by Candace Camp
“Ah, boys, there you are,” Mr. Coffey said in the hearty sort of voice adults often used with children. “Having fun, were you?”
“Yes, sir,” Con replied. “It’s quite interesting.”
“Especially the animals,” Alex added. “I’ve never seen a jaguar before. I should like to see a live one.”
“I hope you will save that for a trip that does not include me,” Megan told him, smiling. “You missed a most interesting tour. Mr. Coffey is the curator of the museum, and he told us about all the exhibits.”
They made their way back down to the ground floor, the twins pelting Coffey with questions all the way. Con was quite enamored of the feathered cape and the tall, elaborate headdresses on many of the figurines. Alex, as always, was more interested in the various animals.
Megan could see that there was little possibility now of her being able to ask Coffey any questions in private. She would have to return at some other time. Perhaps she could send him a note and arrange to meet him on a Sunday when she was off work. Not this Sunday, though—she was much too anxious to see her father and Deirdre.
They took their leave of Mr. Coffey and walked down the steps to where the Moreland carriage waited. Megan took out her handkerchief and made a largely futile attempt to clean off some of the accumulated dust on the twins.
“Wherever did you go?” she asked. “You must have been crawling about in the dirt.”
“Upstairs and downstairs,” Con replied. “There was a lot of interesting stuff in some of the storerooms.”
“Some of them were locked, though,” Alex added with a grimace as he and Con brushed at their hair and clothes. “There was an enormous room down in the basement.”
“We didn’t get to look at all of the basement,” Con said with regret. “We thought you’d get cross if we were gone too long.”
“I was a little worried,” Megan admitted.
“We’re sorry,” Alex assured her. “Theo should have told you we’d be all right.”
“I did,” Theo hastened to tell them. “And Miss Henderson was admirably calm. She appears to have figured you two out.”
Cook had packed a lunch for them, and they took their well-filled basket to Hyde Park and spread out their picnic on a blanket on the ground. They ate, laughing and talking, and afterward the twins raced off to fly kites, and Theo and Megan watched them, calling encouragement.
Megan could not help but enjoy the outing. The food was scrumptious, the day balmy, and the twins made her laugh. She told herself that it was only the boys’ company that she enjoyed, but she knew she was lying.
It was Theo’s presence that made the picnic more than pleasant. She could not sit there beside him on a blanket without feeling a stirring of excitement. It seemed to her that if she could single out the one particular thing that made him so appealing, she could dismiss it—and him. But it was not one thing, she realized as she tried to analyze what it was and only wound up feeling more and more enthralled. It was the flash of his smile, the way his green eyes lit with laughter under the dramatic slash of black brows. It was the low timbre of his voice, a vibration that seemed to rumble right through her whenever he spoke. It was the whisper of breath against her cheek when he leaned closer to murmur a sotto voce comment. It was the size and subtle strength of him as he sat beside her, the heat.
It was, perhaps most of all, the touch of something wild and untamed about him. It was there not just in the careless tousle of his just-a-little-too-long hair or the small scar that cut dangerously close to his eye, or the taut muscle beneath the smooth material of his jacket. It was in the hint of rawness not far below his surface, the faint hum of restless energy, the sharpness of that clear green gaze. There was power in him, a little frightening even as it drew her.
“What drives you?” Megan asked.
He looked at her, faintly surprised. “What? What do you mean?”
“The boys say you have been all over the world. Why? What is it you’re looking for?”
“I’m not sure.” He gazed off into the distance, thinking. “Excitement, I suppose. At least, that is what most people would say.”
“What would you say?”
He shook his head. “I’m not entirely sure. I just…want to see other things. Do other things.” He lay back on the ground, pillowing his head on his crossed arms and gazing up at the lacy tangle of branches above them. “I never wanted to be Lord Raine. Lord knows, I have no desire to be the Duke of Broughton, either. Reed, now, Reed is the sort who would be an excellent duke. Responsible, careful, concerned.” He cast her a laughing glance. “All the things that I am not—as my great-aunt Hermione will be happy to tell you. I want to know what else is out there.”
“It can be dangerous, can’t it?”
“It can get exciting.” He shrugged. “I can’t deny that there is some appeal in that.”
Theo turned his head and looked up at Megan. His voice softened a little as he said, “Isn’t there something in you that feels the same way?”
Megan looked into his eyes, feeling the pull. Was that what drew her to him? The excitement? The danger? She knew that she responded to that; it was part of what sent her out in pursuit of her stories. But she had met other dangerous men in the course of her work, and none of them had held any allure for her. There was something more in Theo, something as elusive as smoke and as searing as fire.
“Isn’t that why you’re here?” he went on. “At least part of it?”
She jerked back. What did he know about why she was there? “What do you mean?”
“You could have taught just as easily in America,” he pointed out, watching her steadily. “Why travel here? To someplace unknown? There is something more exciting about it, isn’t there? Not knowing what you’ll find? Or even whether you will be able to get a job.”
“Oh.” Relief trickled through Megan, and she relaxed, telling herself not to be so silly. He didn’t know. There was no way he could guess. “Yes, I suppose so. I’ve always wanted something that most other women don’t seem to care about.”
“What is that?”
She smiled a little. “Maybe just not to be what was laid out for me. Like you. Not to assume a woman’s place and marry and settle down—raise children and run a household.”
The corner of his mouth quirked up. “I presume a number of people have told you that that is what you should want?”
“Oh, yes. That is what my sister did. And it’s a perfect life for Mary Margaret. But just the thought of it gives me the shivers.”
“You don’t want to marry?” He tilted his head, studying her.
Megan colored a little under his regard. “I’m not sure,” she replied in a low voice. “It’s not so much that I don’t want to marry. It’s that marriage isn’t my life’s goal.”
He smiled. “Then you have nothing against men, as such.” He reached across the grass that separated them and touched his forefinger to her hand, braced against the ground. Slowly, idly, he traced down each finger, leaving a sizzling trail in his wake.
“I—ah, no, I’ve nothing against men.” Megan tried to focus on something, anything, other than the sensations his touch created in her. “In general, I mean.”
“Then there are specific men you’ve something against?” he asked lightly, his forefinger sliding up onto her wrist and arm.
Megan looked at him, knowing that she should pull her hand away, should, in fact, shift farther away from him or stand up, ending this tête à tête. But gazing into his eyes only seemed to immobilize her further. It seemed as though she could fall into their clear green depths, submerge and never surface.
Almost unknowingly, she leaned toward him. Slowly Theo sat up, closing the gap between them. He was going to kiss her, she thought, and she knew, moreover, that she would not resist. Indeed, she realized that she was moving forward to meet him.
At that moment Con’s laughter soared across the park toward them, breaking the trance Megan found herself in, and she realized with a
guilty start exactly what she had been about to do. She sucked in her breath, cheeks flaming red, and scrambled to her feet.
“We should go,” she said quickly. “We have been here far too long.”
“Have we?” Theo responded wryly. “I would have said it hadn’t been nearly long enough.”
But she was already moving away, packing up the remnants of their meal and calling to the twins. “Con! Alex! It’s time to go!”
Resignedly, Theo moved to help her. He knew she was right; the middle of Hyde Park with his two younger brothers in tow was scarcely the time or place. But one day, and soon, it would be. He was going to make sure of it.
CHAPTER 10
It took some time to get their things packed back up and into the carriage—and even longer to persuade the twins that it was time to pull down their kites and go. So it was drawing close to teatime when they finally returned to the Moreland mansion.
Con and Alex ran down the hallway and into the drawing room, followed more slowly by Theo and Megan. The boys were already into the middle of an excited recitation of their visit to the museum when Theo and Megan stepped into the room.
Megan came to an abrupt halt, somewhat surprised by the number of people in the room. Normally, by teatime, most afternoon callers had gone, and only the duchess, and sometimes Anna and Reed, took tea with the boys and Megan.
This afternoon, however, sitting with the duchess were her two daughters, Olivia and Kyria, as well as Anna, Reed and Thisbe. There was also another woman whom Megan had never seen before. She was strikingly beautiful, with raven-black hair and eyes of an odd blue shade that was almost lavender. Her skin was a creamy white, and her curvaceous body was clad in an elegant purple afternoon dress that deepened the color of her exotic eyes. Although she was not young, perhaps in her mid-thirties, she was one of the most beautiful women Megan had ever seen, one who could almost rival Kyria in looks.
Beside her, Megan heard Theo let out a soft, wordless groan.
A smile spread across the lovely woman’s face, and she nodded to Theo. “Lord Raine, what a pleasant surprise to see you here.”
“Not such a surprise, perhaps, since it is his home,” the duchess put in dryly.
Megan looked at the Moreland women with interest. All of them wore an expression of determined politeness, and there was the faintest air of tension in the room. Megan was immediately intrigued.
“Lady Scarle,” Theo said, giving the woman a polite bow. “Please allow me to introduce you to Miss Henderson. Miss Henderson, Lady Helena Scarle.”
The other woman gave Megan a frosty nod, her eyes sweeping down Megan’s plain brown dress. “How do you do, Miss Henderson?” Her attention went immediately back to Theo. “How kind of you to take your little brothers to a museum.”
“It was Miss Henderson’s idea,” Theo replied cheerfully. “They just allowed me to tag along.”
“Indeed?” The purplish blue eyes returned to Megan assessingly.
“Miss Henderson is our new tutor,” Con explained. “She took us on an ‘educational excursion.’” He flashed a grin at Megan as he repeated the phrase she had used.
“Ah, I see.” Lady Scarle’s face relaxed, and she turned from Megan, obviously dismissing her as unimportant. “You must tell us where you went, Lord Raine.” She addressed Theo again and patted the seat of the chair beside her invitingly. “Come, sit down and tell us all about it.”
“Oh, I think Con and Alex were already doing an excellent job of that,” Theo replied, ignoring her suggestion to sit.
“Yes,” Kyria said. “Do go on, dear.” She smiled brightly at Con, then at Megan. “Please sit down, Miss Henderson.” She gestured toward the empty chair between Lady Scarle and herself. “Mother was about to ring for tea. We can hear all about your adventures at the museum while we have it.”
There was a certain light of amusement in Kyria’s eyes that Megan suspected was directed toward Lady Scarle, who appeared rather put out at Kyria’s suggestion that Megan take the seat the other woman had offered Theo. Having taken an immediate dislike to Lady Scarle, Megan was happy to put the woman’s nose out of joint by sitting down next to her.
“Why, thank you, Mrs. McIntyre,” she responded and sat down, flashing a grin at Kyria.
“It seems a trifle unusual,” Lady Scarle stated, “for the children and their governess to take tea with the family, does it not?”
Her words earned her a swift glance of dislike from most of the other occupants of the room. If the woman had an eye for Theo, as Megan suspected she did, she had certainly taken a misstep with the Morelands in this regard, Megan thought.
“We don’t believe in excluding our children from family gatherings,” the duchess told her crisply. “I believe that the way the aristocracy has traditionally handed the care and education of their offspring into the hands of others is a poor way to raise children and has a certain unnatural coldness that is harmful not only to the family but to society itself.”
“You are quite right, Mother,” Thisbe agreed and turned to Lady Scarle, saying flatly, “We were all raised by Mother’s precepts, beginning with Theo and me, and I think we are all most grateful to her.”
“Indeed, I did not intend any criticism, Duchess. It was merely surprising to me, having been raised much more traditionally.” Color flamed high on the other woman’s cheeks, and Megan could almost feel sorry for her. But then the woman shot a look of cool contempt at Megan, and Megan decided that she was not sorry, after all. “Even when we children were allowed at tea, our governess was rarely involved.”
“She’s not our governess,” Alex put in, his jaw set in a mutinous way.
Megan knew that Lady Scarle had earned the twins’ implacable enmity by implying that they were young enough to have a governess.
“She is our tutor,” Con added. “And she is the best one we have ever had, too.”
“I am sure that is most remarkable,” Lady Scarle replied coolly. She smiled in a girlish way at Theo, her eyelashes sweeping down provocatively. “Personally, I have never been much of a bluestocking. I find that men rarely prefer a woman of great education.”
“I cannot imagine why a man would wish to marry a numskull,” Thisbe retorted. “Unless, of course, they intend to deceive them and find it easier with a woman of limited understanding.”
Megan sneaked a glance at Theo and found him gazing off into the distance, his lips pressed tightly together. He glanced at her, as if feeling her gaze, and his eyes danced devilishly. He turned quickly away.
Fortunately, at that moment the servants wheeled in the tea cart, and the next few minutes were taken up with the serving of tea and cakes.
Megan watched Lady Scarle as she sipped daintily at her cup, her gaze often turning to Theo. The woman kept up a determined line of chatter, often calling Theo by name to draw him into the conversation. As most of her conversation consisted of talk about people and places Megan had never heard of, she found it terribly boring. Her attention wandered to the other occupants of the room. Con and Alex were busily stuffing themselves with cakes. Most of the others looked bored. Kyria, Megan noted, was watching Lady Scarle speculatively.
“Why don’t you tell us more about your trip to the museum, Miss Henderson?” Kyria said into a brief silence in the midst of Lady Scarle’s patter.
“It was quite interesting, Mrs. McIntyre,” Megan began. Lady Scarle glanced over at her disdainfully. She was, Megan thought, a thoroughly disagreeable woman—and her opinion had nothing to do with the fact that Lady Scarle was obviously pursuing Theo Moreland. “It primarily holds a collection of artifacts from the Inca, Mayan, and Aztec cultures.”
“There’s a replica of an Aztec pyramid. And this feathered cape,” Con put in. “You’d like it, Kyria. They have jewelry—these peculiar big earrings. Men wore them, and they played these games—“
“You’re talking about the Cavendish?” Lady Scarle asked, surprising Megan. From her earlier comments, Megan would not have exp
ected the aristocratic woman ever to have set foot inside a museum.
“Why, yes, I am. Have you been there?”
“Of course.” Lady Scarle barely glanced at her as she answered. “It is a lovely place. It was one of Lord Scarle’s pet charities, you know, and of course I continued his patronage after his death. Lady Cavendish and I are holding a benefit for it next week. I am sure that you have received invitations to it.”
That explained it, Megan thought sardonically. There was a party involved.
“I hope you will come to our little ball, Lord Raine,” Lady Scarle went on, casting a flirtatious look at Theo. “We have decided to hold it at the museum itself, so that everyone can see the excellent work that Mr. Coffey has accomplished there.”
“Um, I—I had not really thought…” Theo began, and cast a quick look around as if for inspiration.
“Of course he is coming,” Kyria spoke up. “We are all coming, are we not, Olivia? Anna?”
Both women looked faintly surprised, Megan noted, but they nodded gamely.
Kyria went on, a devilish twinkle in her green eyes, “Miss Henderson is accompanying us, as well, of course.”
Megan choked on her tea, but Kyria ignored the interruption, smiling blandly at Lady Scarle.
“Miss Henderson?” the other woman said, her eyebrows rising. “But, really, Lady Kyria, this is a ball, not an excursion to the museum. It is by invitation only.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I was under the impression that all of us had received an invitation. Is it only Theo?”
“No, of course not.” Color touched Lady Scarle’s cheeks. “Of course you are invited, and the duke and duchess. I am sure all of you received invitations.”
“If the Moreland family is coming, then of course Megan will, as well. We consider her quite one of the family, don’t we, Mother?”
“Of course, dear.” The duchess favored her daughter, so much like her in looks, with a gracious smile. “The duke and I would not think of attending without Miss Henderson.”
Lady Scarle looked chagrined, but she said only, “Of course. Miss Henderson must come as well.”
