Darling Beast (Maiden Lane #7)(34)

“Fascinating,” Montgomery drawled, cocking his head as he watched Makepeace simmer. Apollo wondered if the man had any sense of self-preservation. “But I shall take that as agreement.”

He turned and strolled leisurely away.

“We can’t trust him, ’Pollo,” Makepeace said, abruptly and low. “We couldn’t trust him before, but now he knows your name.”

And Apollo couldn’t help but agree.

“HE’S JUST A gardener,” Maude muttered later that day as she watched Lily dither over the picnic luncheon she was packing. “Well, that’s what he told you, anyway.”

“Do you think he’d like roast chicken or boiled eggs better?” Lily had spent the morning frantically writing so that she might take a few hours’ break in the afternoon, which meant she had only minutes to pack the picnic luncheon. “And he isn’t just a gardener, he’s the head gardener—he’s designing the entire pleasure garden, as far as I can tell.”

“Hinney, a man as big as that, working hard all day, will eat anything and everything you set in front of him,” Maude opined. “If he’s the head gardener and such an important man as all that, why is he livin’ rough in the garden and wearing such common clothes?”

“I don’t know, Maude.” Lily put both the eggs and the leftover roast chicken securely in the basket. It was normally used for Maude’s knitting and she’d been none too pleased to have her work dumped out on the table so Lily could commandeer the basket. “Perhaps he’s down on his luck. Or maybe he likes to stay at the garden he’s working on. Or…” But her imagination had run out. There really wasn’t an explanation for Caliban’s many strange habits.

“And the fact he won’t tell you his real name or that he let you think he was stupid when you first met, can you explain that, my girl?”

Lily couldn’t, so she just kept her head down and wrapped a half loaf of bread securely.

“You can get any man you want,” Maude said. “I’ve seen them look at you when you’re prancing about the stage—and off—from footmen to bejeweled lords, they all fancy you. Why not let one of them take you out?”

“I’m not interested in lords, bejeweled or otherwise,” Lily said lightly.

“I’ll give you that,” Maude said, “but there’s plenty o’ other men. Why bring a picnic lunch to a great brute you know nothing about?”

Why indeed? Lily’s hands stilled as she tried to explain, both to herself and to Maude. “He’s big, but he’s gentle.”

“He was fighting some stranger just yesterday!”

“I know!” Lily took a breath and said more quietly, “I know.” She met her old nursemaid’s eyes. “I don’t know why Caliban fought that man, but I know he felt he had to.”

“Hinney…” Maude’s old face seemed to have grown lines.

Lily caught her hands, squeezing gently. “He looks at me in admiration, but not like those other men—as if I’m an object he wants to have, for other men to admire. When he looks at me I think he sees a woman he likes, a woman he wants to talk to. And I want to talk to him, Maude. I want to learn what he thinks about when his lips turn up, and what he sees when he looks at his garden, and what he’ll be doing tomorrow and the next day.” She stopped because she knew she’d lost any hope of eloquence. “I can’t explain it. I only know I want to spend time with him. When I’m with him, the minutes, the hours, fly by so fast and I hardly notice.”

She blinked and stared helplessly at Maude.

“I don’t want you hurt, hinney.” Maude’s voice softened, turned pleading. “I can’t get Kitty’s face out of my dreams, I can’t. She haunts me at night and I think it’s a warning, I do. Remember she was so taken with that man, so sure he would be kind to her.”

“He was different,” Lily muttered. “He wasn’t nearly as nice as Kitty thought and we all knew it, even from the first. We told her not to go with him.”

“As I’m telling you not to go with this Caliban fellow,” Maude said. “Think, dear one, what do you know of him? What has he told you of his family, his life outside this here garden?”

“Nothing,” Lily said. She didn’t want to face it, but it was true: Caliban was hiding who he was. “But Maude, he isn’t violent—not to us. You’ve seen how gentle he’s been with Indio.”

“And what if that’s just a false face?” Maude’s voice quavered. “He was sweet at first, too. I couldn’t bear to lose you, hinney, I just couldn’t.”

Lily finally looked up to see to her horror that Maude’s eyes were misted. Impulsively she hugged the older woman tight and whispered in her ear, “You’ll never lose me, Maude, not even if you try.”

“Oh, get on with you,” Maude said, pulling away as if embarrassed at her own show of emotion. She swiped at her eyes with the corner of her apron. “Just be careful. Promise me.”

“I promise,” Lily said solemnly as she picked up the basket and left before Maude could make any more arguments.

She found Indio outside kicking at a charred stick, breaking it to bits, while Daffodil nosed at a clump of violets. Indio held his precious boat in his arms.