“That makes three of us.Squires and I are perplexed as well.”
“Anything else?”
“Not really.Squires offers a collection of personal observations with each factual observation, so if you like I can give you a very vivid account of the runner’s opinions on your cousin.”
She huffed a laugh.“That might be interesting.”
If he stole her bonnet, would he see her smile?Thatwould be interesting.His fingers twitched.“First, he thinks your cousin a peacock.Spends all his time looking at his reflection.Thinks maybe the potions are to stop early hair loss.”
Her hand flew up to cover her mouth, smothering a laugh.
That enough encouragement for Temple.“Early hair loss is no laughing matter, I assure you.Especially not for Squires, who possess not a strand of hair on his head.I’ve been given to understand the ladies find it dashing.I believe it.Second, Squires wonders if the potion might also be for…” Should he say this part?If it made her laugh, yes.“For a limp cock.That is not a problem Squires has, so he tells me.And I believe it.But having overheard your cousin with his mistress, I do worry about his fish cock.”
She whipped her head around to stare at him so quickly, her bonnet flew back.Her eyes were glowing and merry.
And her hair was pink.
“Damn it to hell, Miss Chester, what’s that about?”He flicked at a curl hanging across her temple.
“What is what about?”
“Your hair.It’s pink.”Or was it?It wavered like… a glamour.
Her eyes flew wide, and she ran a few steps to a shop window, peered into it, her gaze not going farther than the glass she used as a mirror.“Oh.Ohno.I… I… It—” She closed her mouth and yanked her bonnet back on.“A potion!”She tucked every visible curl up into the straw.“I tried a potion today to hide my identity.I did not think it had worked, but I see now it did.Oh, how humiliating.”
That explained it, the unsteadiness of the hue.It was likely fading more and more by the moment.“You made the potion yourself?”He took a risk.He touched her, soothing her fluttering hands away from her jaw and nape and holding those little frantic wings between his hands until they calmed.
“I… um… yes.I am not very good yet.I meant to change my hair yellow.”
He pushed the hat backward off her head.
“No.”She reached for it.
But he clucked his tongue like his mother always did and continued on as he pleased.“It does not look bad, Miss Chester.I’ve heard some women used potions to color their hair, but I’ve only ever seen it done with a glamour.”His eyes narrowed.“Or?—”
“Lady Guinevere says the potion acts like a glamour.”
“Does it?”
“Yes.She says you can never truly change the real, only hide it.”
That made sense.Potions and illusions were deceptive things, not like metals.Those were real and could be shaped and could shape the world, too.Once set, they could last forever.“Pink suits you.Though I must admit, I rather prefer your natural color.Such a rich brown, like soil, so many different shades.Can’t count them all.Even a strand or two of auburn to burn a man’s eyes with.”
Her inhale was ragged.“How do you know?You’ve not had time to study it.Too dark the night we met.”
“In the roof garden, I studied it thoroughly, and… I can see it even now, coming through the pink, the same as seeing through a glamour.”He brushed a lock of it off her forehead.Silky, slippery, soft.He closed his fingers into his palm to keep from burrowing more deeply into the strands.
She batted his hand away and tugged her hat back on.“What do you mean?About the glamours?”She set her steps about the square again, slow ponderous strides.
Should he tell her?He was trying to earn her trust, but that iron alchemists could see through glamours was information that went no further than another alchemist’s ears.It was something he could only tell her if she was to be his wife.And he knew the dangers of speaking secrets of the forge out loud.He’d paid handsomely for it.So had everyone he loved.
“What do you mean by the potions working like glamours?”She peeked at him, irritation and caution banished in the search for knowledge.
He liked his women with fight.And with bright curiosity.And hell, how much more trouble could he get into?Besides, he planned to marry her.
He leaned close so that his lips brushed the edge of her bonnet closest her ear.“I can see through glamours.”
She tripped.
