* * *
Ten minutes later, and barely able to tamp down her glee, she met Anthony near the row of arborvitae that bordered his lab. Despite missing a night of sleep, she was ready to plunge into one of his scientific projects. They followed smooth flagstones where moss flowed in between the cracks and feeling soft beneath her slippers.
“Miss Thorne,” he said, in just the way his father, the Duke would say her name—evenly and with a slight bow. “Am I to believe that you came to England to see my lab?” The fervent scientist, impassioned discoverer, both vanished in that seasoned gallantry.
“There may be some truth in that assumption.” Rachel sighed. “I’m visiting England for three months and desire to make the most of my visit.”
“I thought the husband hunt was in your scheme.”
“Wrong. Husband hunting was Abby’s idea.”
“With the war going on in the Colonies, travel must be difficult.”
“I will return the same way I came. Lisbon is a neutral port for American ships. My brother, Ethan is scheduled to sail there and meet me.” They rounded the tall shrubs, the unusual edifice topped with a ridiculous number of cupolas and towers burst into view.
“What do you think of it?”
She wrapped her cloak tighter around her to ward off the wintry air, half-wishing for the roaring fire in the library and smothered a laugh. “Do you want my honest opinion?”
“That bad?”
“Horrific. What madness did the architects have on their minds? Looks like a wedding cake with swirls of frosting piled to the heavens.”
“A culinary confection? That is a new commendation. Absurdity was the ecstasy of the designers, yet I cannot claim ownership to the fanciful design no more than I can complain about the monstrosity. Duke Cornelius Westbrook, a close family friend paid for the laboratory and desired a replica of the famed Palace of Sintra in Portugal with the accompanying turrets and towers.”
“But all the pink?”
“Embarrassing. A most unfortunate circumstance was that no one was allowed to see the atrocity until completion. My father has incessant nightmares and has ordered the concealment of the horror from the rest of the world by planting taller arborvitae around the perimeter. When I first laid eyes on the structure I wanted to stab hawthorn spikes through my eyeballs.”
Rachel giggled and clapped her hands together to warm them from the cold. “A sense of humor or revenge?”
“Although not related, Duke Cornelius is a like a favorite uncle and has been indispensable to our family for years. When Abby was abducted, he discovered the kidnapper’s note in the library and did everything in his power to assist in finding Abby and Nicholas. He insisted on building a new laboratory for me, so I could never offend him for his generosity. I have accepted the grandeur and pretend not to notice every time I walk to the lab.”
Anthony held open the door for her to enter. To be alone with Sir Anthony would be considered scandalous. Rachel gave herself a stern shake as she fixed her gaze on the equipment at the back of the room, and willed her shaking legs to carry her all the way, praying she would not break another flask. Since he wasn’t bothered by the shocking behavior, she hid her discomfiture behind a prudently arranged mask of calmness as the heels of her boots clipped a sharp echo across the floor. This was in the interest of science after all.
But it just wasn’t a scandal that made her stomach quiver. After the attack in Boston, she had been shy of men. One man had tried to kiss her in the garden and she ran from him, vomiting in the bushes. She had locked herself in her room for days, thrown books at the wall and cried into her pillow. Nightmares interrupted her sleep. She swallowed a metallic taste of fear, anything to banish the tragedy from her consciousness.
She glanced up from beneath her lashes, hoping Anthony had not seen her distress. Why was she not afraid of him?Because he is your best friend’s brother…he’s family.
He had changed his clothes. No heavy embroidery or gold braiding was attached to his mode of dress, imparted by most men of his rank who enjoyed excess and personal vanity. No. His taste was simple and modest, yet yielded a sensual elegance from black tight-fitting silk breeches and silk stockings that molded the muscles in his calves. He shrugged off his perfectly tailored coat. Rachel inhaled. Weren’t his shoulders wider in his immaculate muslin shirt and cravat? How long before his well-groomed appearancemost likely owed to the precision of his valetbecame disordered?
He took her coat, his fingers lingering on her shoulders before placing their coats on a hook. Rachel moved away, noting a room to the right she had not seen before. She blushed when she saw the cot, and then assumed that Lord Anthony worked late into the night or took a nap while waiting on his experiments to complete.
She shifted her gaze away from the cot. “May I have a look at the transcripts of the experiment you propose?”
“Do I have your sworn secrecy?” He held up his notebook like the Holy Grail.
“Abby is like a sister to me. I would never betray her family.”
He pulled out a chair for her and slapped down his notebook. She poured through the contents, turning page after page, trying not to focus on Anthony, stationed behind her, reading the text with her…so near that she could feel the warmth of him and breathe the faint whiff of sandalwood. She admired his talent and reports on where he had duplicated many of Dr. Franklin’s experiments. She tilted her head up to look at him. “Why do I have the distinct feeling you have many of your notes in your head?”
He flashed a wicked smile.
She smoothed a page in front of her with an unsteady hand, and then positioned a beaker and volumetric flask just so.
“For the exact same reason I challenged Lord Ward last night. Unwittingly, I had hired an assistant who had been employed by Ward. The scoundrel copied pages of my notes and transferred the information to Lord Ward who, in turn, took credit for my work.”
She tapped a finger on her lip. “The Royal Society of Science is the coveted prize. That is why we must improve on what you have crafted. To do that I need what is in that head of yours. Care to expound?”
