'Yes, dear,' the Countess said, smiling at what she called Gianna's 'imperious outbursts', 'but if Hawkesbury had any news about Volterra or, indeed, Tuscany or even Italy, he might tell you if you called at his office in Downing Street, or his home in Sackville Street, but hardly at a ball!'
'He did not suggest I call,' Gianna said coldly. 'Is he one of these new Irish barons? Wasn't he known as "Jenks"?'
Her tone, Ramage knew, was haughty enough to freeze even the chilly Secretary of State. 'He's the son of the Earl of Liverpool. He's also Member of Parliament for Rye and his nickname comes from his family name, Jenkinson.'
'This Liverpool - a new creation?'
Ramage laughed and the Countess joined in. 'Yes, "a new creation". His father received an earldom about five years ago and Jenks has one of his father's courtesy titles. Like me, in fact, except I don't use it.'
'I wish you would,' Gianna said, beginning to thaw. 'You are not ashamed of being the son of the Earl of Blazey, and you inherited one of his titles, so why not use it?'
'Darling, I've told you enough times,' Ramage protested. 'Admirals with knighthoods don't like having young captains serving under them with titles like "earl", or "viscount". It can often mean midshipmen and junior post captains have higher precedence at receptions than their commander-in-chief.'
The Countess said: 'If Nicholas had attended a dinner at which Hawkesbury was present, before he became a minister, Nicholas would have had much higher precedence - if he used his title.'
'All the more reason for using it,' Gianna said. 'Jenks is a cold pudding.'
'A cold fish,' Ramage corrected.
'Accidente! I always know when I am winning an argument because you begin correcting my English!'
'Nicholas,' the Countess reminded him, 'you were going to tell us the news in the Post.'
'Ah, yes. It says that - well, I'll read the item. "We understand that M. Louis-Guillaume Otto, the French Commissioner for the Exchange of Prisoners, resident in London, has been a frequent visitor at the office of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs during recent days. It is believed that M. Otto, who has been living in London since the beginning of the present war, has been acting as an envoy of Bonaparte, discussing proposals from Bonaparte for a general peace.
' "We further understand that Lord Hawkesbury has put Bonaparte's proposals before the Cabinet and that Mr Addington has informed the King of the details. We believe Mr Pitt's supporters are violently against a peace. M. Otto can rely on the support of Mr Fox and his faction.
'"M. Otto has had little official work to do for the past two years: so few French ships put to sea that the Royal Navy cannot take many prisoners. On the other hand the bold British ships are constantly attacking the enemy's coasts and ports and naturally some are lost, so the French have many British prisoners in their jails. Unfortunately few can be exchanged because we do not have enough Frenchmen to make the numbers even."'
Gianna sighed and rearranged the skirt of her pale dress. 'Let us hope Bonaparte's terms are generous.'
The Countess shook her head disapprovingly. 'Gianna, I know you want to go back to Volterra, but don't
let us fall into a trap just because we want peace.'
'No, Bonaparte would not be offering terms unless it was to his advantage to end the war,' Nicholas said.
At that moment the Earl came into the room: a tall, still slim man with silvery white hair and the same thin, almost beak-like nose and high cheekbones of his son. Gianna looked from Nicholas to his father. Yes, she thought, that is how Nicholas will be in thirty years' time. For the first time since she had met him, she felt she could think of him in old age: until now he had been at sea, being wounded regularly once a year, being in action at least once a month ... Peace would mean he could resign his commission and live in London and Cornwall.
And now, also for the first time, she could picture him growing old without her beside him. Until recently, she always thought of their lives after the war as being lived together, but now, after the years she had lived here in England, mostly at St Kew, she accepted that it was impossible. Noblesse oblige. It was a phrase, but for the two of them it was a code, a law - and for her a sentence of eventual banishment.
In the first couple of years, when she thought of little else than Nicholas and returning to rule her kingdom of Volterra the moment Bonaparte's troops were driven out, she had ignored religion. Yet she was Catholic and Nicholas was Protestant. Marriage would force Nicholas to agree that their children would be Catholic, and in turn that would mean one of the oldest earldoms in Britain would become Catholic the moment Nicholas died after inheriting from his father.
The twelfth Earl of Blazey a Catholic... For the first year or two in England she could see no difficulty about such an old Protestant earldom changing its religion to Rome, but eventually she had come to understand that Britain was built on Protestant foundations, and to ask Nicholas (who would be the eleventh earl when he inherited from his father) to sacrifice the earldom - for that was how it would be regarded - was something that an enemy might do, but not the woman who loved him.