“Yes, please.”Sybil rubbed her hands together.
“She’s a marquess’s granddaughter.”
“Excellent catch!”
“The current marquess is her cousin.”
“A good connection to have.”
Temple grunted.No need to tell her the sickly but beautiful and charming man they’d been watching was the marquess in question.“I do not think he will welcome me into the family with open arms.”
“And why not?”Sybil was bristling now.“You are the king’s alchemist.The Guild may have kicked you out, but?—”
“No.It is not that.It is that until recently Miss Chester was engaged to marry him.”
Sybil froze.Then she came back to life with a rapid series of blinks.Then she inhaled all in a rush.“Oh, Temple, no!”
“Yes.”
“You are stealing another man’s woman!”She leaned over and slapped his knee.
“She does not wish to marry him.He is a danger to her.That is why she is in her current situation.”
“Current… situation… Which is?”
“She is working as a shopgirl.At a potion shop.”
“I think you’ve broken me, Temple.This is too much shocking information at once.You must be teasing me.Ladies with marquesses in their extended families do not work in potion shops.”
“This one does.She’s hiding from her vile cousin.I should not even be using her real name, but as I intend to marry her, you’ll know it soon enough.But do not use it yourself.I’ve offered marriage already.”Twice, but surely the first proposal didn’t count.“And she’s refused me.”
“Sounds like you should find another woman.”
“No.”This one fit his purposes precisely.She held no love for the ton that had hurt her, yet she could help him navigate it.And she did not seem to look down on him.She never treated him like a lapdog or a social climber.“Only she will do.”
“Aw, Temple.”Sybil fluttered her lashes and clutched her hands at her heart.“Have you found your match?The carbon to your iron?”
Carbon made iron into steel, made it stronger.“Yes, I think she can be.”
“I would swoon, but the tone of your voice is decidedly unromantic.It’s as if you have said, ‘I think I will inject a bit of nickel into the next prototype.’”
Temple scratched his jaw.“I’ve not worked much with nickel, but depending on the?—”
“That is not the point!The point is that you are impossible, and I do not at all blame her for not falling in love with you.You have as much romance in you as does a chamber pot.”
He scowled.“Not true.I gave her books.”
Sybil groaned.
“She likes books,” he grumbled.
The carriage stopped, and Sybil hopped down before he could help her.He lumbered out after her, almost bumping into her as she looked up at the sign swinging above the shop door.
“I’ve always wanted to come here,” she breathed.“You didn’t say your ladylove workedhere.”She dashed into the store.
Temple waited a moment.Diana would be surprised to see him so soon.And she’d be irate to see he’d brought someone else here.She would view Sybil as another mouth to spill her secret.
He pushed inside and found her immediately.She stood behind another potion mistress, head tilted at a curious angle.Beneath the obscuring brim of an overly large lace cap, her head tilting this way and that to best see what the other woman was doing on the worktable.She was handed a bowl of leaves and a pestle, and she set to work, muddling the plant, adding a handful of berries of some sort when prompted, inspecting her work with her lovely lips twisted to the side.
