Page 4 of A Winter By the Sea
Approaching the boy, she said, “Good day. Is your father available?”
“No, miss. Gone to meet someone at the York Hotel. I’m to stay here and watch the till.”
“I see. Will he be back soon?”
“Don’t know.”
“Very well. Keep up the good work.”
She gave the boy a smile and left the establishment. She wondered who Mr. Wallis might be meeting—another famous author, perhaps? Emily’s spirits lifted at the thought.
She continued east along the esplanade toward the large seafront hotel. Not far past it stood Sidmouth’s other library, which Emily had never entered. Her family’s coffers did not extend to subscriptions at two circulating libraries.
Entering the York Hotel vestibule, she saw no one about but followed the sound of voices to an open door opposite the reception desk. This room appeared to be a private parlour, with blue-and-cream-papered walls, fine upholstered furniture, and a long case clock. Mr. Wallis stood within, talking with three other men. On a table before them were spread two long prints of some kind.
Compared with Mr. Wallis’s slender frame and scholarly appearance, the three other gentlemen boasted tall, straight-backed, masculine bearings. She recognized the tallest two from their visit to Sea View—the imposing Captain Conroy and the duke’s handsome private secretary. She eyed the third man, on whom everyone’s attention seemed to rest. This older man struck her as vaguely familiar, with his broad figure, bald pate, and thick L-shaped side-whiskers. Not a famous author, then. This, she realized, was Prince Edward himself, the Duke of Kent.
She had seen drawings of the former military man in the newspapers—although they were most often unflattering caricatures.
Mr. Wallis said, “Your Royal Highness, please allow me to present to you this engraving of a much-admired panorama of Sidmouth, which I commissioned by the well-known artist Hubert Cornish.”
The prince expressed his decided approbation and graciously replied, “It will afford me much pleasure to show it to Her Royal Highness.”
They continued their conversation, and a few minutes later the meeting concluded. Captain Conroy was the first to turn toward the door. Emily quickly stepped back, but not before his black-eyed gaze flicked over her with decideddisapprobation.
As the visiting men exited the parlour and proceeded out of the hotel, the duke’s private secretary glanced back at her with a brief nod of recognition.
Mr. Wallis was the last to emerge, looking both exultant and exhausted.
He paused upon seeing her. “Ah, Miss Summers.”
“Quite august company you keep,” she said.
“Do you know who that was?”
“I believe so, yes.”
“I should not say anything. Not yet.”
She confided, “If it concerns the royal guests visiting Sidmouth, I already know. At least in part.”
“Do you indeed?” He blinked at her from behind his small rectangular spectacles. “And how are you privy to such information?”
“Some of his staff are to stay at Sea View.”
“Ah, I see.”
She gestured toward the recently vacated room. “And how did you manage to arrange such a meeting?”
He stepped closer and lowered his voice, expression animated. “I am glad you know who has come, for I may burst if I can’t tell someone. When General Baynes mentioned in confidence that a certain personage would be visiting Sidmouth to consider properties, I made so bold as to write to invite His Royal Highness to meet me here so I might present him with an engraving of the long print of Sidmouth. I was never so stunned as when his secretary wrote back to accept. What a privilege!”
“Well done,” Emily praised. She quickly decided that this was not the best time to mention the errors she had found in his latest publication.
Instead, she walked quietly out of the hotel with him. As they reached the esplanade, Emily glanced toward the beach and saw a man at the water’s edge wearing only a towel wrapped around his waist. She barely stifled a gasp.
The man picked up a long floral dressing gown from a rock and pushed his arms into the sleeves, adjusting each velvet-trimmed cuff.
He sauntered toward them, robe open, belt hanging loose, center of his chest bared.
