From The Ashes (The Ministry of Curiosities #6)(71)

"What a curiosity you are," Seacombe said, leaning much closer than necessary or polite. The smoldering gaze and slick smile told me precisely why he'd deigned to speak to me again. "I find you intriguing, Miss Holloway. Very much so. Perhaps I'll be permitted to call on you soon at your home."

"Yes, of course, but you'll need to confer with both Lady Vickers and Mr. Fitzroy first. I must do as they both wish."

He eyed Lincoln. Lincoln stared back, a wicked curl to his top lip.

Seacombe gulped. "I'll check with my assistant to see when I'm free. I've got a busy schedule ahead."

"I don't doubt it. You must be in demand to speak about your African adventures."

That set him off again and he spent the rest of the dinner regaling me, and the woman on his other side, with stories.

Dinner seemed to last an interminably long time. I was glad when the gentlemen and ladies finally separated, and hoped we could leave as soon as the gentlemen rejoined us in the drawing room. Unfortunately we did not. Lady Vickers appeared keen to stay and Lincoln made no motion to go. Even worse, Andrew Buchanan cornered me.

"Where did you go while you were away?" He sprawled in the spindly-legged chair beside me, a glass at his lips. He looked as if he didn't have a care in the world, yet mere months ago, he'd needed rescuing from Bedlam. He'd been appreciative then. I preferred that fellow to this cocky bore.

"North," I said.

"Where, precisely?"

"That is none of your affair, Mr. Buchanan."

He grunted into his glass. "Very well, keep your secret. May I say what a pleasure it is to see you again. I hope you've resettled back at Lichfield."

"I have, thank you." I looked around for a conversation to escape to, but Seth was talking to Seacombe, and Lincoln had been accosted by the Overtons. Buchanan seemed like the lesser of three evils.

"There was quite a to-do while you were away," he went on. "The circus murder, for one thing. Do you know, Fitzroy thought I killed the strongman? Me! I haven't got a violent bone in my body."

"He must have had his reasons." Lincoln had told me about the arrangement between Buchanan and the circus dancer who'd also been in a relationship with the murdered strongman. I would have suspected Buchanan too, given that knowledge.

"It wasn't only that fellow's murder that set my household on edge. Julia has been dealt quite a blow too.

"So I read. Lady Vickers pointed out the article in the newspaper. I imagine it's upsetting to be the object of gossip."

"Devastating. You'd think the world was coming to an end any day now."

"I suppose it is, in a way. Her world, that is."

He sipped thoughtfully. I expected him to mock his stepmother's situation, to take the opportunity to grind his heel in now that she was laid low. This pensive quietness was unlike Buchanan, and certainly out of character for their relationship. They'd always been so bitter toward one another in my presence, as if they were locked in some kind of battle. Yet he seemed almost sympathetic.

"It's interesting," he said to his glass.

"What is?"

"The change in her."

I wasn't sure interesting was the word I'd use.

"It's good for her to be reminded of where she came from," he went on. "Her horse had become a little too high. I warned her that she'd be thrown off it one day, and now that day has finally arrived." He drank the contents of his glass in a single gulp. "Definitely interesting."

Could he have been the one to inform the newspaper of her past? It was difficult to tell from his response, yet I could see him betraying her as revenge for her rejecting his advances in favor of his rich, titled father.

Lincoln joined us and announced it was time to leave.

"So soon?" Mrs. Overton pouted. "What a shame. Isn't it, my dear?" she said to her daughter.

"Such a shame," Miss Overton repeated without an ounce of sincerity. It would seem she no longer considered him a prospect, although her mother still did. Perhaps the conversation with him had cured Miss Overton of any tender feelings she once held. Knowing Lincoln, he would have made conversing difficult. Idle conversation wasn't his strong suit.

"Do come again," Mrs. Overton said to Lincoln as we made to leave. "Your presence is always welcome here, sir. As is your ward's," she added as an afterthought.

Lincoln and I thanked her.

Mrs. Overton elbowed her daughter. Miss Overton cleared her throat. "I've enjoyed your conversation tonight, Mr. Fitzroy."

"And I yours," he intoned.

Gus brought our carriage around and we piled inside, snuggling into our fur coats and the blankets set out for us.

"Poor Gus, out there in the cold," I said.

"Poor Gus!" Seth patted the blanket around his lap. "He's been having a right old lark in the mews, lucky prick. He hasn't had to listen to bloody Seacombe go on about his dead lions. I don't remember him being such a bore."

"I do," his mother said.

"Then why did you want Charlie to sit with him?" Seth asked. "I heard you pester the Overton woman to change the arrangements."

She sniffed. "Reasons, dear boy, reasons."

"Did you enjoy yourself?" Lincoln asked me.