Sir Thomas Jameson, stood close to Ursula, dark haired, dark eyed, handsome with an erect carriage and trim figure, he looked every inch the experienced and dashing sea captain that he was. The Jamesons had originated in the Isle of Bute, in the Hebrides, Scotland before putting down roots in the County of Barcestshire, England sometime in the 1300s. The Jamesons had become overtime, gentlemen farmers, artisans and county officials over the next five hundred years, they had acquired a baronetcy some three generations back due to service in the American Revolutionary war and quietly become part of the English Gentry.
One of the few things that Sir Thomas and Sir Leo had in common, aside from Ursula, was they were both members of the London Travelers Club and had attended Barchester College. Sir Thomas had studied with an eye to the medical or military profession, and had hopes of becoming either a physician or a surgeon. Family connections had garnered a commission as a midshipman in the Royal Navy and Sir Thomas had entertained hopes of a long and distinguished career. Illness in the form of an extended and nearly fatal bout of fever contracted in India ended his military career after six years. Sir Thomas was forced to retire from active service at the rank of Lieutenant. Family financial constraints had then forced Sir Thomas to turn to the merchant marine to find gainful employment, as a ship's doctor. While not Sir Thomas's first choice, he would have preferred to establish himself in a lucrative London practice, he had made the best of it and gained both experience and a solid professional reputation in the Locke & Key Line. Over time he had become the doctor of choice for the Line's fast passenger ship captains.
In 1882, Doctor Thomas Jameson's world changed forever, a routine passage from Britain to Brazil turned into a bloody disaster when three pirate airships and two privateering surface ships attacked the Liner S.S. Laura, which he was aboard as chief surgeon. In the space of half an hour, Jameson wound up being the only ship's officer still standing unwounded or killed. By dint of hard effort he rallied the crew and passengers and managed not only to retake the liner from it's captors but turn the tables on them, capturing one of the surface ships, while sinking the other pirate ship and blowing two of the airships out of the sky. The surviving pirate airship fled the scene, leaving Jameson in command of the field of action and the spoils so to speak. One Lady Ursula Wraithdale happened to be one of the passengers about the S.S. Laura on this occasion, and in the course of events, the two made considerable impression upon each other. A very lasting impression as events would later show.
Sir Thomas, as he became after the affair, knighted by the order of the Queen, had become something of a celebrity in nautical circles. The Locke & Key Line, had transferred him from the medical branch to the command branch of their service, and from then on placed him in command of a variety of their fast passenger liners. His captaincy of the various Liners had been to date a success and much to his credit. Energetic, charming, capable and an extremely pushy young man, many expected him to rise to the post of senior commodore of the Locke & Key Line within a few years.
Sir Leo expected that once Ursula and Sir Thomas were formally engaged, although he suspected that the two were secretly engaged already that he would be seeing a lot more of both of them together whenever he was in London.
Ursula turned to greet Sir Leo, who moved to stand before her.
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