Suspecting a trick, Frankenstein kept his attention out the window and onto the countryside. The moon darted between heavy rain clouds, turning the landscape ghostly gray and then utterly black. Shapes formed between the light and dark, filling his head with strange notions and even more twisted ideas.
While keeping his face turned, Frankenstein allowed his eyes to dart over to Loren’s form. For all he could tell, the creature was in full command of his mental and physical faculties. However, there was something about his tone, his way, that led Frankenstein to wonder if he still had his soul. The man did seem determined to get under his skin. Then again, he had a right to question Frankenstein’s motives. He really should have thought of a better reason to offer the man assistance. Frankly, if he could, he would go back and never have engaged in this bizarre experiment at all. Or at least not until he’d figured out all the details. Although, to be fair, he never could have imagined this particular turn of events.
But such laments were pointless.
He was in the fix now and there was no way out but through.
“I know you’re looking at me.” Loren’s voice wrapped around him and squeezed.
“I’m watching the play of light and shadow over the countryside.”
“Yeah?” Loren leaned close to the window, so close his breath fogged the glass.
Silently they sat and watched as the moonlight played.
“It’s spooky,” Loren said.
“There is no such thing as spooks.” Nor reanimated humans but here he was with one.
“There are.”
“How can you be sure?”
“Seen ‘em.”
“You’re teasing me.”
“Maybe.” Loren turned just enough so that his face was barely three inches from Frankenstein’s.
Energy pulsed in his fingertips, making him crave contact, but instead, he leaned back and closed his eyes. He half expected Loren to say something or do something but he stayed quiet. The next time Frankenstein opened his eyes, they had arrived at Adelaide’s. Unfortunately, they’d arrived at the front.
“Driver,” Frankenstein called through the roof hole. “Take us around to the back.”
With a flick of the reins, they left the brightly lit driveway for the much darker servant’s entrance.
“Ashamed of me?”
“Do you want to walk in the front so everyone can see you?”
“Better not.”
“No, we’d better not.” Frankenstein tried to crush his fear but failed. It seemed every time he turned around he only seemed to dig his grave deeper. At this point, he couldn’t climb out. He had to dig his way to China.
They got out and watched the carriage head off toward the stables.
“Wait here.” Before taking him in, Frankenstein checked the servant’s entrance. He motioned Loren inside then into a closet off the kitchen. “Stay here.”
“The last time I did that, you left me for—”
“Stay here or I’ll turn you into the police myself.” Frankenstein was in no mood for any more shenanigans. He closed the door then hurried through the kitchen and met Adelaide in the grand hall.
“There you are!” Adelaide exclaimed. “Hale said you pulled around the back.”
“I…” The story he’d been about to spin collapsed. “I need your help.”
“Of course, dear.” Adelaide snaked her arm with his. “Come in and have a drink. You look positively dreadful.”
“No, I need you to come with me.” Frankenstein took her to the closet.
“Frankie, what—”
“I need to hide—” Frankenstein opened the door and Loren stood there with his hand in the pocket of a coat that wasn’t his.
“You!” Adelaide shrieked as soon as she laid eyes on Loren, who yanked his hand out of the coat while Adelaide turned to Frankenstein. “Why would you bring him here?”
Loren tried to dart past Adelaide but Frankenstein stepped in front of him, forcing him back.
“You know him?” Frankenstein asked.
“Who doesn’t know the most notorious cardsharp in all of London?”
“I thought you only went to golden halls?” Right as he asked Loren, Frankenstein had his answer. Adelaide enjoyed nothing more than thumbing her nose at conventions. Of course, she would have no problem entering a gambling establishment. Even though women weren’t allowed, she wouldn’t care.
“I do only go to golden halls and I ain’t never seen this lady.”
“Ha!” Adelaide advanced on him. “You and I have met.”
“No, we…” Loren trailed off, peering intently at her. “Oh.”
“Yes. Oh. Where’s my money, you cheat.”
“I don’t have anybody’s money anymore.”
“Out. Out with you.” Adelaide grasped Loren’s ear and yanked him toward the back door.
“Wait.” Frankenstein had to stop her but didn’t see how short of brute force.
“Believe me, I’m doing you a favor.” Adelaide continued tugging while Loren tried to break free without hurting her. “I don’t know what he has on you, Frankie, but I will see him hacked into pieces before I’d let him stay in my home.”
“Adelaide, please.” Frankenstein pulled her hand away from Loren’s ear. “Let me explain. Please.”
Huffing and glaring, she gave him five minutes. “And I am counting, Frankie, so don’t mince words.”
“I saved him.”
“Saved?”
Frankenstein explained about the drug overdose, the stabbing, but his attempt to elicit sympathy met deaf ears.
“An opium death is too good for the likes of him but the stabbing has potential.”
“Adelaide.”
She turned her harsh eyes onto him and they softened. “We should talk privately.” She took Frankenstein’s hand. When Loren tried to follow, she said, “You stay here.” She pushed Loren back into the closet and slammed the door.
“Hey!” Loren called but then fell silent.
“Frankie, my dear, you know that I shall always love you.”
“Yes. That is why I’m begging you to—”
“He is no good for you.”
“I—what?”
“A man like that…” Adelaide shook her head and sighed. “He won’t just break your heart. He’ll take your wallet and the silverware while he’s at it.”
“He’s not—” the objection rose to his lips automatically, but then he realized such a tale would account for his need to keep Loren close. “You can see why I was reluctant to ask for your help.”
“Yes. I do see but you cannot keep him here.”
“Why?”
“I’m not the only one he’s swindled.”
“Did he swindle you? He told me he just happened to have incredible luck.”
“Incredible? More like unbelievable. No one has an unbroken string of luck.” Adelaide scoffed.
“You actually went into a gaming den?”
“Of course I did. Where else could I try to pass for a man?”
“Pass for a man?” Frankenstein had no idea to what she referred.
“Oh, my dear Frankie. You can be so terribly straight-laced. Well, I thought you could be, but it seems you have kept your secrets very well buried.” She appraised him shrewdly. “This does explain why you are never seen at parties with eligible ladies.”
“It does explain that.” Although the truth was simpler. He’d never much thought about a wife because he had no interest in marriage. He’d never had an interest in men either, but then Loren had sparked something in him. Or his reanimating him had. Yes. That was all it was. Just keen scientific interest, no more. “You can understand that I need him.”
“No. We will find you someone better. Someone more suited to your intellectual temperament. Why, there are all kinds of differently-inclined men in the city. And the country too, I imagine, but they are certainly more plentiful in the city. I myself had several offers while dressed up—”
“
I do not want other men.” Frankenstein huffed. “I only want him.” He felt only slightly foolish having to tell such a lie. “Please.”
Adelaide shook her head so hard it was a wonder she didn’t shake her wig right off. But then a light came into her eyes and she smiled.
“What?”
“I might be persuaded into letting him stay at my home, but only under one condition.”
“What condition?”
“Oh, no. He must agree before I tell him what it is.”
“I can hardly allow him to do that. What if you want to cut him up or poison him?”
“Don’t be daft.” Adelaide whacked him playfully with her fan. “As enjoyable as that would be, what I have in mind will be even more entertaining.”
“What is it?”
Adelaide lifted her brows and tilted her head.
Frankenstein knew that expression. She would not be moved. “Fine. I will tell him you have a condition. He will not want to stay and the only one who will be hurt is me.”
“Oh, poo. You don’t know how to do anything.” Adelaide flung open the closet.
Loren stood there with his wrists deep into someone else’s jacket. “Just checking.”
“For what, pray tell?” Adelaide shook her head hard. “Never mind. You can stay under one condition.”
“What condition?” Loren removed his hand from the jacket and put it in his own pocket.
“You will have to play a game.”
“A game?”
“Yes. Similar to the one I played at Almack’s.”
Pleasure widened Loren’s eyes. “You mean to say that you want to dress me up as a fancy gentleman?”
Adelaide glared at him without humor.
“You can’t mean you expect me to…” Shock and outrage stripped away even a crumb of pleasure. “I won’t.”
“Then you can leave.”
“Will one of you tell me what in the world is going on?” Frankenstein had no idea what the two of them were talking about.
“She wants me to dress as a girl,” Loren said.
“What?” Frankenstein turned to find Adelaide nodding vigorously. “You can’t be serious.”
“Remember the task I wished for you to do?”
Frankenstein felt his stomach twist and begged she would not repeat that offer in front of Loren, lest he get ideas.
“If I can make him pass as a woman with Simone, I will consider that a deal well done.”
“But I can’t make him do this.” Frankenstein couldn’t imagine for a moment that Loren could pass as a woman. “I want to protect him and you want to wave him under the noses of the very people who are looking for him.”
“Precisely.” Adelaide lifted her hand to her throat, stroking over her jewelry. “It wouldn’t be any contest if they didn’t know him, now, would it?” She didn’t give him a chance to answer. “But they do know him. To get him to pass without them knowing? Oh, what a triumph! And, unlike the other, this one I can expose at the end.”
“You would jeopardize his safety by exposing him.” Frankenstein could not understand Adelaide’s desperate need to have one over on the very people she socialized with.
“Not if I paid back those he’d wronged.”
Loren’s brows perked up. “What now?”
“If you do this, and you are successful, I will pay what you owe but only if you agree to be unmasked.”
Loren lowered his brows and leaned against the wall, thinking.
“You’re considering agreeing to this?” Frankenstein asked. “You’re actually considering doing this?”
“If it gets me out of trouble, yeah. What do I have to lose?”
To his horror, Loren really had nothing to lose. It was Frankenstein himself who might lose his reputation and his very life. He stood there trying to grasp how each time when he thought he’d improved his situation, he’d only managed to make it worse.
Chapter Seven
After intense negotiations in the servant’s closet, Adelaide and Loren came to an agreement. Frankenstein tried to intervene but there was little he could do. Even if he had another place to go, he couldn’t make Loren come with him. His tale of doing the right thing for a less fortunate soul held no weight against Adelaide smoothing over Loren’s wrong with a liberal application of money.
Determined not to be caught off guard by the amount she would have to pay at the end of the charade, if successful, Adelaide got the figures from Loren on precisely how much he’d won and from whom.
Watching him list the names and figures showed that Loren had an excellent memory. Frankenstein found himself observing everything in order to help him make a final assessment of his creature’s faculties.
“Now we get to the fun part.” Lamp in hand, Adelaide led the way upstairs via the back stairway.
“Fun?” Frankenstein followed only because he didn’t know what else to do with himself. “How can you think any of this is fun?”
“Frankie, my dear, if you’re going to be a stick in the mud, I will send you to my home in London. Oh, which is where your servants are, by the way. They had nowhere to go and I couldn’t leave them at your home or bring them here so they are watching over my home in London.”
“Thank you, Adelaide.” Frankenstein should have asked after them long before now. “I will repay you.”
“Don’t worry about that.” Under her breath, Adelaide murmured, “Making a fool of Simone will be payment enough.”
Frankenstein felt his energy flagging. The lump on his head from the officer’s truncheon throbbed in time with his heartbeat. He considered asking for another opium-laced drink but then decided keeping his wits about him mattered more than eliminating the pain. Besides, he deserved to suffer. Intellectual curiosity be damned for without that he wouldn’t be in this fix now. He’d be home, in his sitting room, reading about daring adventures rather than having one. Although, to be fair, this wasn’t a daring adventure so much as a comedy of errors. One that, if exposed, could end with him losing his life.
She took them to the east wing. “It’s mostly closed up, and I will let the staff know that they are not to come up here unless I specifically tell them to.” She lowered her voice. “I will not have them stumbling across something and telling tales.”
“But they’ll talk about us wanting privacy.” Frankenstein knew that servants gossiped among themselves and with other households. Eventually, things got out.
“This is where your reputation preceding you becomes a boon.”
Loren lifted his brow at Frankenstein, who looked away, trying to think of something to say but Adelaide beat him to it.
“I can tell them you are conducting experiments while you’re here. Something with electricity.” Adelaide tapped her chin. “Yes, that should keep them well away, I would think.”
“You experiment with electricity?” Loren asked.
“I have been known to dabble.”
“Do you know of Nikola Tesla?”
“I do. In fact, I know him personally.” Astonished, Frankenstein turned to Loren. “How do you know him?”
“A display he did. A coil. Great sparks of electricity and—it was most intriguing. I didn’t understand the science at all, but I found myself eager to learn.”
“I would be happy to teach you.”
“I would enjoy that.”
“Oh, you two. How very cute you are. Hold this.” She handed Loren her lamp. With all the flair of a showman, Adelaide entered a set of double doors. “Your suite, gentlemen.”
Loren stepped in, the lamp held high.
“You have your own sitting area here in the center.” While Adelaide spoke, she went around the room, lighting the lamps. “Then four bedrooms, two on each side.” She pointed. “It’s designed for a family of four so that they can still have some privacy.”
She pointed out other amenities then stepped into one of the bedrooms. “I suggest you take this one, Frankie, and then Loren can take the one on the other side.”
“Why, exactly?” Frankenstein thought his room should be on the other side of the sitting room to give each of them even more privacy.
“You’ll only have to build one fire.” She showed them how the fireplace served both rooms by being centered in the wall between them.
“That’s convenient.” Loren examined the fireplace. “I can handle starting the fires.”
While struggling to think of an argument, Frankenstein followed along in Adelaide’s wake.
“Tomorrow, while you’re out, I’ll have the staff open up the rooms, remove all these coverings, and bring up firewood.”
“And where will we be?” Frankenstein asked.
“Shopping.”
“Shopping?”
“Well, he’s quite a bit taller than me and much thinner. He won’t fit in my gowns so we’ll have to have some made.”
“Oh.” Frankenstein blurted the first thing that came to mind. “But then the game will already be up. Your seamstress will know.”
“And she’ll keep her mouth shut.” Adelaide smiled and her eyes flashed a terrifying crimson. “She is the one who made my costumes.”
“Costumes? Oh, yes. Your manly attire.”
“It’s very good,” Loren said. “I never would have guessed without you prompting me.”
“Thank you.” Adelaide placed her hand on Loren’s arm.
Frankenstein felt an instant pang of jealousy but couldn’t decide which one he felt it for. He didn’t want Adelaide to develop an affection for Loren, but he also didn’t want Loren to develop affection for Adelaide. Given his druthers, he’d rather the two had never crossed paths.
“I will put together a basket of food for you for tonight and then we will get other details sorted tomorrow.”
“Thank you, Adelaide, but I really think I should have my room in another part of the house.”
“Why?”
“What will people say about Loren’s reputation? If you intend to pass him off as a woman, he would certainly be expected to—”
“Let them talk.” Adelaide waved his worry away. “Loren is your assistant and your fiancé.”
“And then at the end when you expose the truth, I’m exposed as—”
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