Alexander shrugged. “I wanted to surprise him.”
Lady Charlotte rolled her eyes at her twin before she leaned close to Matthew. Once again, his blasted heart refused to act in the normal manner. Although he knew it was physiologically impossible, he swore it jumped around inside him. When a warm puff of Charlotte’s breath touched his ear, his cor meum slammed against his sternum with the force of a battering ram.
“The mistresses Wick have established this room for debate between sexes. I have been recruiting female patrons for several weeks now. It is a veritable success, wouldn’t you say?”
Rather dazedly, Matthew scanned the alien addition to his formerly familiar coffeehouse. It reminded him of an elegant salon, infused with all the rules of social etiquette that he would never absorb. He had devoted his life to understanding the physical workings of the human body and of the natural world—but the human psyche would never be something he could comprehend.
“I’ve secretly started coming to the Black Sheep. Mother thinksI’ve been visiting my friend, Calliope, instead. I swear I can feel my grandmother and great-aunt’s presence in this place. It is how I imagine the salon when they hosted it. No wonder men are always disappearing into coffeehouses.” Lady Charlotte’s lips were so close to Matthew’s flesh that he could detect her body heat. His skin prickled, and a shiver threatened to rise up. Lady Charlotte’s presence was not just a fantasy or even an anomaly but a new reality.
Matthew’s favorite haunt, his former escape from the pressures of city existence, had just become his Hades… and his Elysium.
Chapter Four
Matthew Talbot was both exactly how Charlotte remembered him and intriguingly different. She recalled him as a quiet but good-natured sort who had never begrudged his friend’s sister tagging along during the boys’ holidays from school. Despite years of spending weeks in Matthew’s company, Charlotte knew little about him other than that he possessed a singular habit of fading into the scenery and that he’d spent a large portion of his childhood on his father’s remote Scottish estate.
Although Charlotte had been endlessly coached by her nurse, governess, and her mother on the art of conversation, she had never succeeded in coaxing Matthew from his veritable fortress of silence. Although, truth be told, she had not put her full efforts into it. She had always been so thrilled to have her beloved brother home that she rather enjoyed not having to share their chats with an interloper.
At this precise moment, Matthew seemed to be doing his best to scrunch his tall frame in half and disappear into the fabric of the couch. Despite his great height, he’d managed the trick countless times before. But right now, Charlotte had no intention of allowing him to vanish into the background.
She needed him. Desperately.
The clandestine room of the Black Sheep had been open for two weeks, and Charlotte was frustratingly nowhere near gatheringany truths about Viscount Hawley, and the dread over her impending engagement burgeoned each day. The more colorful customers had not yet deigned to venture into the “women’s lair” as they’d labeled the new back room. Charlotte had no more knowledge of the nefarious parts of London than she’d previously possessed.
Without other options, she had tried to gather gossip about Lord Hawley from the aristocratic women who’d already discovered the Black Sheep through a network of whispers. Charlotte had hoped that the ladies would talk more freely at the coffeehouse than in their parents’ or husbands’ drawing rooms. Although she hadn’t been wrong, there had been no useful tittle-tattle. The only notable tidbit was about Lady Greenvale, the sister of Hawley’s second wife. Ever since her sibling’s death, Countess Greenvale had been discretely espousing radical ideas about divorce. Charlotte longed to speak to the woman at the Black Sheep, where they could converse without restraint, but she couldn’t simply send her a written invitation. Instead, she’d asked the countess’s acquaintances to inform her about their clandestine establishment.
But Lady Greenvale hadn’t visited yet, and even if she did, she might not know anything of import. Right now, Charlotte’s best chance of learning about Viscount Hawley’s misdeeds was through his brother.
Unfortunately, Alexander positively refused to question Matthew on Charlotte’s behalf. He insisted that if his best friend had proof of Hawley committing murder, then the honorable physician would have already reported the crime. Alexander made it abundantly clear that he didn’t want Charlotte attempting to unearth Hawley’s misdeeds. He promised that he was investigating on his own, and he refused to give Charlotte any details.
But she had enough of others dictating her fate, and she refused to wait demurely. Every tick of the clock was a moment closer to the return of the Duke of Lansberry and the finalization of herengagement. There was a chance that Matthew had observed something but didn’t realize its significance… or perhaps the good doctor wasn’t as upstanding as Alexander believed. Hawley was Matthew’s sibling after all, even if, by Alexander’s account, the viscount had been an awful one. People often possessed an illogical and undying instinct to protect family members.
Since Alexander had just excused himself to fetch coffee, Charlotte had an opportunity to question the reserved Matthew. Yet even as he tried to make himself inconspicuous, he didn’t actually succeed. Charlotte found herself acutely aware of Matthew, although she wasn’t exactly sure why. As soon as he’d sat down, an odd, prickly heat had rushed over her. Until now, she had never considered that the perfectly pleasant Matthew could be the type who could make a person flush, for any reason. Yet a giddy sort of anticipation spiraled through her, pushing away some of the constant doom.
“Traveling agrees with you,” Charlotte said, trying to categorize for herself the subtle ways in which Matthew had transformed during the intervening years.
Matthew’s rather surprisingly broad shoulders jerked. His gray eyes widened as he swiveled to glance at her directly. “It does?”
Charlotte tapped her finger against her chin as she took the opportunity to study more than just his profile. Matthew’s formerly pale skin now possessed a golden glow. His complexion made her think of lazy days in the gardens at Falcondale Hall, when the chill of spring had just given way to the deeper, truer warmth of summer.
“Do you spend a great deal of time outdoors?” Charlotte asked.
“Yes. A good bit.” Matthew visibly swallowed, and Charlotte watched as the corded tendons in his neck moved and flexed. He’d lost his gangly appearance. Muscles smoothed over places where bones and joints used to protrude, and his limbs no longer seemedtoo lengthy for the rest of him. His body wasn’t all bulging power though. Instead, his form possessed a refined strength that made Charlotte scandalously curious as to what he had hidden under his layers of coat, waistcoat, and shirt.
“Dr. Matthew Talbot!”
Charlotte turned to see Sophia standing in front of them with Pan perched on her shoulder. The parrot twisted his lime-green body in the perfect position to stare Charlotte down with his unblinking reddish-brown eye.
A smile blossomed over Sophia’s face. Although she was welcoming to all guests, Charlotte detected an extra hint of warmth in the woman’s eyes.
“Miss Wick. A pleasure as always.” Matthew rose and dipped his chin in greeting, the movement quick and economical. He still seemed stiff, but Charlotte swore that his muscles uncoiled just a fraction. For a man who constantly held himself as tightly as Matthew did, it was telling—but of comradeship or something more, Charlotte could not entirely determine.
“It’s wonderful to see your face again. Hannah and I were just mentioning the other day that your vessel should be arriving back in England soon.”
The left side of Matthew’s mouth tilted up ever so slightly, which for him was the equivalent of a broad smile. “Your cousin greeted me when Alexander and I walked through the door. I’ve missed the Black Sheep. It’s good to be back among friends.”
Friends. He spoke the word casually—well, as casually as possible for Matthew. There was no stress, no hidden meaning. Relief burst through Charlotte. Matthew’s lack of entanglements made her plans easier… yet, oddly, her reaction seemed more complex than that.
“Did you bring Pan back a companion?” Sophia asked.
