“I suppose a tidy up wouldn’t be remiss, but I stopped having the maids come in a few months ago after one of them unintentionally broke a beaker filled with acetate directly next to a Bunsen burner. To say the resulting fire unnerved the staff is an understatement.”
Rhenick’s lips twitch. “I imagine it was rather unnerving. However, besides fitting a tidy up into your schedule, you might also want to think about investing in some furniture that doesn’t leave one with the impression that, besides being a mad scientist, you also have questionable taste in home furnishings. To point out the obvious, this part of your workshop looks as if it’s home to an elderly lady with a proclivity for mismatched pieces.”
“And offend all my relatives who’ve been taking great pleasure in furnishing my house and workshop? I think not.” Seth smiled. “My aunts, if you’re unaware, enjoy doting on me, probably because most of them are convinced I’m this genius sort who doesn’t have time to waste with furnishings or the everyday nuances of life, something else that annoys Norma Jean.”
“Youarea genius.”
Seth waved that aside. “My mother will tell you that I’m really not, a conclusion she first came to when I was six years old and got my tongue stuck to a frozen pole.” He smiled.“Poor Mother had to spit on the pole to get my tongue released, and after that, the genius talk surrounding me abated—until I invented a motorized steam device I outfitted with blades that could cut grass when I was eight.”
“Not sure why you’d question the genius business, then, as most eight-year-olds are playing ball in the street with their friends, not making grass-cutting devices.”
“True, but not long after I made that device, I got my head stuck in a gate, having miscalculated how my ears would affect the space needed to pull my head out again.” Seth winced. “Mother tried to use butter on the iron spindles, to no avail, and then had to resort to having the gardener cut the spindles, which left my ears ringing for days after suffering through the railings being sawed off.”
“Should I ask why you stuck your head through a gate?”
“Hester and Betsy told me it wouldn’t fit. I decided to prove them wrong.”
“Sounds like something sisters who are as thick as thieves would do to their brother, but speaking of your two other sisters, how are they?”
“They’re fine. Enjoying life in California with their respective spouses and living on the same street, of course, something they decided to do because they were accustomed to being surrounded by family here in Chicago. They’ll be coming back to Chicago for the Christmas season and staying for at least a month.”
“Which might be a wonderful incentive for you to spruce up your place.”
Seth shook his head. “Hester and Betsy, unlike Norma Jean, never stop by here to visit, although Norma Jean hasn’t brought her friends around for a good month.”
Rhenick smiled. “I would think you’d be relieved about that, as well as be relieved that the girls are no longer taking up a few hours of your time every week since they’re now moreinterested in horses—or rather Riley, the Merriweather stable hand—over you or your inventions these days.”
Seth stilled as all the pieces of the puzzle Annaliese had told him to figure out on his own finally clicked into place.
“Your sister Coraline and her friends were coming over here because of me?” he asked slowly.
“You didn’t know that?”
Seth refused a wince. “It’s not that I was completely oblivious to that because I had a few suspicions when they first started showing up. However, after they continued coming around for months, I decided I was mistaken.”
“Because ...?”
“Even I know that adolescent girls aren’t prone to longevity when it comes to infatuations, which is why I decided they truly were interested in inventing, and why I began involving them in some of my less volatile projects.”
For a moment, Rhenick merely considered Seth before he shook his head. “To point out the obvious, Seth, by encouraging the girls to be active participants in your inventions, you prolonged their interest in you. Being adolescents, they aren’t accustomed to adults including them in anything of consequence. You probably became, in their eyes, the dreamiest gentleman to ever walk the face of the earth—until they got a good eyeful of Riley once they started classes at the academy.”
“Thank goodness for Riley, then, although I am going to miss Norma Jean bringing everyone around since that was really the only time I got to see her in any given week.”
“You know where she lives.”
“And also know that sometimes it seems as if the very air I breathe irritates her.”
Rhenick’s eyes began twinkling again. “Breathing can be irritating to girls at times.”
“I’m certainly not going to stop doing that simply to appease her, just as I’m not going to question her about thatstrategizing again because that’ll just turn her surlier than ever.” Seth winced. “A surly Norma Jean isn’t exactly pleasant to be around, which means I’ll need to figure out the strategizing dilemma on my own unless...” He stopped talking when a thought sprang to mind. “Now that I think about it, your sister was at the fair, and I bet Coraline would tell you, since you are known to share a more-than-friendly relationship with your sisters, what all that strategizing is about.”
Rhenick folded his hands over his stomach. “I’m not going to ask Coraline about the matter because, if I’m right about what I think they might be doing, that would be breaking a lady code on Coraline’s part if she were to disclose any details.”
“They really have lady codes?”
“An entire slew of them. But sinceI’mnot a lady, I feel no hesitation in explaining to you what I think the strategizing is about—and that would be matchmaking.”
Of anything Seth had been thinking, that hadn’t been close. “Surely you’re mistaken.”
