11
LOVELY TO LURE A MAN TO HIS DEATH
Temple’s carriage came to a smooth stop a little more than a half hour north of London.Diana barely noticed the time passing.Sybil liked to talk, and she’d sat herself right next to Diana, across from Temple, shoulder to shoulder.Then she’d proceeded to link their arms together like they were old friends and ask more questions than Diana could answer.All of them about transcendent magic and the ton.
Diana should have been on edge, worried her talent would slip through her still slender wall of control.But Sybil was so very friendly, the edge had soon smoothed out.Nothing but blue afternoon skies as the road they traveled narrowed into an increasingly navy blue evening.
Temple leaned against the squabs and folded his hands behind his head with the slightest grin tipping his lips up.Oh, he was satisfied, smug even.That smugness spoke of machinations.He was using Sybil as a weapon, likely because he knew how effective she was.
But Diana couldn’t be angry with him.Sybil leeched away all anger, tossed it out the coach.Here was magic, true magic, in the easy laughter of a woman who had likely never met an enemy.
And in the way Temple helped Diana down from the carriage.Warm, steady hand, wrapping her arm up in his.A barrier had been broken between them.All those circles around the square she’d kept it up, but the evening spent together in her room, reading books and basking in soft laughter, even softer touches.Innocent touches, almost shy.Odd after their interaction had been so very intimate.
Nothing shy in his touch tonight.Now he clasped her to his side with confidence, every move… proprietary, commanding.
He tried to tug her inside, but she’d frozen in the gravel path that led up to the small house beyond a rolling lawn.The night was falling deep blue around them, but the house glowed a summery white.Several large, rectangular windows gleamed with light, the bottom row and the door with fanlight glowing beneath barely visible arches.A simple home, a… smiling one.And all around it, dancing like glamoured candles at a ball… magic.
“What sorcery is this, my lord?”she demanded.
“Sorcery?”He scowled.“None.What are you going on about?”
Sybil pushed between them, striding toward the house.“You are thick as a brick, brother.She means this.”She held her arms out wide, a gesture to the lawn, the house, the lights.
“What isthis?”Temple grumbled.
“The fairies you’ve hired to illuminate this lawn,” Diana said.They were everywhere, low to the grass, high in the air, hovering over flower beds near the front of the house, lining the gravel walk and setting the door aflame, all of them a soft, golden, bobbing glow.
“Oh, the lights?”
“Yes, my lord, the lights.The fairies.”
Ahead of them, Sybil opened the door, briefly flooding the lawn in more light, light somehow filled with laughter.“Welcome to Nickleby House,” she cried before slipping inside and closing the door, no doubt to prepare her family for what was to come.
Temple had brought a woman home.
A momentous occasion, no doubt.She should not have agreed to it.She did not want to give the man hope.
Give herself hope.
“The lights aren’t fairies,” Temple said, tugging her toward the house.“They’re similar to the ones found in London’s streetlamps.Metals alloyed for maximum reflectivity.But unlike London’s lamps, these lights possess magnetic properties as well.”He squatted, his trousers pulling tight across his thighs, and plucked a ball of light from the air.“There’re magnets in the ground below them.Like poles make them float.”He held the glowing orb out to her.“A windy day wreaks havoc on them, though.Haven’t figured that part out yet.”
She took it with careful fingers, held it in the palm of her hand.“You made these?”
“My father’s design.I’ve helped here and there.I’m more interested in electromagnetic induction.”
“Who what now?”
He laughed, a low thing like thunder, and plucked the orb from her hand.“Ever heard of Michael Faraday?”
“I’ve not.”
“You will if you stay in this house longer than a half hour.”His words a challenge as he squatted and put the orb back in its place.It bobbed for a moment before finding a nest in the air.
“They’re beautiful.I’ve never considered the… beauty of alchemical devices.Only their practicality.”
“Not an unusual perspective.”He pushed open the front door, and the light from inside almost blinded her.“We’ll soon cure you of it.”He nudged her through first then followed, and his heat and strength settled at her back as his hand settled on her shoulder.A welcome anchor because there were now… nine, ten sets of eyes on her?
Oh God.She’d never had this many people look at her all at once.Not even during her debut.She’d been so very unremarkable beneath her uncle’s glamour, the ton’s collective gaze had glazed over and looked away as soon as it hit her.
