When I forced my eyes back up, St. Clair’s expression was languid, a hint of a smile playing about his mouth. “Did you know Herschel also cataloged eight hundred and forty-eight double stars? They were known as stars that orbited around one another.”
“Binary pairs,” I said softly.
“Yes.”
We stared at each for a long moment in congenial silence, our heads bent over the open copy ofOpticks,before jerking apart. St. Clair ran a hand through his hair, mussing the carefully combed waves, and leaned back into his chair, his usual unreadable expression taking over.
“Never would have taken you for a stargazer, Lord Ansel.”
I shrugged. “I told you. You don’t know me, Mr. St. Clair. People change. Perhaps the gentleman you knew before isn’t same person you see before you now.”
“I suppose I shall have to give you the benefit of the doubt, then,” he said, and rose, stretching his arms over his head and rounding his spine. Goodness, I forgot how tall and lanky he was. I stared, hypnotized by his graceful, sinuous movements. Flushing, I tried not to notice how much the muscles of his abdomen bunched beneath his shirt as he reached for the coat hung neatly over the back of his chair as well as his outer gown.
“Have we finished, sir?” I asked.
“Considering it’s well past luncheon, yes. Moving forward, we can focus your studies on observational astronomy and celestial mechanics as well as understanding historical context, since those seem to be your primary areas of interest.” He leaned over to collect his books strewn across the tabletop and pack them neatly into his satchel. He pushed one over with the tip of his finger toward me. “Let’s meet in the Wren Library three days hence.”
I pulled the new tome toward me and frowned at the title. “Principia?”
“Have you read this, too?” he asked.
“A while ago, but—”
Based on the look of challenge on his face, I didn’t need to finish my sentence. “Good, prepare to be thoroughly tested on the laws of motion and gravitational properties next Thursday. Shall we say early afternoon, at two o’clock, directly following luncheon?”
“Wait. Tested?”
St. Clair glanced over his shoulder. “You didn’t think transferring here was going to be easy for you, did you, Lord Ansel? We’re mathematicians, scientists, and physicists continually pushing the boundaries of what we know and everything else that’s waiting to be proven. If you’re committed to your education, then I’m here to offer the instruction and support you require. If not, tell me now, and I’ll focus my efforts and energy elsewhere. We can have another more appropriate tutor assigned to you. Sir James Lowry, perhaps? I saw you taking meals with him.”
The thought of not being able to pick this boy’s unique brain left me cold. I’d never met anyone else like him—his wisdom sparkled, and I wanted to learn everything I could about the way he saw the world, about the way hethoughtand how that erudite mind worked. Even with his princely good looks, St. Clair’s brain was by far his greatest asset.
I shook my head and stood, gathering the book to my chest and then lifting my chin. “No, sir. I’m up for the challenge.”
The corner of his lip curled. “Excellent.”
I waited until he left before slumping back down into the chair. I released a belabored groan at my complete inability tothink rationally around him because, by everything holy, I should have asked for at least a week, not a scant handful of days. Refamiliarizing myself withPhilosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematicawas a more daunting task than the last.
Though displaying my acumen and going toe-to-toe with someone like St. Clair was something for me to look forward to. Newton’s proofs had been argued and discussed enough over the past century and a half, so our discussion would not be groundbreaking, but at least I would be able to hold my own.
Tapping the book, I let out a laugh as I remembered the many gentlemen over past seasons whom I’d interrogated with my little aptitude tests—one of them, an arrogant marquess, had insisted that gravity was a supernatural force with no basis in science or mathematical law and that I was a heretic for even considering it. That had been eye-opening. He’d delivered me back to my mother with a disdainful sniff, saying that he could never marry an agnostic.
Mama had been horrified at first, but after I’d explained that we’d spoken about gravity, whereupon he’d insisted that such a phenomenon was God’s work, she’d been promptly reassured that I’d narrowly escaped from being hitched to an utter dunce. My mother might urgently want my future secured, but she herself was no slouch in the academic department.
Before she married Papa, she’d been a brilliant amateur astronomer. In fact, I inherited my love of the stars from her when she used to tell me fantastical stories as a child of the ancient Greek constellations and the gods behind them, like Orion themighty hunter and Andromeda, who was chained to a rock to be sacrificed to a monster. Or the myth behind the Great Bear, where the goddess Hera transformed Callisto, who was coveted by Hera’s husband, Zeus, into a bear so she would not be so beautiful.
It saddened me that Mama had abandoned her passion after she became the Duchess of Delmont, instead becoming focused on raising a family and shoring up the Delmont name in influential social circles. When I was fourteen, I’d discovered one of her old journals, tracking stars and comets she’d discovered using an old telescope, the same one I’d used to satisfy my own burgeoning curiosity for the starry night sky.
Later on, Mama had never discouraged me from following my interests, but she had always been clear after my initial season that my duty as a duke’s daughter would always come first. Like her, my primary goal was to make an advantageous match…not to chase uncharted stars.
I increasingly resented the pressure to wed as each season passed…especially whenmyperfect match seemed more and more out of reach.
“Roz!”
I jolted at the sound of my nickname.
“We’ve been looking everywhere for you! Where have you been?”
I stared at Will’s flushed face when he poked his head in the doorway. James appeared beside him, shaking with unbridled excitement. “What’s going on?” I asked.
