He shouldn’t have said that, either. He should have resisted the pull to go to her, but could the tides resist the moon, or the moon the sun? And besides, they had this damnable betrothal to act out.
He’d already learned that she was magnificent, but now she looked it—elegant, dignified, graceful, pink, silver, and pearl. The diamond was a discordant note, but she needed gold, he thought. Perhaps even topaz to reflect her hair. Yes, a rich parure of gold, pearls, and topaz…
Lady Bryght left and Genova turned to him. “You’re very quiet.”
“Women’s matters. A wise man retreats.”
“Are you saying you wouldn’t have a care while your wife labored to birth your child?”
A sudden vision of Genova in labor assailed him. He knew nothing of the mysteries, but he could still imagine her, sweaty and magnificent….
His.
“I’d probably run away and get drunk. What’s happening now?”
People were shifting into different groups.
Her look expressed surprise. Clearly some announcement had been made.
“We’re offered the usual hospitality until dinner, but also tours of the house. The gallery.” She glanced at him, knowing what thoughts that would stir, the wicked woman. “An Anglo-Saxon display. The Malloren names are all Anglo-Saxon, you know.”
“Yes.”
“Of course you do.”
She seemed embarrassed, so he said, “One generation only. Bryght’s son is Francis, and Lord Cyn’s is John. Lady Hilda, who’s married to Steen, has used ordinary names, too. A Charles and Sarah, I think.”
“A detail about the Mallorens that isn’t etched into your mind?”
He should be offended, but he delighted in her sharpness. “We know the gallery and old English pots don’t appeal. What else?”
“Chinese prints and porcelain. A harp recital. Oh, and Lord Rothgar is willing to show people his mechanical room, whatever that is.”
Ash’s interest stirred. “He famously enjoys clocks and automata.” He took her hand. “Shall we go there? It never hurts to know how someone’s gears work.”
How pleasant, he thought as they joined Rothgar and three other guests, to be a machine. To smoothly perform a designed function, without the inconvenience of a heart.
Chapter Thirty-six
Ash’s unusually withdrawn mood worried Genova. She was trying to hide her feelings so as not to disturb him. She knew he’d care.
Or was it nothing to do with her? Was he backsliding, turning against peace and reaching again for the weapon that could hurt his cousin?
As they entered a plain room noisy with the ticking of clocks, she tried to assess the feelings between the two men. They might as well have been automata themselves.
Apart from a fire, the room was starkly simple, lined with workbenches and containing a long table in the middle that held a large, shrouded object. Windows along one wall gave light, but there were candles as well, some with complex lenses to focus the light.
Clocks had always interested her, as time was so important at sea, so she walked down the room looking at them. Most were silent and presumably awaiting repair. Did Lord Rothgar involve himself in that or was he simply a patron? No craftsman was here at the moment, but the place looked as if two or three people regularly worked here.
Some clocks were already in pieces, spread on a part of the bench. Drawings and diagrams were pinned on the wall above them. What was the purpose here? Simply mending clocks because they were broken?
Rothgar, in his velvet and gold, looked out of place, but he moved around the room with ease and familiarity. As soon as he started to explain various pieces of special interest, she knew that his involvement here was not only as patron.
And Ash apparently interested himself in the stars.
The cousins had more in common than they had differences. In fact, they had no significant differences apart from those fabricated by a previous generation.
Rothgar showed them tiny mechanisms arranged beneath magnifying glasses, and large ones methodically moving through their purpose. He explained the breaks in some and how they could be repaired. He demonstrated beautiful precision implements, including a tiny lathe.
