“The biography of an explorer?” she said with a laugh. “Not at all. I’m fascinated by such things. Please, tell me all about it.”
He did, making her laugh and gasp in equal measure as he told her adventurous tales of the explorer. And the supper was long, probably suggestively if anyone was watching but seemed to fly by. After their dessert plates were cleared away, he leaned back and smiled at her.
“That’s the longest conversation I’ve had in an age about anything that wasn’t my divorce.”
There was such a lightness when he said that, a flash of the man she’d vaguely known during her time as Southwater’s mistress. The one who had been fun to be around. There he was and he was very attractive. The kind of man some high society lady would forgive for his tortured past once time and gossip had moved on. He could be happy again. She hoped he would be.
“I’d be happy to be practice for such conversations,” she said. “And get you ready to return to good company at some point.”
She was teasing but their eyes met and suddenly there was a little thickness to the air. Like they’d hit upon something real in the midst of all the games and lies and schemes.
“Good company,” he repeated with a shake of his head. “That sounds dreadful.”
“Oh, you’ll like it again someday, I just know you will.” She sat back, as if a little added distance could lessen the unexpected weight that talking to him had. “Speaking of which, should we plan our first public outing?”
He shifted. “I suppose we should. What about the opera?”
She considered it. “It’s a good idea. People expect to see men at the opera with their mistresses. But I think we need to do something a little less obvious to begin. Are you a member of Lady Lena’s Salon?”
He nodded. “Yes. I was invited a few years ago. I don’t go as often as I once did, but I always enjoyed it.”
She worried her lip. “Is it a place you went with your wife? I’m sorry to be so direct, but I want to make sure that anything I suggest doesn’t cause you further pain.”
His expression softened a little at that statement. He cleared his throat. “Florence had little use for intellectual salons. Not because she isn’t clever, she very much is, but because they didn’t have the kind of social standing she liked to cultivate. She never attended with me, so there is no association with her for me in that place.”
“Good, that will be perfect then,” she said. “Two nights from now there is a gathering there. I believe there will be a discussion about astronomy led by Miss Herschel. I think she’ll talk about all of her comets.”
“Fascinating,” he breathed. “I’ve always wished to hear her speak. What a coup for Lena Bright and Harriet Smith. Do you know them well?”
“The owners of the establishment? Very little. I like them both a great deal,” she said. “They’re brilliant. I always enjoy my time there. And it’s a good place for us to be seen without making it as obvious.”
He nodded slowly. “Very intelligent, not that I expected anything else. What time shall I fetch you?”
“You won’t,” she said. “I think it would be better to be a bit coy about it. We both attend and then be seen talking, deciding to sit together, perhaps being a little too wrapped up in each other’s company. Let the world see what they think is the beginning of something new and have it be reported back to Southwater and Lady Blackburn.”
“But he thinks he knows that we’re already engaged in some kind of affair,” he said.
“And he’ll think that his discovery of us together is the reason why we decided to start to be public. Let him stew. Let him seethe.” She couldn’t help a little smile. “Gracious, I sound so Machiavellian.”
“Very wicked, indeed. I find I quite like it in my partner in…well, it’s not exactly crime. I like this idea. The salon usually begins at eight, I will be there a few moments before and make sure there is a place for us to sit together. When you arrive…fashionably late, one must assume, we will begin.”
She nodded and got to her feet. He followed, just as a gentleman should and glanced at the door. She tilted her head. “Are you thinking it’s time to make your escape?”
“I’ve enjoyed our time together very much, truly, Evelina. But I’ve a great deal to think about.”
She motioned to the door. “Let me see you out.”
They moved together to the foyer and chatted about nothing at all while his carriage was brought. He took her hand before he left her, squeezing it gently as he said his goodbyes and rode off in his fine carriage. She sighed as she closed the front door and leaned back on it.
She liked this man insofar as she had gotten to know him.Trulyliked him. Which was a dangerous thing, indeed. And one she’d have to be very careful of as they navigated the waters of deceit.
CHAPTER7
Just as he’d told Eveline two nights before, it had been months since Vaughn had attended Lady Lena’s Salon. Those kinds of public outings had become too difficult to bear as the heat of the gossip surrounding his divorce grew worse. Eventually, he had locked himself away almost entirely, cutting off everything but the well of his own pain, anger and humiliation. Wallowing had become his pastime and he was very good at it even if he hated himself for such self-indulgence and missed the more nuanced man he once was.
So tonight, sitting at the crowded salon, watching the door for Evelina’s arrival, he couldn’t help but feel a little out of sorts. There was so much energy in the air from the people around him, so much anticipation of what would be discussed by Caroline Herschel, who had once been in the inner circle of George III. That was long before the king’s decline, and the rise of his thoughtless, frivolous son as Regent.
Vaughn looked at the lady in question. She was older, in her sixties, he would wager. If seen on the street, some might dismiss her as merely an old woman in an unfashionable white lace cap and drab dark blue gown, but one only had to look at her bright eyes as she chatted with one of the salon’s owners, Harriet Smith, to see the golden glow of her intelligence.
