by Meara Platt
“Ridiculous, isn’t it? Especially since those kisses signified nothing to him.” But they’d affected her and she couldn’t get them or Gabriel out of her thoughts.
Lily nodded. “If we think of him not as a man but a dominant—”
“Honestly, Lily!”
“Well, it’s true. You know even less about men than I do, Daisy. At least I’ve read Sir William Maitland’s early findings on male baboons, and when aroused, they’ll kiss anything female that moves. Anything. The little I know about rakehells indicates they aren’t so very different.”
Daisy simply shook her head and laughed. “I love you, Lily. But you’ve become quite the cynic.”
Lily shot her a grin that reached into her big, blue eyes. “I prefer to think of myself as quite sophisticated.”
Daisy laughed again. “Mother and Father will be so proud. Come on, we don’t want to be late.”
They entered the Royal Society’s oak-paneled lecture hall and found seats just as Lord Allenby struck the gavel to summon the meeting to order. The thuck made by the gavel as it struck wood carried over the din and resounded through the hall.
Daisy glanced around, noting the place was packed mostly with older gentlemen.
“Fossils,” Lily muttered under her breath.
She noticed several young bucks who were far too smartly dressed in silks for the scholarly assemblage, and a smattering of matrons in ghastly bombazine gowns and hats as oversized as their bosoms. Several matrons sported egret feathers atop their hats, and one had an entire bird perched atop her head.
Daisy unfastened the bow to her simple bonnet—a most unfashionable bonnet judging by the disapproving glances cast by these older ladies—set it on her lap, and glanced around once more. She and Lily were the youngest females by about thirty years.
“We’ll never spot your Gabriel in this crush,” Lily said with a sigh.
“Shh! And he isn’t my Gabriel.”
“Perhaps not yet,” she muttered, “but I have every faith he will be. I see his friend, the Duke of Edgeware, over there.”
“Where?” She craned her head to see.
Lily pointed toward the front rows. “There, in the second row.”
Daisy frowned. “I wonder what he’s doing here.”
“Probably took a wrong turn on the way to his favorite den of iniquity.”
“At this time of day?” She laughed softly. “I suppose even he must have interests outside of drinking and debauchery. The man is reputed to be very clever.”
“By whom?” Lily asked, as though the source were relevant.
“Oh, I don’t know, but I’ve heard general talk among the ton.”
Lily gave a little snort. “Anyone who can buckle his own shoe is thought of as clever among that vaunted assemblage. And if that buckle happens to be made of pure gold, why, the man will be thought of as brilliant.”
“Indeed, you’re quite cynical for a youngster,” Daisy said with a shake of her head. “And don’t you dare claim to be sophisticated.”
“I’ll leave that title to you. No, I’m just observant.”
So am I, Daisy thought, nudging Lily’s shoulder. “Look, someone of interest has just entered the hall.”
She’d recognize that thick mane of gold hair and muscular shoulders under a jacket of dark blue superfine anywhere. Gabriel. Her heart skipped a beat... no, many beats.
“Oh, yes. I see him.”
Daisy’s frown deepened. “But who is that ugly little man with him?”
Lily got up on tiptoes to peer over the row of tall hats. “Where? I don’t see anyone.”
Daisy scanned the crowd around Gabriel but could no longer spot the odd-looking man. “I’m sure he was just there.” She lowered her voice to a whisper, suddenly gripped by an inexplicable sense of uneasiness. “Yes, there he is. He’s handing something to Gabriel.”
“A lecture schedule? They’re handing them out at the door.”
“Oh, Lily. Must you always be so logical? The hairs at the nape of my neck are standing on end. I think something untoward is going on. Let’s move closer.”
Before she’d managed so much as a step, Gabriel turned suddenly and pierced her with his rapier-sharp gaze.
“Oh, no! He’s seen us!” she said in an urgent whisper, clutching Lily’s hand. “More important, have we just seen something we weren’t supposed to?”
Lily frowned. “I haven’t seen anything. What are you talking about?”
“I’m not certain myself.” Daisy began to nibble her lower lip. She’d never seen a colder, more deadly look in anyone’s eyes. Or had she been mistaken?
Lily appeared irritatingly calm. “Do you think he’ll come over to greet us?”
“Haven’t you been listening to me? I think something nefarious just took place. Or is about to take place. What if Gabriel suspects I know?” If Gabriel did come over, would his greeting include a knife blade between her ribs?
No, she was being utterly ridiculous. They were practically family, for his own cousin was married to Laurel. One didn’t kill family, did one?
Unless he was utterly deranged. She’d read about that Yorkshire strangler who’d murdered his wife and assorted relatives, and then calmly disposed of their bodies on a desolate moor. The newspaper account was quite chilling and sensational.
She let out the breath she’d been holding, realizing that she was behaving as theatrically as Julia again. Gabriel wasn’t deranged, but he was up to something. She followed his movements as he left his unsavory companion and settled beside the Duke of Edgeware. Daisy watched intently as he and the duke exchanged a few words, and was caught unaware when the duke suddenly turned back and glanced at her.
Did that mean he was involved in Gabriel’s shady business? Was there any shady business going on?
Gabriel frowned and said something in return to the duke.
Daisy gripped Lily’s hand again. “I think we had better leave.”
“Oh, no.” She squirmed out of Daisy’s grasp. “I’ve waited six months for this lecture. I don’t care what scheme you think Gabriel is plotting.”
“But—”
A lady with an enormous hat suddenly took a seat at the end of the row, effectively blocking her escape. “Oh, perfect. We’re well and truly stuck here.”
“Daisy, you’re fluttering like a bird trapped in a cage. This isn’t like you at all. I’m certain there’s a logical explanation for what you think you saw. Just ask Gabriel when the lecture is over. Let’s shift down two spots. At least we’ll be able to see Lord Allenby’s podium.”
“Don’t you girls know it isn’t polite to stare at a gentleman’s podium?” said a teasing voice from behind them. Gabriel. Cheeseballs! “Certainly not one as large as Lord Allenby’s. Good afternoon, Daisy. Lily. I didn’t expect to find you girls here.”
“We often come for the lectures,” Daisy replied, hoping she sounded quite casual. In truth, her heart was hopping like a mad rabbit. He stood so close she easily breathed in his divine musk scent. The fragrance, as light as a whisper, wreaked havoc on her senses. She didn’t know what to think. “I hadn’t noticed you were here.”
Gabriel arched an eyebrow, now looking quite sinister. “Hadn’t you?”
Oh, he was a clever character, pretending to ask a casual question when he really wanted to know exactly how much she’d seen. He settled his hand on the back of her chair and leaned close enough to raise disapproving eyebrows from a pair of matrons to their right. But in true rakehell form, he flashed them a smile that drew blushes and girlish giggles from the ladies.
“Well, perhaps I caught a glimpse of you out of the corner of my eye. But you know how it is amid a crush, one can hardly see beyond one’s own nose.” She ended with an inane titter that probably roused his suspicions.
He hopped over the empty chair beside her and settled into it. “I noticed you, too. I’m glad you’re here.”
He sounded warm and sincere, not chillingly sinister. “You are
?”
“Very much so,” he said, casting her a devastatingly soft smile that reached his tawny eyes. “By the way, you look charming.”
“Thank you.” She muffled her surprise and tried not to look quite so confused. There were so many questions racing in her mind, so many pieces of the Gabriel puzzle that would not fit together. And now he was seated beside her, looking alert and sober. How could he be so well put together after the spectacle he’d made of himself at Lord Malinor’s party?
She cast him several furtive glances. Shouldn’t he look muzzy headed and disheveled? Shouldn’t he still reek of spirits? How long did the stench of whiskey, or brandy, or whatever gentlemen drank, remain in one’s system?
She cast him another furtive glance. His eyes were clear and gorgeous.
Lord Allenby banged the gavel one last time, signaling the commencement of the lecture. The last of the members took their seats and all chatter quickly subsided. The room turned silent except for the embarrassingly loud thump, thump, thumping of her heart—not out of fear, but out of... drat, why did she feel so wonderful whenever Gabriel was close by?
And why did he always look so wonderful?
And wouldn’t her senses warn her if he were up to something sinister?
He withdrew a lecture schedule from his breast pocket and casually perused it as Lord Allenby began to speak. Daisy stifled a groan, realizing she’d been an utter dolt. There had been no nefarious exchange, just an odd little man handing a program to Gabriel.
“Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the world of Sir Isaac Newton, one of the greatest minds ever to have graced this earth. Today we shall discuss his masterwork the Principia...”
“Ah, I promised to help you through Newton’s works, didn’t I?” Gabriel whispered, leaning close once again and causing her insides to melt in a puddle of delight. That little rabbit previously thumping in her heart was now splashing around joyfully in that puddle.
She ought to be ashamed of herself! He’d melted her resistance without the slightest effort and she had capitulated like a wax candle held over a flame.
Lily leaned across her and cast Gabriel a grin. “You did promise to teach her all about Newton in exchange for one dance,” she whispered. “Daisy told me all about it. She’s thrilled—”
“Honestly, Lily. Hush.” Until today, she would have been pleased that he’d remembered the offer made at Lord Hornby’s ball. Most men pretended to be forward thinking, but were really unrepentant fossils when it came to educating women. She had expected the same of Gabriel, but he was nothing like those brash young men who preened and strutted and lacked substance. She wasn’t sure what he was yet, just that he wasn’t like those young men. He was better... the best, or so she had felt in her heart. But could she trust her heart? “Generous of you to offer, but I don’t expect you to—”
“To keep my word? In truth, I rarely do.”
She turned to gaze at him, hoping to find something beyond his bored expression. “Then why keep it now? Last night you couldn’t wait to get away from me.”
“Because Newton is special.”
“Oh.” She wasn’t special, Newton was.
“The talk may be a little dry for someone unfamiliar with his publications,” he continued in a whisper as though she hadn’t seen him with that unsavory man, or that he hadn’t seen her seeing him, “but listen carefully and absorb whatever you can. I’ll take you and Lily to the bookseller’s after this lecture. We’ll select suitable reading material for you.”
Her eyes widened in surprise. “I don’t think we should.”
“Thank you,” Lily interjected. “We’d like that very much.”
“Then it’s settled,” Gabriel said before she could raise another protest.
Daisy didn’t know how she’d ever make it through the lecture with Gabriel seated so close and throwing her senses into a jumble, but Lord Allenby’s presentation proved to be most entertaining. After a while, she stopped fretting and sat enthralled through the two-hour program.
She even sighed in disappointment when he called for a brief recess before answering questions. The gentlemen and ladies in the audience slowly came to their feet and began to mill about the room. Several gentlemen left the room to grab a breath of air and perhaps a smoke.
Though Gabriel rose, he remained by her side and cast her another of his devastating smiles. Really! How was she to think straight when he insisted on leaving her breathless?
“Well, Daisy? What do you think of Sir Isaac now?”
“I’m impressed,” she admitted. “One discovery would have assured him a place among the greatest men in history, but to have given us so much... his writings on gravitation, his theories on optics, and his development of calculus are astounding.”
“Some credit Leibniz with that advancement in mathematics,” Lily interjected because she somehow knew everything about everything, which worried their mother to no end, but simply made Daisy proud. Though just sixteen, the girl could hold her own against any man in this room.
“No loyal Englishman would ever acknowledge that foreigner’s work,” Gabriel replied with a chuckle. “Besides, there’s no doubt that Newton derived it independently.”
Daisy stifled her frustration and joined in with a smile of her own.
And now Gabriel was smiling back at her in that devastatingly gorgeous way. And his eyes were warm and the most beautiful shade of dark amber.
When Gabriel was good, he was very, very good. But was he good or very, very bad?
“I understand he was a shy man,” Daisy said, unable to fend off the urge to ramble, “often needing to be coaxed into publishing his work. I marvel at his humility when compared with the breadth of his knowledge.”
“Makes one feel quite insignificant,” Gabriel said.
She nodded in agreement. “Indeed, it does.”
“I’m personally fascinated by his theories of motion and gravitation,” Lily said.
Gabriel glanced at Daisy and grinned. “Ah, yes. The mysterious force that attracts one planetary body to another.”
That attracts one heart to another, Daisy thought, finding it easier to comprehend the mysteries of the universe by seeking their parallel on a human level. And the way he had leaned close to her, as though attracted to her planetary body... was it possible he yearned for more, possibly for her heart?
“It’s quite romantic, really,” Daisy said with a sigh. “Two heavenly bodies traveling in the night, each on its own path until suddenly their paths cross. They’re irresistibly drawn to each other, and try as they might, they can’t pull away. Though still two bodies, they now move as one, bound to each other for eternity.”
“Or until one can escape the other’s orbit,” Gabriel pointed out.
Daisy rose and frowned at him. Was he warning her to escape his orbit? “Why should one feel the need to escape?”
“One simply does,” he said with an annoying quirk of his eyebrow.
“Honestly, Lord Dayne. Moving alone through eternity is a most unappealing proposition.”
He arched his eyebrow again. “Is it?”
Really, she found him most vexing. “Yes. Certain bodies are meant to be together.”
“You mean like the moon and the earth?”
Like you and me, you dolt! Goodness! Where did that come from? “Earth and moon, yes, that is one example.”
He ran a hand roughly through his hair as though unsettled. Good! She wanted him to think about more than an unencumbered life filled with tawdry entertainments. He needed to think about his future... about his happiness... about his future happiness with her. Oh, crumpety crumpets. She was doing it again, thinking of him as marriage material when she ought to be thinking of running as far away from him as possible.
“And what if those bodies are not meant to be together?” he asked.
Now Daisy wanted to throttle him for his stubbornness. “If they were truly meant to be apart, their paths would not keep crossing, would they?”
“Um,” Lily said, “would you mind explaining what you two are talking about?”
***
Gabriel stared at Daisy. The little widgeon was right, damn her, even if she had taken the greatest laws of science and pared them to their simplest human terms. Love, much as gravity, attracted one body to another. The male to the female.
Was he attracted to her? Certainly, for he’d ignored his own instincts and the little remaining sense he possessed to settle beside her during the lecture. But love and attraction were quite different matters.
Men such as he did not fall in love.
And after the scene he’d caused at Lord Malinor’s last night, Daisy ought to have known better than to fall in love with him.
The adorable scowl on her face revealed that she did know better. She liked him, that much was obvious. But she didn’t want to like him, and that was also obvious. She certainly didn’t trust him.
So what harm could there be in spending one more day in her company?
Besides, Ian had ordered him to find out exactly what she saw pass between him and General Wolcott’s aide, whose disguise had been excellent. Anyone glancing at him would have thought he was the lowest form of life, never suspecting the cur who had passed on vitally important information was an army major. And that small packet of information was now burning a hole in his breast pocket.
He needed to slip away to read it carefully. Part contained the bit of false information he was to hand over to the French agents tonight. The other part held further instructions for him.
Offering to fetch Daisy and Lily refreshments, he left their side. While briefly out of sight behind a large marble column, he withdrew the letters from his pocket and perused them. Then, with his smile fading, he tucked them back into his breast pocket.
As expected, General Wolcott had included a separate letter meant for his and Ian’s eyes alone. He’d practically been ordered to keep Daisy and Lily by his side all day. Well, not precisely, but he had to make preparations for his mission while pretending to be a man of leisure and what better way to avert suspicion than to keep the girls by his side?
Ian had already suggested it.