“What is Wyverne doing here, Caro?”
A fashionable dandy Hart might be, but Caroline had always known his tousled hair covered a head with no lack of sense. In this way, he resembled Michael more than any other man-about-town Caroline had met.
Her eyes turned to Michael himself, who sat at a writing desk. As she watched, he tapped the feathered barb of a pen against his paper, then began scribbling again at a furious rate. Likely that flecks of ink were spattering his cravat and the lovely malachite-green silk of his waistcoat. Likelier still he would neither notice nor care.
She looked back to Hart. He deserved better than this constant comparison with another.
“He is here at my request,” she replied at last. “I am helping him.”
“To what end?”
“To the end that preoccupies everyone in society: money. I am helping him find a rich wife.” A small incline of her head toward Miss Weatherby. “What do you think of my choice?”
Hart shook his head. “Considering she’s chosen to partner her mother at cards rather than approach Mad Michael, I’d say she’s not amenable.”
Mad Michael. Caroline had forgotten this old nickname for the Duke of Wyverne. If the ton still bandied it about, his rehabilitation might be more difficult than she had expected.
She adopted a careless tone. “I think it’s gone rather well so far. I do not expect him to seek a special license right away or to drop to one knee and profess his love tonight. But see how she looks to him every time her attention is freed from her cards? She is intrigued.”
“Either that or she’s wondering what kind of madman comes to a dinner party only to catch up on his correspondence.”
“A busy man. He oversees a dukedom even while he’s in London.”
Hart raised a curious brow. “I have a country estate, and you don’t see me dragging my tedious affairs around with me. I know how to amuse myself, and others.”
Unmistakable hint. Caroline ignored it. “Maybe so, Hart, but you’ve lived differently from Wyverne. He prefers to grip his holdings tightly.”
“Yet they are now in danger of slipping from his grasp.”
Caroline nibbled at her lip, a pensive gesture that drew attention to its fullness. “Yes, true. I cannot fathom how it’s happened.”
This was no exaggeration. How was it that Michael faced ruin when he kept a vigilant watch on his estates? When his care for them occupied his every waking moment and probably robbed him of sleep? How, too, could men such as Hart stay solvent when they gave more attention to the tailoring of their coats in a week than to the management of their holdings in a year?
Perhaps nothing but the everlasting winter had changed Michael’s plans. Or perhaps it was something deeper within Michael—that unique quality the world stamped and sealed mad.
Where he was concerned, she kept running into that wall of incomprehension. She would not break through it with Hart, so she turned resolutely away to a subject she knew quite well.
“What do you think of my gown, Hart? The modiste told me this shade was all the rage.”
“Coquelicot, is it not?” Hart smiled. “Isn’t that the color on everyone’s lips today?”
“Ah, so you heard about my promised carnation. I hope it will have a pleasant scent. I find the natural perfume of a flower intoxicating.”
She felt weary—or worse, wearisome—as she said this. Flirtatious words fell heavily as stones from her tongue tonight, though Hart looked gratified enough.
“If it is worthy of you, then it will be intoxicating indeed.” He lowered his voice. “May I call on you tonight?”
She mulled over the request. The idea of using Hart for her own pleasure did not appeal to her; it had not for some weeks. “Not tonight. I have too many things to plan.”
This mitigated his disappointment by a fraction. “Do you? Are you preparing for a party?”
“Not at present. I am scheming strategies to advance the suit of my ward.”
“Your ward?” His brows knit until Caroline nodded at Michael, who was still scribbling away at his letter. “Oh. Wyverne.” Hart gave her an odd look. “He’s a duke, Caro, and quite mad. He doesn’t need your help, and he won’t notice or care if he doesn’t get it.”
He grinned as though this was all rather funny, but Caroline went cold all over. He doesn’t need your help.
Hart thought so. Maybe everyone thought so. It was what she feared most: that she was useless.
Oh, men wanted her money. They coveted her body. Women envied her prestige. But Caroline herself, the woman beneath the lacquered surface? No one needed her at all.
And if Hart was right, Michael had as little concern for her as he would a splotch of ink on his waistcoat. Just as he had eleven years before.
He was certainly heedless of her efforts on his behalf. Still he worked on his letter, ignoring Miss Weatherby, slicing away at his chance of success with every stroke of his pen.
“He is not mad, Hart,” Caroline said with determined calm. “Only unique. And someone has to help him.”
“If you insist.” Hart still looked skeptical. “But why need that someone be you, Caro? No one expects that of you.”
“Maybe that’s why I want to be the one,” she murmured. She smoothed the coquelicot taffeta of her dress.
Coquelicot. Not merely red; never such an everyday color as that. She had trained herself to think in intricacies of form and dress, and she could not stop now. It was foolish to wish to be more than lovely, wealthy Lady Stratton—especially when she had once been so much less.
She didn’t realize Hart had heard her until he repeated her words. “You want to be the one.”
“Never mind, Hart.” She tilted her chin down so the lamplight would shadow her cheekbones, make her eyes deep and mysterious. Hart usually found the effect distracting in quite a nice way.
Not this time. “No, no. You merely surprised me, Caro. I didn’t expect… well. I understand. I hope to see you again soon, one way or another.”
With a bow, he left her. He walked over to the velvet-covered card table and whispered in Lady Tallant’s ear. Something quite roguish, apparently, for Emily laughed and waved a slip of paper at Hart.
“Just because it’s your name doesn’t mean it’s your property. All hearts are not your possession. This paper is a reminder for Jemmy.”
“Dash it,” said the earl, making a grab for the paper. “Leave it on the table, Hart. Em and I are up by seven pounds.”
Caroline smiled. The earl’s abysmal memory for card play was surpassed only by his unflagging good humor.
On another evening, she would have joined the small group at the card table, perhaps finding someone to flirt with, soaking up compliments until she stopped feeling quite so empty.
That last thing Hart had said—that I didn’t expect—nagged at her. What did he mean? Had she grown so predictable, living in the tight little box of her Albemarle Street house, seeing the same people all the time? Spending her days with fashion and flowers and laughter?
When one had grown up as poor as she, it was difficult to get enough of such luxury. But maybe her decorative tendencies had become a golden chain, holding her back from accomplishing… well, more. Somehow.
She blinked. The light had gone dimmer, and Michael was no longer sitting at the writing desk.
He was standing at the pianoforte, holding a—what was that? It looked like a small metal gear.
Then she realized: the lovely cast-bronze lamp that had stood on the pianoforte was now lying across its lid. In pieces. And Michael was poking through them with the furtive eagerness of an anatomist, afraid his precious stolen corpse would be taken away at any second.
Damnation. When she had called him a dratted duke earlier, that was a much milder epithet than he deserved.
She marched over to him and, without preamble, hissed, “This is no way to convince Miss Weatherby of your sanity.”
At the sound of her voice, he flinched, startled. The gear slipped from his fingers and pinged off of the etched glass globe.
Caroline affixed a pleasant smile over her face, then ventured a look at the card table. Indeed, Miss Weatherby’s pale face was turned in their direction.
Caroline hoped the young woman continued to be intrigued rather than dismayed, though she could imagine no one but Michael being intrigued by the innards of a lamp.
“What are you doing?” she whispered, keeping her smile carefully hung in place.
To her surprise, he smiled back.
The change in his face was startling. The faint, careworn lines at his eyes became crinkles of joy, and his sharp cheekbones softened with the press of his mouth. His teeth were even, his mouth a delight. This was a revel of happiness, as it could only be felt by a man for whom it was rare.
And such happiness was over nothing but a damned lamp. He had never chosen to bestow that expression of bliss on Caroline for her own sake.
“It’s a Carcel lamp,” he said. “Isn’t it marvelous?”
Her voice was harsher than it might have been had he looked less transfigured. “It might have been once. Now it’s nothing but a pile of rubbish.”
“I wanted to see how it worked,” he said, as if this were an obvious sentiment. “Look at this gear, right here. It drives the most ingenious clockwork pump. Do you know how a Carcel lamp works?”
“Of course I do,” Caroline lied. “Keep your voice down. Miss Weatherby is watching.”
Michael seemed not to hear her. “I haven’t been able to get one of these in Lancashire, and I’ve always wondered how the pump operates. See how it drives the oil upward? That way, you needn’t have a heavy oil reservoir above the light itself.” He smiled again. “Thank you for bringing me tonight. This is a genuine pleasure.”
Caroline choked. Michael ignored every fatted calf the ton could offer and instead glutted himself on lamp oil.
She really shouldn’t be surprised. “I’m delighted to have fulfilled the first day of our contract to your satisfaction. But you must put the lamp back together and quickly. Can you?”
Michael shook his head. “I’m not done studying it yet.”
“Michael, you are in London. You can buy your own Carcel lamp and spend the whole night taking it apart. But you must put this one back together. Now.”
He stared at her, seeming taken aback. She pressed her lips together, counted to five, then tried again. “Did you not promise to rely on my judgment?”
A long pause, as his evergreen eyes searched her face. Then he nodded and began sifting through the litter of glass and metal.
“I’m going to earn every bit of our eventual triumph,” she murmured, handing him a gear that went rolling toward the edge of the pianoforte.
“Our triumph?” He squinted at her.
“Finding you a rich wife. You won’t make it easy if you insist on conducting mechanical experiments in the middle of a dinner party.”
His eyebrows knit. “I did not intend to tax you with a great burden. If you recall, you made the offer of assistance unprompted by me. And you may decline to continue it at any time.”
“You have to stop saying that every time I tell you something you don’t like.” She laid a hand on his arm, remembering his aversion to touch only when he froze, tensed. She lifted her hand at once. “Michael, such aid is more than I’ve ever offered anyone else. You might not see it as an honor right now, but I’m asking you to trust me. You will get what you want if you do.”
He studied his sleeve as if her fingers had left scorch marks on the fabric. Then he looked at her again with that unnervingly focused attention. “Do you truly know what I want?”
His voice vibrated through her, soft and deep, and her throat went tight with a longing to swallow the sound and hold it inside of her. She didn’t know how to answer, for she could not again offer perfect frankness of her own: I hope so. Oh, how I wish.
Her scheme was failing. Rather than learning his secrets from a safe distance—placing another woman between them as a shield—she was only tying herself to Michael more intimately. And he did not even know it.
Then a massy figure bustled up next to her, calling, “La! Whatever are you doing, Your Grace?”
Mrs. Weatherby had abandoned the card table, and her pale daughter had flitted after her. The banker’s wife sounded like a displeased governess, and Michael lifted his chin—probably ready to say I beg your pardon in a devastatingly cool tone.
Caroline hurried to intervene. “His Grace was simply showing me the workings of the Carcel lamp. Isn’t it fascinating? It’s clockwork, you know.” She spoke blandly, as though she hadn’t only learned this five minutes before and against her will.
“Er… yes, my lady.” Mrs. Weatherby stumbled over the words. “Yes, I believe my husband keeps one in his study. They are rather fascinating.”
Miss Weatherby did not smile. She only looked gravely up, up, at Michael’s tall frame—as though he had disassembled a dream of hers along with the lamp’s inner workings.
And maybe he had. A banker’s daughter might aspire to a noble husband, but not to an indifferent noble with eccentric interests. Miss Weatherby held one of the richest dowries of the season. No doubt a marquess would do as well as a duke for her if it meant she’d have a fashionable, predictable husband.
She was a pleasant girl, but Caroline now realized: she was far too mild for a man such as Michael.
This did not feel like the failure it ought to have.
For the next few minutes, Mrs. Weatherby chatted about the appointment of her husband’s study. Caroline, ornamental as any gewgaw, could discuss fabrics and furnishings as long as needed. Long enough for the formidable duenna to forgive any social trespasses.
Not long enough, though, for the daughter to shake off her disappointment. And not long enough for Michael to understand what had gone wrong in the first place.
Caroline finally managed to coax the Weatherby women back to the card table. Hart had slipped into a seat in their absence; as he stood, he caught Caroline’s eye. If expressions could be written in words, this was as bold an I told you so as she’d ever seen.
She hoped he could read her own expression: oh, shut up.
“Everything all right, Caro?” Emily lifted her eyebrows.
Caroline had too much pride to entrust her old friend with complete honesty in this case. “Of course, darling. His Grace has been edifying me, that is all.”
Emily’s mouth crimped. “Do let me know if he has any luck. I’ve never held out the slightest hope for your edification, myself.”
“I hold out as much for mine as I do for yours,” Caroline said sweetly, patting Emily on the shoulder. “Brutus, darling.”
“If I’m to be called a traitor, I prefer Benedict Arnold.” Emily picked her cards back up and rearranged a few. “A much fresher reference.”
“Bond Street,” said her husband, his brow furrowed as he searched his own cards. “Em, what was trump again?”
Hart laughed; Emily sighed. Caroline said, “What about Bond Street?”
Jem looked up from his cards. “That’s where we got the lamp. Can’t think of the shop name, but Sowerberry can help you with that. Our butler, you know. Wyverne seems to like the lamp. He should get one.”
He looked down at his cards again. “Can’t think how I’ve got so many cards left. Are you sure you’ve dealt correctly, Hart?”
Caroline slipped away, back to Michael, who was still fitting gears together.
She had called him her ward. A joke, yet she did feel responsible for him. She’d brought him tonight. She had asked him to trust her, to place his future in her hands. It was a great deal to ask of any man, much less a duke. Much less of Michael.
As he struggled to fit two gears together, his hand bumped the lamp’s glass shade. It smashed on the carpeted floor much more loudly than Caroline would have expected.
“Damn,” said Michael. In unison, Mrs. Weatherby and her daughter gasped.
Damn, indeed, thought Caroline. With that single unguarded syllable, he had ensured that Miss Weatherby would never consider his suit.
That stupid lamp. Caroline would have hidden it as soon as dinner was over had she known what it would cost: not only a glass shade, but a wealthy bride. A maiden who could afford anything in the world except the unexpected.
Caroline rolled her annoyance into a tiny ball. “Michael, please call on me tomorrow morning. I have much business to discuss with you.”
He bent to pick up the shards of a formerly beautiful frosted glass sphere. “Business? How so?”
“For business you have come to London, and for very particular business, we have made a pact. I am capable of deeper thought than flowers and flirtation, you know.”
“I’ve never doubted that.” He stood, setting the pieces of glass gently atop the pianoforte. “Will your other suitors be there tomorrow morning?”
She noticed the word other and tucked it away for closer examination later. “If you call early enough, we will be alone.”
He nodded, then looked over the pieces of the lamp, still spread out before him. “I know I can figure this out,” he muttered. “It will just take more time than I thought.”
I feel the same way, Caroline thought.
But all she said was, “Tomorrow, then.”