment and about making and preventing repairs.

“I likely should go clean up supper,” Lili said. “I neglected my other duties this afternoon and evening.”

“I hope you know none of we begrudges you the sleep you got.”

She looked up at him, a tenderness in her gaze that entwined itself around his heart. “I know. And I’m thankful.”

The door to the galley opened. The man Armitage had pulled from the Channel peeked through. He wore the clothes Grandfather had sent to the barracks for him to use when he awoke. And he looked confused, as he likely well was.

“Drop yourself at the table in the galley,” Armitage said to him. “You need to eat.” To Lili, he explained, “The man pulled from the water during the storm last night.”

She nodded her understanding and turned to look at the new arrival.

The stranger stood very still, studying her. Armitage couldn’t see Lili’s face, but the man looked astounded as he said, “ Bonjour , Elisabeth.”