Lindsay knew better than that.
It was past time he put this absurd obsession with Drew Nicol aside. It wasn’t going to help him achieve what he’d come to Edinburgh to do, and prolonging their association would only make leaving more painful in the long run.
Wearily, Lindsay rubbed his hands over his face. Then he slowly got to his feet and made his way to bed.
Chapter Fifteen
Hector Cruikshank respondedto Lindsay’s note by inviting him and Francis to call the next day at five o’clock.
Wynne spent an age powdering Francis’s hair and applying cosmetics to his face, using a heavy hand so as to create cracks and wrinkles over Francis’s smooth, clear skin. He used too much powder and too many patches and generally made Francis look quite overdone. And yes, miraculously older.
It was rather clever. And it made Francis—who didn’t have an ounce of vanity—laugh his head off.
They were quite the pair as they left Lindsay’s rooms, Francis looking like an aging roué and Lindsay like a pure Macaroni in his pink-and-ivory striped coat, this time paired with ivory satin breeches.
“You look like you’ve been spun out of sugar,” Francis chuckled. “All pink and white froth.”
“Good,” Lindsay said, well-pleased. “Cruikshank thinks I’m an empty-headed fop and that’s the way I like it.”
“He’s a shrewd man,” Francis replied. “Don’t underestimate him, Lindsay.”
Lindsay grinned. “I won’t.”
Emerging from the close onto the High Street, they headed up the Canongate towards town, ignoring the turned heads and raised brows of the passersby.
After a brief silence, Francis said idly, “What did your visitor last night want? He seemed quite perturbed by my presence—I hope I didn’t misspeak?”
“Not at all,” Lindsay reassured him. “And I don’t think he was perturbed—merely surprised to find someone with me.”
“Oh, come on,” Francis said, with a roll of his eyes, “I may be a bit slow on the uptake sometimes, but I’m not blind, and my nose never lets me down. He was plainly shocked by my arrival, and the scent he was giving off was pure jealousy. Did he think we were lovers?”
“At first,” Lindsay admitted reluctantly. “But I explained we were only friends.”
“And you and him?”
“And me and him what?”
