Lord Berwick nodded. “I see the guards have just let some of the guests through to the Greek statuary.”
Berry smiled. “Perfect. Let’s go.”
Gideon was ashamed to admit he had never been inside a museum before. To say he was awestruck was an understatement. This was the history of the entire world brought to one place. He could wander through here for hours and never get bored. “Have you ever considered bringing the orphans here?” he asked Berry.
“No, but it is something to add to our list of things to organize. Perhaps take the children in groups of ten at a time. We can ask the museum’s head curator, although I do not think tonight is the right time to approach him.”
“Perhaps reach out to him in a couple of days,” Gideon said. “He is too distracted right now by tonight’s charity affair.”
She nodded. “I would need trusted people to assist me in supervising the children, assuming he will agree to having a group of orphans here. A few of the wayward boys might wander off, and I cannot have them getting lost.”
“Or breaking something priceless,” Lady Berwick added.
They moved through the hall of statuary, Gideon enjoying Berry’s explanations. Each statue held significance. Some were connected to a myth that was usually bloody and had a bad ending for one or both star-crossed lovers. Others were simply a celebration of the human body, each featuring the male or female anatomy in accurate detail.
Since every statue had a story associated with it, they quickly fell behind everyone else while Berry related this wealth of information to him. She was gracious about it, indulging all his questions and not seeming to mind their slow pace.
Most of the statues depicting men had either a fig leaf or strip of cloth carved into the marble, but there was a row of three statues they now came upon that revealed every detail of the male anatomy.
Nothing hidden.
He smothered a grin upon noticing Berry discreetly peering at one of the naked male statues and then glancing at him.
He leaned in and whispered in her ear, “Yes, Berry. It is accurate.”
Her eyes widened as she gaped at him. Then her cheeks turned quite a bright shade of pink. “I have no idea what you mean.”
Berry may not have seen the male anatomy in the flesh, but she would recognize it and hopefully not be shocked by it when she finally did have her moment with a man.
Of course, he wanted to be that man.
Was their situation not a modern myth in the making? He was the mortal who loved the goddess he could not have, the mortal who ached to take her in his arms but knew that a night spent with her might lead to her downfall, and his.
As he contemplated their situation, Berry suddenly turned toward the entrance of the statuary hall and inhaled sharply. “Gideon, he’s found us.”
He followed her gaze and saw the lone guard trying to keep Hawthorne and his friends out. “We are only allowing one party through at a time,” the man insisted.
This was not true, for others had been in here along with Gideon’s party only a moment ago before walking into the next hall of exhibits. But Gideon understood the guard was simply trying to keep these drunken sots away from the valuable works of art.
He left Berry’s side and stepped forward to assist the guard. “Hawthorne, go back to the main hall. You cannot stumble around drunk in here.”
“Who are you to tell me what to do, you guttersnipe?” Hawthorne lunged at Gideon and attempted to shove him against one of the statues, but Gideon easily stepped aside and the viscount landed in a sprawl on the floor.
His friends then attempted to grab Gideon’s arms to hold him down while they shoved him and beat him, but his years of street fighting served him well. He took a few punches that they never would have landed otherwise. But it was more important for him to push them away from the works of art. Once they were safely out of reach of the statues, he had little difficulty dropping them to the floor with a well-placed knee to the groin for one, tripping another, and a quick twist of the arm behind the third man’s back to drop him to his knees in surrender.
Several museum guards arrived along with the head curator and a man that Lord Berwick quickly introduced to Gideon asone of the directors. “These men are drunk and belligerent,” Lord Berwick reported. “They have no place here and need to be thrown out.” He then pinned his gaze on Hawthorne and his friends as they staggered to their feet. “All of you are a disgrace. Rest assured, I shall be reporting this incident to your fathers. Have you no respect for anything? Or are you all so wasted as not to realize where you are or what you might have damaged with your reckless actions?”
Hawthorne cursed at Lord Berwick. “You’ll regret this, you old goat!”
Gideon wanted to punch him, but Lord Berwick held him back. “You are the better man, Knight. He’s merely goading you in the hope you will sink to his level.”
The museum’s curator and director thanked Gideon and Lord Berwick profusely. “I’ll be more careful in the invitations sent out next year,” the director said, shaking his head. “This night could have been a disaster because of those curs. We are so grateful to both of you for stepping in to assist when you did.”
Gideon smiled and responded with something polite, but this night was turning out to be as unsettling as the day had been. First Jasmine turning into a banshee, and now Hawthorne being led out cursing and threatening him and Lord Berwick.
He did not care about the threats Hawthorne leveled against him. But a solid, respectable man like Lord Berwick?
There were certainly gremlins about tonight doing their best to cause mischief.
