Affair

by Amanda Quick

  “There were many unusual and dangerous chemicals in Morgan’s laboratory that night,” Baxter said. “Who knows what caustic vapors were released during the explosion and fire?”

  “Do you think that some of them might have been powerful enough to affect a man’s throat if he inhaled them?”

  “It’s possible.” Baxter pushed his eyeglasses back onto his nose. “Whatever the case, we know that the magician is dangerous. He killed Drusilla Heskett and he tried to murder Miss Post and young Norris.”

  “Baxter, he knows that we are investigating him.”

  “Yes. On two occasions he tried to discourage our alliance by attacking your trust in me. By now he must know that he has failed.”

  “He most certainly has.”

  Baxter smiled faintly. “You do me a great honor, Charlotte.”

  “Nonsense. I deal in fact.”

  What had he expected? he wondered. Had he really thought that she would tell him she believed in him because her passion for him was so deep? He was turning into an idiot.

  He cleared his throat. “Yes, well, I appreciate your support, nonetheless. We must hope that Morgan will assume he is safe for the moment.”

  “Because he will believe that the only person who can identify him is dead?”

  “Yes, but there is no way to know how long we can continue to make him think that Juliana Post expired from the effects of the incense.”

  Charlotte drummed her fingers on the back of the sofa. “We must act quickly.”

  “I shall arrange to take a look around the upper floor of The Green Table tonight. In the meantime, we must continue to behave as if nothing out of the ordinary has occurred. It is imperative that we give no sign to indicate that we are any closer to identifying the killer now than we were yesterday.”

  “I assume that means we must attend the usual number of levees and soirees this evening.”

  “Yes. And your sister and my aunt must also continue with their customary routine. But I am going to take steps to make certain that all of you are well guarded.”

  Charlotte glanced at him in surprise. “What do you mean?”

  “I shall hire a pair of Bow Street Runners. One to keep an eye on you, Ariel, and Aunt Rosalind while the three of you are out this evening. The other to keep watch on this house.”

  She gave him a wan smile. “I will not argue with you.”

  “I cannot tell you how relieved I am to hear that.”

  “But,” she added quickly, “I really do believe that I can be of assistance to you tonight when you search the premises of The Green Table.”

  “No. I forbid you to accompany me and that is final.”

  “But, Baxter, you must take someone with you. I won’t hear of you going in there alone.”

  Anger, fueled by fears for her safety, swept through him. “Charlotte, this is a deadly affair. You will do as I tell you. There will be no further discussion of the matter.”

  “Really, Baxter, you are behaving abominably. You have no right to make every decision. I am the one who launched the investigation and I will not tolerate your high-handed, arrogant manner. You are not my husband, you know.”

  Baxter sucked in his breath. “I am very well aware of that, Miss Arkendale. I am only your lover, am I not?”

  Someone moved in the parlor doorway. Baxter turned quickly and saw Hamilton standing there.

  “I beg your pardon,” Hamilton said. He looked embarrassed. “I told your housekeeper I could announce myself. Am I interrupting?”

  “Not at all,” Charlotte said. “Do come in, Hamilton. Ariel is out at the moment but I expect her very shortly.”

  Hamilton moved hesitantly into the parlor. “Actually, I came in search of Baxter. His butler told me that he might be here.”

  “What do you want?” Baxter asked. “I’m busy.”

  “I understand.” Hamilton’s mouth tightened. “I came to offer my assistance.”

  “Baxter is making plans to search the top floor of The Green Table tonight,” Charlotte said.

  Hamilton glanced at her and then looked directly at Baxter. “Perhaps I can help. I know my way around the premises, at least as far as the floor where the club members gather.”

  “I do not require your assistance,” Baxter said swiftly.

  Hamilton’s expression tightened.

  “Baxter, pray consider his offer,” Charlotte said. “Your brother’s knowledge of the club premises would be extremely useful.”

  Baxter flexed his hands. “You don’t understand.”

  “Of course I do,” she said crisply. “You feel bound by your oath to your father. You promised to look after Hamilton, not put him in harm’s way.”

  “Hell’s teeth, I’m not a child,” Hamilton snapped. “I don’t need a nanny.”

  “Quite right,” Charlotte said. She turned to Baxter. “I’m certain that your father did not intend for you to protect Hamilton all of his life. He wanted his heir to mature into manhood.”

  Hamilton threw her a grateful look. Then he glared at Baxter. “For God’s sake, I’m two-and-twenty. When is someone going to notice that I am already a man?”

  Baxter gazed at him for a long moment. His father’s dying words rang in his head. I know I can trust you to look after Hamilton.

  “Your knowledge of the club might prove useful,” he conceded reluctantly. “But the situation is not free of risk.”

  “That bloody magician very nearly got my best friend killed this morning,” Hamilton said fiercely. “Who knows what he will do next? I have a right to help expose him.”

  Baxter glanced at Charlotte. To his surprise, she had nothing to say. She inclined her head a fraction of an inch in silent encouragement.

  When did a boy become a man? Baxter wondered. He did not know the answer because he could not recall ever having been a child. It seemed to him that he had been obliged to uphold the responsibilities of an adult all of his life.

  “Very well,” he said quietly. “We shall make our plans. For God’s sake, don’t tell your mother.”

  Hamilton’s tense features relaxed into the fabled Esherton grin. “Never. You have my oath on it.”

  I hope I do not regret this,” Baxter said later that night.

  He stood beside Charlotte at the edge of the dance floor. The Hawkmore affair was a crush. It would be the talk of the ton tomorrow. Tonight, it offered perfect cover.

  If Morgan Judd employed spies, they would find it difficult to keep track of anyone in this throng. With luck, no one would even notice when he and Hamilton slipped away to depart for The Green Table.

  “I know it was not easy for you to accept Hamilton’s offer of assistance,” Charlotte said. “But this is a perfect opportunity for you to show him that you have faith in him.”

  “He still seems so damnably young in so many ways. The very fact that he got involved in The Green Table club is proof that he’s hardly mature.”

  “I suspect that Hamilton has learned much from this experience. It’s obvious that Norris’s brush with death had a very sobering effect on him.”

  “I cannot deny that. Nevertheless—”

  “Look at the bright side, Baxter. Taking Hamilton with you tonight gives you the ideal excuse for refusing my assistance in the venture.”

  Baxter smiled in spite of his uneasy mood. “You have a succinct way of summing up a situation, my dear. I wondered why you dropped your demands to accompany me. Now I see that you simply could not pass up the opportunity to help forge a brotherly bond between Hamilton and myself.”

  “The bond already exists. You have honored it even as you have denied it.” She fixed him with very serious eyes. “Have a care tonight, Baxter.”

  “I’ve told you often enough, it’s not my nature to take foolish risks.”

  “No, indeed, you prefer to take calculated risks. To my mind, they are far more dangerous.” She touched the sleeve of his coat. “I shall wait up for you.”

  “There is no need. I’ll ca
ll upon you in the morning to tell you what we discovered, if anything.”

  “No. Please come to see me tonight when you’ve accomplished your task. I do not care how late it is. I will not sleep until I know that you and Hamilton are safely away from The Green Table.”

  “Very well.” He looked down at her gloved hand resting on the black fabric of his coat. A flash of intense sensation went through him.

  She cares.

  For all her wariness of the male sex, Charlotte seemed to trust him. And for all his years of self-imposed solitude, he suddenly knew that he would be very lonely when Charlotte went out of his life.

  Whatever this emotion was that had so disrupted his orderly, peaceful existence, it was more than fleeting passion.

  An overwhelming sense of urgency gripped him. It had nothing to do with The Green Table. He closed his own hand tightly over Charlotte’s.

  “Baxter?” She gave him a quizzical glance. “Is something wrong?”

  “No. Yes.” He struggled to find the words he needed to argue his point in a logical fashion. “When this is finished, I wish to speak to you about the future of our liaison.”

  She blinked. “The future?”

  “Bloody hell, Charlotte, we cannot go on like this. Surely you can comprehend that.”

  “I thought everything was going quite smoothly.”

  “An affair is all very well for a few weeks.”

  “A few weeks?”

  “Perhaps even a few months,” he conceded. “But in the end the whole thing becomes quite tedious.”

  A great stillness came over her. “Yes, of course. Tedious.”

  Relieved that she had grasped the point so quickly, Baxter plunged on. “There is the enormous inconvenience, for one thing.”

  “Inconvenience.”

  “All that damned scurrying about to find a suitable place to, uh, display our mutual feelings,” he explained. “I mean, it’s all very well to use a laboratory bench, or the carriage, or the library sofa on occasion, but over the long term, I suspect it will prove extremely tiresome.”

  “I see. Tiresome.”

  “A man of my years prefers the comfort of his own bed.” He had a sudden, extremely vivid recollection of how little a bed had mattered on the few occasions when he had made love to Charlotte. “In the main.”

  “Baxter, you’re only thirty-two.”

  “Age has nothing to do with it. I was never inclined toward a career as an acrobat.”

  She lowered her eyes. “I have always found you to be quite agile, sir.”

  He decided to ignore that. “And then there is the constant threat of gossip. It can be quite unpleasant. As we discussed, it might well have an ill effect on your business.”

  She pursed her lips. “Yes, I suppose so.”

  He cudgeled his brain for other arguments. The most obvious one hit him with a force that twisted his insides. He drew a breath to steady himself. “And you must consider the possibility of pregnancy.”

  “I understand that there are devices that a gentleman can wear that will prevent that sort of thing.”

  “It may very well be entirely too late,” he said grimly. “That is the great difficulty with an affair, you see. One cannot always control the situation. Charlotte, there are any number of reasons why our liaison cannot go on indefinitely.”

  She gazed at him and said not a word. At that moment Baxter would have bargained away the secret of the Philosopher’s Stone to be able to read the expression in her eyes. And then she glanced past his shoulder and smiled.

  Hamilton coughed discreetly. “Baxter? According to our plans, it’s time for us to leave.”

  “Bloody hell.” Baxter glanced over his shoulder. Hamilton and Ariel stood just behind him. He could only hope they had not overheard the conversation. “Time. Yes. We must be off.”

  “Baxter.” Charlotte touched his arm again. “You will remember your promise to call upon me later this evening.”

  “Yes, yes, I’ll stop by on the way home to give you a full account.” He nodded brusquely to Ariel and turned to make his way through the crowd toward the entrance.

  Hamilton raised one faintly derisive brow and then paused to bend gallantly over both Charlotte’s and Ariel’s hands. They curtsied gracefully.

  Baxter stifled a groan. He would only make himself look ridiculous if he turned back now to attempt a more charming leave-taking, he thought.

  Hamilton leaned against the green velvet squabs of his sleek, well-sprung carriage and eyed Baxter with amused eyes. “Why don’t you just come straight out and ask her to marry you?”

  “What the devil are you talking about?” Baxter muttered.

  “I heard enough of the conversation to conclude that you were trying to convince Charlotte to consider a proposal of marriage rather than a liaison. Why beat about the bush?”

  “The nature of my association with Miss Arkendale is none of your concern.”

  Hamilton idly examined his ebony walking stick. “As you wish.”

  “Furthermore, if you dare to mention the word liaison in connection with her name again, I can guarantee that not only will you never take possession of your fortune, you will find yourself lacking several front teeth the next time you try to use your smile to charm a lady.”

  “That serious, is it?”

  “I suggest we change the subject.”

  Hamilton shook his head. “You may be a man of science, brother, but you are hopelessly inept when it comes to dealing with the ladies. You should spend more time reading Shelley and Byron and less studying chemistry.”

  “It’s a bit late to try to reshape my entire character. Not much point, in any event.”

  “Why do you say that? It’s obvious Charlotte has a tendre for you.”

  Baxter was annoyed by the spark of hope that flickered within him. “Do you think so?”

  “No question about it.”

  “She may care for me but I don’t believe that she cares for the notion of marriage.”

  “Well, then, it’s up to you to convince her that marriage to you would be a sound decision.”

  Baxter scowled. “That is precisely what I was trying to do when you interrupted me a few minutes ago.”

  Hamilton gave him a knowing smile. “Father believed that I had a great deal to learn from you. But perhaps there are a few things that you could learn from me. Feel free to ask for my advice any time you require it.”

  “We have a rather more pressing matter on our hands at the moment, in case it has slipped your mind.”

  “It has not.”

  “Did you bring your pistol?”

  “Yes, of course.” Hamilton patted the pocket of his greatcoat. “Two of them, in fact. What about you?”

  “I’ve never practiced enough to become a decent shot. I depend upon other tools.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Baxter removed one of the glass vials from his pocket. He held it out on his palm. “Items such as this.”

  Hamilton looked intrigued. “What is it?”

  “A sort of instantaneous light. Break the glass and there is a small, very bright explosion. It can light one’s way for two or three minutes or temporarily blind an opponent. If it is held next to combustible material such as kindling, it will ignite a fire.”

  “Damned clever. Where did you get these?”

  “I make them in my laboratory.”

  Hamilton gave him an odd smile. “Perhaps I should have paid a bit more attention to Conversations on Chemistry. When this is over, do you think you might have time to show me how to perform some of your more interesting experiments?”

  “If you like.” Baxter hesitated. “It has been a long while since I had a colleague to assist me.”

  Hamilton grinned. “Lately I have begun to wonder if I got some of Father’s passion for science, after all.”

  Baxter glumly considered his bleak future. “I have begun to suspect that I may have got a bit more of his passion for other things than
I had previously believed.”

  Eighteen

  Charlotte sipped lemonade and surveyed the crowded ballroom floor, where Ariel was engaged in the waltz with yet another distinguished and rather besotted-looking young gentleman. Pleased with the glow of pleasure on Ariel’s face, she smiled at Rosalind, who had come to stand beside her.

  “Lady Trengloss, I wish to thank you for what you have done for Ariel. My mother would have been so pleased to know that my sister had a taste of a London Season.”

  “It has been my pleasure. Haven’t had an opportunity to fire a young lady off into the ton since my last niece came out. Forgotten how much fun it all is.” Rosalind wielded her elegantly painted silk fan with enthusiasm. “Ariel is a charming young woman. She has attracted any number of admirers.”

  Charlotte sighed. “I fear that all of them will swiftly disappear once it becomes known that my engagement to your nephew has been called off. I confess, I worried about that a great deal at the start of this business, but Ariel insists that she does not care a fig if her admirers vanish when they learn the truth.”

  “She is very levelheaded for her tender years.” Rosalind gave Charlotte a sidelong glance. “For which you must take the credit, I believe, my dear.”

  “Not at all. She has always been inclined in a practical direction. Ariel quite rightly declares the Season to be a fine source of entertainment, rather like the theater. She tells me that when the curtain falls, she will be content to go back to her usual pursuits.”

  Charlotte prayed that would be the case. Ariel was still so young. No matter how much common sense one possessed at nineteen, life was bound to seem a bit dull when the invitations and the posies ceased arriving at the door. The important thing was that Ariel did not get her heart broken during her brief experience of Society.

  As for her own heart, Charlotte thought, her only hope was to immerse herself in her work until it mended. But she knew that no matter how many new clients she took on or how many interesting inquiries and researches she made into the backgrounds of gentlemen, she would never be able to forget her lover with the alchemist’s eyes. There could never be another Baxter.

  Rosalind gave her a considering look. “As long as we are discussing such matters, I feel that I should tell you that I am as grateful to you as you say you are to me.”