Page 6 of Claws and Contrivances
Rose could hardly pinch a strange gentleman’s arm to rouse him, even if she had ruthlessly commandeered his carriage. However, she had spent far too many years witnessing that type of narrow focus to imagine that it could end without any forceful interference. Luckily, she had plenty of experience in manufacturing interruptions when necessary, and this carriage made the solution only too simple. Smiling sweetly, Rose climbed to her feet amidst the thickly piled books and papers that crowded the footwell to overflowing ... and dramatically slipped.
“Oh!” She let out a cry of faux dismay as she toppled forwards. “Oh, dear!” As her arms windmilled for balance, her left hand firmly knocked the gentleman’s book out of his hands. “Oh, what a shame! Do forgive me,” she gasped as she caught herself on one elbow atop the piled books beside him. She just managed to stop them from cascading.
“Good God!” Empty-handed, the gentleman turned to stare down at her in wide-eyed astonishment. This close, with no books to hide his face, she could see that his eyes were a pale and crystalline green, and for the first time since they’d met, they fixed upon her with real attention.
His face was startlingly close to hers; actually far closer than Rose had ever been to any gentleman outside her family. Of course, this gentleman was perfectly harmless – that much had been obvious from her first sight of him – and she would never see him again once his little task was completed, so there was no reason why this moment should feel uncomfortable ... and yet, Rose’s breath shortened in her chest with the inescapable tension of it.
Her skin tingled in a most unsettling fashion as she looked up at him from her half-prone – almost supplicant – position. From this angle, she could take in the subtle hollows that underlined his high cheekbones and the faint creases around his golden-lashed eyes, behind the thin, silver frames of his spectacles ... along with the unexpected sharpness of his green gaze as it narrowed upon her.
For Heaven’s sake! Thank goodness no one she knew would ever learn how brashly and immodestly she had behaved. Rose pushed herself hastily to her feet, her cheeks heating as her walking boots slipped and skidded – this time unintentionally – in the crowded footwell. “I do beg your pardon. I’m afraid I tripped. There are so many obstacles, you see ...”
“Of course.” He frowned up at her, making no move to pick up his fallen book. “But I don’t understand. Miss …?”
“My name is hardly relevant, as we’ll be saying our farewells in a moment.” Lifting her chin, Rose settled back on the opposite seat and smoothed down her skirts with forced aplomb. “I was only letting you know that we’ve arrived. Once you make that simple query at the door, you’ll have made full reparations for our encounter on the road, and you may be safely on your way with my blessings.”
His frown deepened. “Isn’t this your home? I thought we were conveying you back to safety.”
“You ... oh, for goodness’ sake!” She should have known. “Weren’t you paying any attention to our last conversation?”
To her surprise, a faint tinge of pink appeared along his cheekbones. Those fascinating little hollows underneath deepened as his face tightened. “I was in the middle of important work.”
“On the road? In the middle of—? Oh, never mind.” Rose gave up. “I understand.”
His eyebrows shot upwards. “You do?”
“Of course,” she said. “Between my younger sister, my aunt, and my uncle, too, I have had a vast deal of experience with this sort of difficulty. But for now, all you need do is ask a quick question at the door, and then—”
“Me?” His voice rose. “Ask questions at the front door of a stranger’s house? I couldn’t.”
“Well, then, your driver may ask instead,” said Rose. “If—”
“Don’t be absurd. I can’t ask Havers. Who would hold the horses while he was gone?”
“Ah ...” It wasn’t that Rose wouldn’t quite like to drive a carriage; she’d often thought wistfully of such an adventure. However, no matter how urgent the need, even she couldn’t imagine herself capable of managing four horses without any lessons beforehand.
“You see?” He scooped up the book from beside him, his shoulders relaxing. “It’s impossible. So—”
“Nonsense. Nothing is impossible! We simply need a bit of strategy.” Rose drummed her fingers against one knee. “If you really think your dignity would be irreparably wounded, only by speaking to a footman at the door—”
“It’s not that.” Letting out a hissing sigh, he rubbed uncomfortably at the back of his neck. “I haven’t any dignity whatsoever, as my friends would rush to assure you. What is it that you want asking so urgently, anyway?”
“It’s perfectly simple. I only need to know whether the owner of this house happens to be missing a pet dragon, so it shouldn’t take more than—”
“A dragon?” The gentleman jerked upright, his pale green eyes widening with visible horror. “Wait. Where are we?”
Rose frowned at him. “Penryddn House. I told you earlier, and you said—”
“But where—? Look here.” Turning away from her, he began burrowing frantically through the pile of papers beside him, rejected sheets showering into the footwell. “Have you ever heard of a Mr Humphrey Parry?”
Rose’s mouth fell open.
“He is extremely well known among dragon scholars, I assure you. His home is called ... it’s ... oh, dash it ... aha!” The gentleman yanked out a letter from the jumbled pile of papers. A familiar crabbed and crossed handwriting covered it from top to bottom and side to side. “Gogodd Abbey! That’s where we were going!”
“Gogodd Abbey?” Rose repeated faintly. “But ...”
One of the scattered papers had fallen onto the pile in the footwell just beside her. All the other papers that she’d seen so far had been covered in scribbled notes written in a variety of different languages, from French to Latin and others she could only guess at.
This one was different. It was covered with careful sketches of dragon wings.
