She swallowed. Was it just her imagination, or had the carriage air gone stifling? And why did Lord Harry’s every action and glance seem to vibrate with a hidden meaning? Good Lord, was this how men spoke to one another in private? Perhaps Lord Harry was the sort of man who enjoyed the company of other men. She wasn’t supposed to know of such things, but inquisitive minds had a way of discovering a wealth of information.
The thought successfully quelled any unwanted ardor flaring up within her, for the realization meant he was not interested in Lady Alexandra Danvers at all, but in Mr. Danvers the gentleman. She could hold no candle to Mr. Danvers.
Alexandra scooted to the side so that their legs no longer touched. “May I have my spectroscope back, my lord?”
Still grinning, he held it out to her, all whilst moving his leg so that it once more pressed against hers. “Of course, old chap. Here you are.”
Old chap.
It was another sobering reminder. She knew she was no great beauty—her younger sister Jo, with her lustrous dark hair and petite form, held that title—but it was rather lowering to realize that a man as dazzling as Lord Harry would not be able to see past her outer trappings to recognize her as female. Was she mannish in appearance?
Tucking her instrument back inside her overcoat, she swiveled to look out the window and ascertain their distance from Boswell House. The imposing edifice loomed ahead, and she guessed they would arrive within the next five minutes. It occurred to her that she could not step down from the carriage dressed as a man before all the guests and servants.
Her sister-in-law Clara would box her ears, and her brother Julian would tan her hide. She had promised to be on her best behavior, but they had not been in residence for one day when she had already managed to steal away dressed in a most inappropriate fashion. Not to mention secreting herself inside a carriage with a man she’d only just met.
A man who had mistaken her for a Mr. Danvers.
“Has something overset you, Danvers?” Lord Harry’s voice intruded once more.
She turned back with a jolt as she fell into those vivid emerald orbs.You have overset me, she wanted to say. But she could not.
When all else failed, prevarication was the only alternative. “I just recalled that I need to take some additional snowfall measurements. Would you mind stopping the carriage so that I may disembark?”
Lord Harry cocked his head, considering her with a warm regard that seemed to reach beneath her skin and pluck at strings she had not known existed. “I do mind, as it happens. I have already suffered one delay on account of the broken axle. We are nearly at Boswell House now. I am certain that your measurements can be obtained there just as well as anywhere.”
Alarm tightened into a knot in her stomach. “Please, Lord Harry. It is imperative that I conduct my measurements here.”
“Tell me, Danvers, what has you so concerned?” He sounded amused as he leaned forward and placed his large hand upon her knee. “I have instructed the driver to deliver us to the rear entrance.”
She struggled to concentrate on his words. Her heart sped into a gallop. Inside her gloves, her palms went slick with sweat, the comfort of her disguise no longer sufficient to stymy her hated reaction to handsome gentlemen. His thumb stroked over her kneecap in a slow, maddening caress.
Surely he would not touch another gentleman with such familiarity. “The rear entrance?” It would seem that all she could manage was brainless repetition of words he had just spoken.
Wonderful. Could the ground beneath them open to swallow her and put an end to her misery, please?
“Naturally.” Still, his hand did not move. Instead, his thumb traced a circle higher, on the beginning of her inner thigh. “I promised to show you the ideal spot for meteorological observations at Boswell House, did I not? If we arrive at the front amidst a great deal of pomp and circumstance, all my good intentions will be waylaid by holly boughs, my terrifying mother, and my brother and his wife.”
A hint of bitterness entwined itself in Lord Harry’s tone as he completed his sentence, and it did not escape her. Some of the warmth curling through her curdled at the observation. For if there was anything that interested Alexandra as much as science and fact, it was gossip. She knew that reading scandal sheets was not a worthwhile endeavor, but it was her lone vice, and she could not shake it.
Which was why she now recalled in explicit detail the rumor that had so recently circulated regarding Lord Harry’s courting of his new sister-in-law, the Duchess of Bainbridge, and how his brother the duke had stolen her from beneath his very nose. After receiving Lord Harry’s disconcerting attentions and gawping at his good looks, Alexandra could not fathom anyone choosing the Duke of Bainbridge over the golden lord before her.
And though she knew the duchess well from her work with the Lady’s Suffrage Society, she had never dared to ask if the rumors were true. She was often more awkward than a bear in a drawing room, but even Alexandra knew when to keep her mouth firmly shut.
She frowned and removed her leg from Lord Harry’s reach. “Is your family not expecting you, my lord?”
He raked her with an intense stare and slid on his squab until he crowded her once more with his large, elegant body and intoxicating presence. “I did not tell them when to expect me, and I was explicit with my driver when he left for a substitute carriage that he was to keep my arrival a secret on account of my wishing to surprise my family.”
The explanation sounded like a falsehood and his brooding expression amplified her opinion. For some reason, the thought of him still pining after the lovely Duchess of Bainbridge—who she quite liked—bothered her. Even so, she could not argue with an undetected arrival at the rear of Boswell House, all the better for her to blend into the shadows and return to her chamber before her absence was detected.
“How kind of you to surprise them,” she said lamely, for his masculine scent—musk with a hint of lemon—hit her then, and she could not look away from him.
His jaw tightened. “The kindness was not meant for them.”
“The rumor is true, then.” Alexandra pressed a gloved hand to her mouth, wishing she could recall the guileless statement. She had not intended to speak it aloud, but one of her many faults was an unfortunate inability to filter her thoughts before revealing them.
Lord Harry’s entire body stiffened, his eyes darkening. “What is true?”
Oh dear. Now she had angered him. She searched her mind for a plausible retort and found nothing. “That you are in love with your brother’s wife.”
