The Other Miss Bridgerton (Rokesbys #3)(53)

“Well, that’s handy,” Poppy remarked.

“No seems to be no in just about every place we go,” Billy said with a cheeky grin. “It’s spelled different, I think, but it sounds close enough.”

Poppy took her usual seat at the table, then adjusted it to give the best view of the port. “In German it’s nein .”

“Is it?” Billy scratched his head. “I’ve not been there. They don’t have a coast, I think.”

Poppy poured herself a cup of tea. “Hamburg,” she said absently.

“Eh?”

She looked up. “They speak German in Hamburg. It’s a busy port city on the Baltic Sea. I would show it to you on the map, but I’ve already disassembled it.”

Billy nodded; he’d seen her working on the dissected map earlier in the week. “Maybe I should give it a try,” he said. “Be useful to know something more of geography. I can read, y’know,” he said proudly. “An’ I can do sums better than half the men on the ship.”

“That’s wonderful,” Poppy said. Maybe they could work on the puzzle on the voyage back. It would be her third time, but it would be great fun to have company. She would have to petition Captain James to release Billy from some of his duties, but if she explained that it was for the boy’s education . . .

He would say yes to that. She was sure of it.

“Tell me more about Lisbon,” she said with an encouraging smile. “I want to hear everything.”

“Oh, it’s a lively city, miss. Y’can’t really tell from here. ” He plopped down in the chair across from her and motioned toward the window. “This is just the waterfront. We’re moored in real close this time, so you’ve got a right good view, but it’s not the city. The city is grand.”

“Grand?” Poppy murmured. She took a careful sip of her tea. It was still a little too hot.

“Oh yes, and a real different sort of place. Nothing like home, not that there’s anything wrong with home. It’s just—it’s nice to see things that are different.”

“I’m sure,” Poppy murmured, bringing her teacup to her lips to mask whatever sarcastic tone she’d not been able to keep from her words.

“Everything looks different,” Billy continued. “Well, most everything, and the food isn’t the same. Takes some getting used to, but it’s good, the food. I’ve been here six times now, so I know my way around.”

Poppy managed a small smile.

Billy paused, finally noticing her expression. “I could, ah . . . Well, I could ask if we could bring you something. They make a nice rice pudding, though that’s not so easy to carry. An’ there’s these little bready things that sometimes come rolled in sugar.” His eyes actually rolled back in his head as he relived his culinary ecstasy. “I could bring you one of those, if you want.”

“From the looks of you,” Poppy said, “I think I might want more than one.”

Billy laughed. “They won’t be as good as when they’re fresh hot, but you’ll still like ’em. An’ the cook will be getting provisions, so he might make something that’s a little Portuguesey.”

“This is all very kind of you, Billy.”

He gave her a sympathetic smile. “The captain’s not a bad man for making you stay on board. It wouldn’t be safe for you to go out on your own. Wouldn’t be safe even if we were docked back in London. The ladies here near the water . . .” He blushed, powerfully, and his voice lowered as he said, “Not all of them are ladies, if you get what I mean.”

Poppy decided not to inquire further about that . “What do you think would happen if I went ashore with Captain James?” she asked. “Surely Lisbon is not such a dangerous city that he could not protect me.”

“Well . . .” Billy pondered this for a moment, his mouth pursing on one side as he thought. “I suppose he could just take you through the docks area and over to the nicer bits.”

Poppy’s mood brightened considerably. “Brilliant! I—”

“But he’s not here.”

Well, damn. “Not here?”

Billy shook his head. “Was the first one off the ship. Had some sort of business. He usually does.”

“Do you know when he will be back?”

“Hard to tell,” Billy said with a shrug. “It usually depends on what he’s carrying.”

“Carrying?” Poppy echoed.

“Sometimes it’s a package, sometimes just papers. And of course, sometimes nothing at all.”

Sometimes nothing at all? Poppy found this interesting, although she couldn’t say why. Probably just because she had nothing better to wonder about. She’d already been through just about every permutation of her return to England (ninety percent involved her ruin; the other ten percent required a spectacular and unlikely combination of good luck).

So, yes. She was going to wonder why the captain sometimes carried packages and sometimes carried papers. She was going to do her damnedest to think only about things of this sort until she got home and had to deal with far more serious issues.

“Does he often carry papers?” she asked.

Billy stood and pushed his chair back into place. “Sometimes. Don’t know, really. He doesn’t tell any of us what his business is that’s not the ship’s business.”