Page 114 of Affair

“A sort of instantaneous light. Break the glass and there is a small, very bright explosion. It can light one’s way for two or three minutes or temporarily blind an opponent. If it is held next to combustible material such as kindling, it will ignite a fire.”

“Damned clever. Where did you get these?”

“I make them in my laboratory.”

Hamilton gave him an odd smile. “Perhaps I should have paid a bit more attention toConversations on Chemistry. When this is over, do you think you might have time to show me how to perform some of your more interesting experiments?”

“If you like.” Baxter hesitated. “It has been a long while since I had a colleague to assist me.”

Hamilton grinned. “Lately I have begun to wonder if I got some of Father’s passion for science, after all.”

Baxter glumly considered his bleak future. “I have begun to suspect that I may have got a bit more of his passion for other things than I had previously believed.”

Eighteen

Charlotte sipped lemonade and surveyed the crowded ballroom floor, where Ariel was engaged in the waltz with yet another distinguished and rather besotted-looking young gentleman. Pleased with the glow of pleasure on Ariel’s face, she smiled at Rosalind, who had come to stand beside her.

“Lady Trengloss, I wish to thank you for what you have done for Ariel. My mother would have been so pleased to know that my sister had a taste of a London Season.”

“It has been my pleasure. Haven’t had an opportunity to fire a young lady off into the ton since my last niece came out. Forgotten how much fun it all is.” Rosalind wielded her elegantly painted silk fan with enthusiasm. “Ariel is a charming young woman. She has attracted any number of admirers.”

Charlotte sighed. “I fear that all of them will swiftly disappear once it becomes known that my engagement to your nephew has been called off. I confess, I worried about that a great deal at the start of this business, but Ariel insists that she does not care a fig if her admirers vanish when they learn the truth.”

“She is very levelheaded for her tender years.” Rosalind gave Charlotte a sidelong glance. “For which you must take the credit, I believe, my dear.”

“Not at all. She has always been inclined in a practical direction. Ariel quite rightly declares the Season to be a fine source of entertainment, rather like the theater. She tells me that when the curtain falls, she will be content to go back to her usual pursuits.”

Charlotte prayed that would be the case. Ariel was still so young. No matter how much common sense one possessed at nineteen, life was bound to seem a bit dull when the invitations and the posies ceased arriving at the door. The important thing was that Ariel did not get her heart broken during her brief experience of Society.

As for her own heart, Charlotte thought, her only hope was to immerse herself in her work until it mended. But she knew that no matter how many new clients she took on or how many interesting inquiries and researches she made into the backgrounds of gentlemen, she would never be able to forget her lover with the alchemist’s eyes. There could never be another Baxter.

Rosalind gave her a considering look. “As long as we are discussing such matters, I feel that I should tell you that I am as grateful to you as you say you are to me.”

“If you refer to my investigations, I assure you I entered into them for my own purposes.”

“I was not speaking of the murder inquiries.” Rosalind folded her fan with a snap. “I may as well be blunt. I have been concerned about Baxter ever since he returned from Italy three years ago. He had always been far too somber for his years. Even as a child, he possessed an unnerving degree of self-mastery and restraint. He always kept a certain distance between himself and others.”

“As though he were observing and measuring you the way he would examine one of his chemical experiments?”

“Indeed.” Rosalind shuddered delicately. “Quite disconcerting at times. But after the dreadful accident in Italy, he disappeared from Society altogether. He almost never emerged from that cave he calls a laboratory. I feared he was developing a distinct tendency toward melancholia.”

“Melancholia?”

“There is a strain of it in the blood, you know.”

Charlotte frowned. “I was not aware of that. Everyone says that his parents were an outrageously charming, exciting pair who were the talk of Society. I understood them to be full of the liveliest spirits.”

“A bit too lively at times,” Rosalind said quietly. “There was a price to be paid for such strong passions. And I do not speak of reputations.”

“I understand. It has been my observation that people of strong passions often have both a dark and a light side to their temperaments. It is as if nature sought to forge some sort of balance in their humors but in the process created extremes.”

“Very observant, my dear. That is precisely how it was with Baxter’s parents. Esherton, for all his intellect and delight in life, had a dangerous temper and a tendency toward great recklessness. It’s a miracle he survived to enjoy old age. As for my sister …”

“What about her?” Charlotte prompted.

“She was beautiful, intelligent, and gloriously effervescent. Most of the time. She indulged her independence and her eccentricities. Everyone who knew her was enthralled by her, even when she behaved outrageously. Only her family and her most intimate friends knew that on occasion she would sink into the depths of melancholia.”

“It would seem that Baxter became an alchemist out of sheer necessity,” Charlotte said.

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