“I’m—” Lucy began.
“Trespassing,” he finished with a growl that made her stomach somersault. “This box is reserved for my personal use.”
“I’m sorry. Please, let me explain. I’m—”
“Lucy Montgomery,” he finished again. “A woman accustomed to studying strange and fearsome creatures in the jungles of Brazil.” He took a step forward and slid elegantly into the chair behind her. “Turn around and face the stage. Don’t look at me.”
Lucy did as he ordered, even though every instinct screamed at her to inspect him more closely. The back of her neck prickled in awareness as the movement of his body fanned the tendrils of hair at her nape. She clutched at her skirts, simultaneously thrilled and terrified.
“I hope you’re not thinking thatI’m some exotic creature you can examine, Miss Montgomery,” he murmured. “I don’t care to be prodded and poked for your entertainment.”
Lucy shook her head. “That’s not why I’m here. I came to see if you were a man, or a phantom.”
His laugh rippled across the bare skin of her shoulder. “Oh, I’m not a ghost, despite the rumors. See.”
His gloved finger gently skimmed the side of her neck and Lucy gasped at the contact. Her skin tingled.
“Flesh and blood, just like you.”
She sucked in a deep breath. His scent filled her lungs and she closed her eyes, trying to identify the dark, delicious combination of ingredients, but it was completely unfamiliar.
She reopened her eyes and pretended to study the action on stage. “Why do you wear a mask?”
“Why doyouask so many questions?”
She relaxed a fraction at his gruff teasing. He didn’t sound as if he was annoyed enough to throw her off the balcony. “Because I’m cursed with insatiable curiosity, I suppose. Always have been. Just ask anyone.” She shrugged. “I would like to know your name.”
He let out a soft huff of amusement. “You and the rest of London. Why do you think you’ll be successful in getting me to spill my secrets when all the others have failed?”
“I could give you an incentive?” Lucy suggested. “Kit Hollingsworth’s offering a hundred pounds to whoever reveals your name. What if we split the reward money?”
She saw the shake of his head from the corner of her eye. “I have enough money, thank you.”
“Aha! So you’re rich.”
“Or lying,” he pointed out. “Don’t discount that.”
Lucy pursed her lips at his playful evasiveness. “Hmmm. Is there something else I could offer you that would make you tell me? Perhaps you’re in need of scintillating conversation? I’ve had some very unusual life experiences. I could provide you with some entertainment.”
He tilted his chin toward the stage. “I come here for my entertainment. And not just to see what’s happening on the stage. There’s just as much drama happening in the audience. Men are foolish creatures, for the most part. Always quarreling and falling in love.”
Her lips twitched at his dismissive opinion. She’d thought the same thing herself on a few occasions. “Wasn’t it Shakespeare who said, ‘All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players?’”
“Indeed, it was. Are you a fan of the bard?”
“I suppose I am. I took his Complete Works with me on my travels. When we were shipwrecked, off Madagascar, it was the only book I managed to salvage from the wreck.”
Lucy realized she was babbling, but she couldn’t seem to stop. She was supposed to be makinghimtalk, but his presence seemed to be having the opposite effect on her.
“A surprising number of Shakespeare’s plays feature shipwrecks, you know,” she continued. “The Tempest.The Comedy of Errors.Twelfth Night.”
The Phantom shifted in his chair and leaned closer. His lips were beside her ear, his chin almost touching the side of her neck.
“I suppose that’s because shipwrecks provide a fertile starting point for drama. Life and death situations. Or it can be a new beginning; a character can appear in a foreign land and reinvent themselves entirely.The slate of their past life can be wiped clean. They can be whoever they want to be.”
“I never thought of it like that,” Lucy murmured. “But yes, you’re right.”
“Is that whatyou’redoing? Trying to reinvent yourself here in London after your travels?”
