The Duke called after them. “The sun is going to fall into the ocean tomorrow.” The footman closed the doors and the duke nodded for everyone to leave except for his head butler.
“They never heard a word I said, did they, Sebastian?”
His head butler cleared his throat. “It does not appear so, Your Grace.”
The duke drummed his fingers on the table. “What do you think?”
The butler harrumphed in condescension.
“So that’s your opinion.”
The butler poured the Duke another cup of tea. “It is not my place to say, Your Grace.”
The Duke smiled. “It is exactly what Abby has orchestrated. I’d say she’s right.”
Sebastian’s tone was brisk. “And how is that, Your Grace?”
The Duke came right to the point. “A match made in heaven. To get Anthony out of his isolation. Miss Thorne is worth her weight in gold.”
The butler lifted his chin with dawning realization. “I see your point, Your Grace. Perfect.”
Lord Rutland shook out his newspaper to read. “You old fox, you came to that conclusion before I did.”
The butler smiled.
Chapter Seven
On the way to the laboratory, Rachel threaded her hand through Anthony’s arm, a most natural thing to do, since she was accustomed to doing the same with her brother and cousin. To the east, the bright light of morning consumed the rising mists.
“I demand a quid pro quo today in payment for my services,” she teased. He lost a step, recovered, and then nodded to one of the guards posted, making her mindful of the danger that followed the Rutland family.
“An equal exchange of what?”
A rabbit scurried through the naked branches of a rose bush, startling a coaltit to flight. Rachel jumped and gripped Anthony’s arm. Beneath the stiffness of his coat, she felt his strong muscles flex and wondered how a man with Anthony’s propensity to work indoors could be so muscular.
He opened the door to the laboratory, allowing her to enter first. A fire blazed in the fireplace, and she moved toward the warmth, evaporating the outside chill.
Though devoid of anyone else, a strange and dynamic presence lingered in every corner of the masculine laboratory. Rachel smelled it in the pungent scents of chemicals, and beeswax rubbed into the cherry cabinets and massive desk.
“I would like to go on a tour of the estate,” she said over her shoulder. Before he had a chance to dig in his heels, she pivoted on him, the rustling of her skirts disturbing the peaceful purity of the stillness. “It’s only fair. Besides the fresh air will do us good.”
He grumbled something about conspiracies to distract him, and then contracting pneumonia. She laughed, moving past the counters stocked with bottles and equipment to retrieve one of Anthony’s aprons draped on a hook, looped it around her neck and tied it in the back to protect her gown.
“What should we work on first?”
“I could launch a litany of scientific responses, but defer to you, Miss Thorne. You are so full of shining ideas and idealism. We will try your concept of changing the chemical solution.”
Anthony shrugged out of his frockcoat, tossed it on a stool then rolled up his sleeves. His forearms bulged, muscled and strong like a blacksmith who spent his day lifting a heavy hammer and pounding iron. This confirmed what she had felt beneath her fingers.
Why was she suddenly nervous being alone with him? Was it the intimacy that the lab allowed? Preying on her conscience was what she had almost revealedsomething very private to him the night before. Fortunately, the noise level at the ball hid her impulsive burst. For Anthony to raise questions on why she was undesirable would be too humiliating and the last thing she wanted was for him to think of her as a social pariah like the men in Boston had.
He withdrew to the window. “I miss my sister. She was always in my lab, sat on that chair and watched me do my experiments. One night changed everything in our lives.”
She moved beside him. “I try to put myself in Abby’s shoes, waking up in the dark bowels of a ship. The horrors she faced aboard theCivisunder a former slaver captain bent on her demise. So fortunate Jacob captured the merchantman when he did. Abby’s resourcefulness was amazing, disguising herself as a boy. I can imagine the chagrin on my proud cousin’s face when he discovered a female on board his ship.”
She smiled up to him. “How fortunate everything worked out in the end. They had a lovely wedding ceremony and now the treasure of a beautiful baby boy. They are so happy.”
Anthony leveled her a droll look. “If anyone had told me two years ago that my sister would be married to a notorious privateer, I would have said they were crazy.”
