The Apothecary's Poison (Glass and Steele #3)(37)

"Quite so," Lady Rycroft said with an arched look at her sister-in-law.

I studiously avoided looking at Miss Glass. She would feel that I'd betrayed her. It was Matt, however, who spoke up.

"I disagree, India. One should not consider the opinions of family when it comes to marriage. That way leads to unhappiness for both parties."

"I'm not advocating that people who despise one another should marry," I said. "Not at all. But I do think love cannot last against external forces, not in the long term. It's too much pressure, particularly for the party whose station was raised by an advantageous marriage. She—or he—would feel guilt eventually, and that might poison the love felt in the beginning."

"Well said." Lady Abbington applauded lightly.

"I believe there must be a balance between feeling and obligation," I clarified.

"As do I. Mr. Glass? What do you say?"

Matt studied me with a brief yet intense gaze. Then he picked up his knife and fork. "I say we change the topic."

"I agree." Willie signaled to Bristow to fill her wine glass. "There ain't no such thing as love, anyway. It's something poets made up in the old days to get under ladies' skirts."

"Willimena!" Miss Glass scolded.

The grooves drooping from Lady Rycroft's mouth deepened, and she shook her head. "Close your ears to such crassness, girls."

Both Hope and Charity appeared to be trying not to laugh, but Patience's face flamed. Willie looked as if she would shoot back a retort, but I shook my head at her, and she closed her mouth again with a roll of her eyes.

Lord Rycroft saluted her with his glass. "Never thought I would agree with an American woman who dresses like a man and sounds like she just crawled out of the gutter, but I do."

"Well," Lady Rycroft said with forced cheerfulness. "We'll be traveling soon to Rycroft for the wedding, and I cannot wait to go home. I do miss my friends and neighbors there. So few come to London, nowadays. Have you found that, Marianne?"

Lady Abbington and Lady Rycroft fell into a discussion about the London social scene, leaving Hope to occupy Matt's attention. I was sure Lady Rycroft angled it that way on purpose.

The dinner seemed to last an age and then it felt like another age as we ladies waited in the drawing room for the men to rejoin us. Conversations were stilted, and to make matters worse, Willie had gone with the men. I had no ally. I got up to inspect the clock on the mantel. It ran perfectly on time, but perhaps I ought to check the mechanisms anyway. If nothing else, it was something to do.

The gentlemen and Willie rejoined us then, but only briefly. Miss Glass, who'd been perfectly fine all night, called Matt by his father's name, and begged him to stay home or their father would grow angry.

Charity snickered behind her hand.

"Stop it, Letitia," Lord Rycroft hissed at his sister. "You're making a fool of yourself."

She didn't seem to hear him.

"Come with me, Miss Glass," I said, taking her by the elbow. She leaned heavily on me, but she was so frail that I bore her weight easily. I helped her up the stairs then sent for her maid.

When Polly arrived, I went to my own room, not the drawing room. I wouldn't be missed and I found the entire evening so frustrating. My nerves needed to do something calming. I sat at my desk and opened the housing on my watch. It was working perfectly fine but tinkering with it made me feel a little better.

Someone knocked lightly on my door fifteen minutes later. I opened it to Matt, his hair disheveled as if he'd run his hands through it over and over. The whites of his eyes sported tiny red webs and his skin looked pale in the light of his lamp.

"They're gone," he said simply.

"All of them? Already?"

He nodded. "That was a trying evening. I don't blame you for not returning, but prepare for Willie's ire. She thinks you abandoned her."

That made me smile. "You sound as though you didn't enjoy yourself."

He simply tilted his head to the side.

"And it was all for you, too," I said. "You didn't enjoy Lady Abbington's company?"

He lifted one shoulder. "She seems pleasant."

"Lady Rycroft will be happy to hear you describe her as merely pleasant. Her conniving worked."

"I think it was Charity's conniving to sit next to Cyclops that started the evening off on an…interesting note."

"How is he?"

"Recovering with a stiff drink in the drawing room. Want to join us? We were about to talk about Payne, but I thought you should be there."

I didn't want to leave my watch with its innards on my desk so I scooped them up, and the watch too, and followed him downstairs to the drawing room.

"O-ho!" Willie cried, hand on hip. "The prodigal daughter returns."

"Take her with you, next time," Duke begged me. "She grumbled the second you left and didn't let up until all the guests departed."

"How is Miss Glass?" Cyclops asked.

"I left her in Polly's hands. Hopefully a rest will do her good." I glanced at Matt and almost told him that a rest would do him good too, but I refrained. I didn't want to feel the heat of his glare.

"So what do you think Payne meant?" Duke asked as he poured brandy into glasses at the sideboard. "Do you think he knows?"