When the door closed behind them and Peter surreptitiously restored the shielding on the house, he turned back to see Martinelli wearing his insane grin.
“I see how it is now,” Martinelli said.
“Uh—”
“No wonder you’re not interested in Miss Sederey.”
Oh no.
Martinelli poked him in the arm. “How long have you been besotted with her?”
“I’m not?—”
“Beautiful girl, Miss Knight.”
“MissKnight?”
Martinelli’s grin went even wider somehow. Peter groaned. He’d walked right into that.
“No, of course not MissKnight,” the impossible man said. “MissKnightcould have done the tarantella in thealtogether while singing a rude song, and you wouldn’t have looked away from Miss Harper.”
“There’s nothing between me and Miss Harper,” he said, trying to make it a calm statement rather than a heartbroken declaration. “She’s an excellent employee, and I do not prey on employees.”
Except in dreams. He walked to the receiving room, wanting a few seconds to compose himself.
“So lay her off and marry her,” Martinelli called to his back.
Peter swung around. “How would you have felt if you’d been a woman and I tried that onyou?”
“If I were a woman, I wouldn’t have been working on weapons development for the Army,” Martinelli said—and that was true, but it made Peter even angrier.
“Not because they wouldn’t be capable.” He glared at Martinelli. “Because we don’t let them. We restrict them at every turn and say, ‘Just get married and have kids, there’s a good girl.’”
Martinelli flinched.
Peter slumped in his chair. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to rant at you.”
“I was joking, I swear.”
“I know.”
Martinelli sat in the other chair, grimacing. “But you’re right, it was an idiotic thing to say. I don’t think your Miss Harper is the sort to …” His eyes widened. “Wait—LydiaHarper?”
“Her sister.”
Martinelli leaned forward, staring at him incredulously. “Were you perhaps unaware of that fact when you hired her?”
“No.”
“You asked the sister of the woman running the Women’s League for the Prohibition of Magic, the crucking Women’s League for theProhibitionof Magic, to assist your omnimancy operation.”
No, because he hadn’t asked, had he.
Martinelli squinted at him. “Were you already in love with her?”
Peter shook his head, knowing that was as good as an admission that he now was. “I’m telling you, she’s an excellent employee. I had to guilt-trip the mayor to let her go. And no, Miss Harper has not forgiven me for that.”
Martinelli’s expression was a tug-of-war between pity and exasperation.
