Tobias was beginning to look intrigued in spite of himself. “Indeed?”
“Enough to convince me that it would be worth our while to ask Mrs. Vaughn to study them and give us her opinion,” Lavinia said.
“I see.” Tobias moved toward the desk. He propped himself on the corner and absently massaged his left thigh. “Such a viewing would be difficult to arrange. Huggett is unlikely to cooperate with the request even if he has nothing to hide. After all, it would mean allowing a lady into his upstairs gallery. Very awkward, even if she is an artist.”
Lavinia leaned her head against the back of the chair, thinking of Peg and her side business. “Huggett’s scrubwoman is willing to rent out the keys to the gallery on the days when Huggett takes his treatments for rheumatism.”
“I don’t understand,” Emeline said. “Why would anyone pay her for the use of her keys in order to sneak into the gallery when they could simply purchase a ticket?”
“She doesn’t rent the keys to visitors who wish to examine the sculptures,” Lavinia said very precisely. “She rents them to women who make their living selling their favors to the gentlemen who purchase tickets to the upstairs gallery.”
Emeline’s brows shot skyward. “Prostitutes, do you mean?”
Lavinia cleared her throat and carefully avoided Tobias’s gaze. “According to Peg, gentlemen who tour the upstairs gallery frequently find themselves in a mood to be entertained by those in the demimonde who ply their trade in such places. Something to do with the excitement induced by the displays, I believe.”
Tobias gripped the edge of the desk and raised his eyes to the ceiling, but he said nothing.
“I see.” Emeline pursed her lips and pondered that for a moment. “It is certainly very fortunate that there were no gentlemen about in the gallery when you went into it in your disguise, is it not? They might have mistaken you for a prostitute.”
“Mmm,” Lavinia said noncommittally.
“How extraordinarily awkward that would have been,” Emeline continued.
“Mmm.” Lavinia took a sip of sherry.
Tobias watched her closely. “Lavinia?”
“Mmm?”
“I am assuming there were no customers about in the upstairs chamber when you entered.”
“Quite right,” she agreed readily. “There was no one inside when I entered.”
“I have also been laboring under the assumption that none of Huggett’s gentlemen customers entered while you were inside. Am I mistaken?”
Lavinia exhaled deeply. “I think it would be best if you left us, Emeline.”
“Why?” Emeline asked.
“Because the remainder of this conversation will not be suitable for your innocent ears.”
“Rubbish. What could be more unsuitable than the subject of erotic waxworks?”
“Mr. March’s language when he vents his temper.”
Emeline blinked. “But Mr. March is not in a temper.”
Lavinia swallowed the last of the sherry and set down the glass. “He will be soon.”
fifteen
Tobias was still seething when he walked into his study an hour later. Anthony, seated behind the desk, looked up with interest. The expression on his face transmuted first into alarm and then amused resignation. He tossed aside his pen, then leaned back in the chair and gripped its arms.
“You have been quarreling with Mrs. Lake again, have you not?” he asked without preamble.
“What of it?” Tobias scowled. “By the bye, that is my desk. If you don’t mind, I would like to have the use of it this afternoon.”
“It must have been a particularly heated argument this time.” Anthony rose leisurely and moved out from behind the desk. “One of these days you will go too far and she will dissolve your partnership.”
“Why would she do that?” Tobias took command of his desk and sat down. “She knows very well that she needs my assistance.”
“Just as you need hers.” Anthony walked over to the large globe positioned on a stand near the fireplace. “But if you keep on in this fashion, she may decide she can get along very well without you.”
A flicker of unease went through Tobias. “She is reckless and impulsive but she is not a complete crackbrain.”
Anthony leveled a finger at him. “Mark my words, if you do not learn to treat her with the polite respect to which she is entitled as a lady, she will lose all patience with you.”
“You believe she is entitled to polite respect from me because she is a lady?”
“Of course.”
“Let me tell you a thing or two about the proper behavior of a lady,” Tobias said evenly. “A lady does not don a scrubwoman’s costume and sneak into a chamber full of erotic waxworks that are meant only for the viewing of gentlemen. A lady does not deliberately put herself into a situation in which she may be mistaken for a cheap street whore. A lady does not take foolish risks that oblige her to defend her honor with a mop.”
Anthony looked at him, eyes widening. “Odd’s teeth. Are you telling me Mrs. Lake was in danger this afternoon? Is that why you are in such a ferocious temper?”
“Yes, that is precisely what I am telling you.”
“Damnation. This is terrible. Is she all right?”
“Yes.” Tobias ground his teeth. “Thanks to the mop and her own presence of mind. She was forced to fend off two men who took her for a prostitute.”
“Thank God she is not inclined to swoon in a crisis,” Anthony said in heartfelt tones. “A mop, eh?” Admiration lit his gaze. “I must say, hers is a resourceful nature.”
“Her resourceful nature is not the issue here. The point I am trying to make is that she ought never to have put herself into such an untenable position in the first place.”
“Yes, well, you have often remarked that Mrs. Lake is inclined to be independent-minded.”
“Independent-minded is a gross understatement. Mrs. Lake is ungovernable, unpredictable, and headstrong. She will not take direction or advice unless it suits her. I never know what she will do next, and she feels no particular need to inform me until it is too late for me to stop her.”
“From her point of view, you no doubt possess similar faults,” Anthony said dryly. “Ungovernable. Unpredictable. I have not noticed that you feel any particular need to inform her of your actions until after you have taken them.”
Tobias felt his jaw lock. “What the devil are you talking about? There is no point in advising her of every move I make in this affair. Knowing her, she would insist on accompanying me whenever I wished to speak with one of my informants, and that would frequently be impossible. I certainly cannot take her with me when I go into establishments such as The Gryphon, and she cannot accompany me into my clubs.”
“In other words, you do not always inform Mrs. Lake of your actions because you know there is likely to be an argument.”
“Precisely. An argument with Lavinia is frequently an exercise in futility.”
“That means that you sometimes emerge the loser.”
“The lady can be extraordinarily difficult.”
Anthony said nothing but his brows rose in silent comment.
Tobias picked up a pen and tapped it on the blotter. For some reason, he felt obliged to defend himself.
“Mrs. Lake very nearly got assaulted this afternoon,” he said quietly. “I have every right to be in a temper.”
Anthony contemplated him for a long while and then, to Tobias’s amazement, he inclined his head in an understanding manner.
“Fear sometimes has that effect on a man, does it not?” Anthony observed. “I do not blame you for your strong feelings on the matter. You will no doubt have nightmares tonight.”
Tobias said nothing. He was afraid Anthony was right. Lavinia looked up from her notes when Mrs. Chilton ushered Anthony into her study.
“Good day to you, sir.”
He gave her a very proper bow. “Thank you for seeing me, Mrs. Lake.”
Lavinia manag
ed a welcoming smile and tried not to let him see that she was holding her breath. “You are quite welcome. Please sit down, Mr. Sinclair.”
“If you don’t mind, I would prefer to stand.” Anthony’s expression was one of resolute determination. “This will be somewhat difficult for me. Indeed, I have never done this before.”
Her worst fears were confirmed.
Lavinia stifled a sigh, put aside her notes, and braced herself to deal with a formal offer for Emeline’s hand.
“Before you begin, Mr. Sinclair, please let me say that I find you to be a very admirable gentleman.”
He looked startled by that remark. “Very kind of you to say so, madam.”
“You have only just passed the one-and-twenty mark, I believe.”
He frowned. “What does my age have to do with this?”
She cleared her throat. “It is quite true that some people are mature beyond their years. That is certainly the case with Emeline.”
Anthony’s gaze shone with sudden admiration. “Miss Emeline is, indeed, astonishingly clever for a person of any age.”
“Nevertheless, she is barely eighteen.”
“Indeed.”
This was not going well, Lavinia thought. “The thing is, sir, I would not want Emeline to rush into marriage.”
Anthony brightened. “I could not agree with you more, Mrs. Lake. Miss Emeline must take her time about the matter. It would be a grave mistake for her to become engaged too quickly. A bright spirit such as hers must not be too quickly extinguished by the constraints of marriage.”
“We are agreed on that point, sir.”
“Miss Emeline must be allowed to set her own pace.”
“Indeed.”
Anthony squared his shoulders. “But as much as I admire Miss Emeline and although I have dedicated myself to her happiness—”
“I had not realized you had done so.”
“It is my great pleasure,” Anthony assured her. “But as I was saying, I did not call upon you today to speak of her future.”
The sense of relief Lavinia felt left her almost giddy. It appeared she would not have to find a way to thwart young love after all. She relaxed and smiled at Anthony.
“In that case, Mr. Sinclair, what was it you wished to speak to me about?”
“Tobias.”
Some of her relief evaporated.
“What about him?” she asked warily.
“I am aware that he quarreled with you earlier this afternoon.”
She moved her hand in a casual gesture. “He lost his temper. What of it? It was hardly the first occasion.”
Anthony nodded unhappily. “Tobias has always had a tendency to be somewhat brusque, and he has certainly never suffered fools gladly.”
“I do not consider myself to be a fool, Mr. Sinclair.”
Horror lit Anthony’s eyes. “I never meant to imply any such thing, Mrs. Lake.”
“Thank you.”
“What I am trying to say is that there appears to be something in the nature of his association with you that has an unusually provocative effect on his temper.”
“If you have come here to ask me not to annoy him further, I fear you have wasted your time. I assure you, I do not deliberately set out to irritate him. But as you just noted, there does appear to be something in the nature of our association that has an abrasive effect on him.”
“Indeed.” Anthony paced back and forth in front of the desk. “The thing is, I would not have you judge him too harshly, Mrs. Lake.”
That gave her pause.
“I beg your pardon?” she ventured.
“I promise you that beneath his somewhat rough exterior, Tobias is a fine man.” Anthony stopped in front of the window. “No one knows that better than I.”
“I am well aware of your fondness for him.”
Anthony’s mouth twisted. “I wasn’t always so fond of him. Indeed, back at the beginning when my sister married him, I think I actually hated Tobias for a while.”
She went quite still. “Why was that?”
“Because I knew that Ann had been forced to wed him.”
“Indeed.” She did not want to hear that Tobias had married his wife because he had first made her pregnant, she thought.
“She married him for my sake as well as her own, you see. I resented the fact that she felt obliged to sacrifice herself. And for a while I made Tobias the villain of the piece.”
“I’m afraid I don’t understand,” Lavinia said.
“After our parents died, my sister and I were taken to live with our aunt and uncle. Aunt Elizabeth was not at all pleased to have us. As for Uncle Dalton, he was the vile sort who took advantage of chambermaids and governesses and any other helpless females who were so unfortunate as to cross his path.”
“I see.”
“The bastard tried to seduce Ann. She refused his advances but he was very insistent. She avoided him by hiding in my bedchamber at night. We barred the door every evening for over four months. I believe Aunt Elizabeth knew what was happening, because she became determined to see Ann married off. One day Tobias came to visit my uncle on a matter of business.”
“Mr. March was acquainted with your uncle?”
“In those days, Tobias made his living as a man of business. He had a number of different clients. Uncle Dalton had recently become one of them. Aunt Elizabeth used Tobias’s visit as an excuse to invite some of the neighbors to join us for dinner and cards. She insisted they spend the night under her roof rather than brave the roads. Ann thought she would be safe with so many people in the house, so she spent the night in her own room.”
“What happened?”
“The long and the short of it is that Aunt Elizabeth arranged for my sister to be found in what she claimed was a compromising position with Tobias.”
“Good heavens. How on earth did she manage that?”
Anthony stared out into the garden. “Aunt Elizabeth gave Tobias the room next to Ann’s. There was an adjoining door. It was locked, of course. But early the next morning my aunt entered Ann’s room and unlocked the door. Then she staged a great scene in which she announced to the entire household and her guests that Tobias had obviously entered Ann’s bedchamber in the middle of the night and had his way with her.”
Lavinia was incensed. “But that’s utterly ridiculous.”
Anthony smiled bitterly. “Yes, of course it was. But everyone knew Ann was ruined in the eyes of the neighbors. Aunt Elizabeth insisted upon an offer of marriage. I fully expected Tobias to refuse to be coerced into the arrangement. I was only a boy yet it was very clear to me, even then, that he was not the sort of man who would allow himself to be forced into doing anything he did not wish to do. But to my surprise, he told Ann to pack her trunk.”
“You’re quite right, Mr. Sinclair,” Lavinia said gently. “Tobias would not have gone along with your aunt’s demands had he not been willing.”
“The fact that he took Ann away was not the most astonishing thing. The truly astounding thing was that Tobias told me to go and pack also. He rescued both of us that day, although I did not realize it until later.”
“I see.” She thought of how it would have been for a small boy to be taken away by a stranger. “You must have been frightened.”
Anthony grimaced. “Not for myself. As far as I was concerned, anything was better than living with our relatives. But I was extremely anxious about what Tobias might do to Ann once he had her in his power.”
“Was Ann afraid of Tobias?”
“No. Never.” Anthony smiled at some private memory. “He was her knight in bright armor, right from the start. I think she fell in love with him before we were halfway down the drive, certainly before we struck the main road to London.”
Lavinia propped her chin on her hand. “Perhaps that was one of the reasons why you did not take to Tobias immediately. Until that day, you were first in your sister’s affections.”
Anthony looked bemused for a moment and then he
frowned. “You may be correct. I had not considered it from that point of view.”
“Did Mr. March marry your sister straight off?”
“Within the month. He must have fallen in love with her at first sight. How could he not? She was very beautiful, inside and out. She was the gentlest of creatures. Kind, gracious, loving, sweet-tempered. More of an angel than a woman of flesh and blood, I think. Certainly too good for this world.”
In short, a woman quite the opposite of me, Lavinia thought.
“But Tobias feared that her feelings for him were based only on gratitude and would soon fade,” Anthony continued.
“I see.”
“He told Ann she was under no obligation to become his wife, nor did he expect her to play the role of his mistress. But regardless of her decision, he made it clear he would find a way to take care of us.”
“But she loved him.”
“Yes.” Anthony studied the pattern on the carpet for a moment and then looked up with a bleak, sad smile. “They had less than five years together before she and the babe both died of a fever in childbed. Tobias was left with a thirteen-year-old brother-in-law.”
“Losing your sister must have been extraordinarily difficult for you.”
“Tobias had been very patient with me. By the end of the first year of the marriage, I idolized him.” Anthony gripped the back of a chair. “But I went a little mad for a time after Ann died. I blamed him for her death, you see.”
“I understand.”
“To this day, it is a wonder to me that he did not send me back to my aunt and uncle at some point during those months after the funerals or, at the very least, ship me off to school. But Tobias tells me it never crossed his mind to get rid of me. He claims he had become accustomed to having me around.”
Anthony turned back to the window and fell silent, apparently lost in his own recollections.
Lavinia blinked several times to get rid of the moisture that was blurring her vision. Finally she abandoned the effort and took a hankie out of the top desk drawer. She dabbed quickly at her eyes and sniffed once or twice.