The Care and Feeding of Rogues E-Book

Lauren Smith

• Herausgeber: Lauren Smith
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

Who could resist a wager from London’s most popular detective, Sherlock Holmes? Certainly not his scientist neighbor, Elise Hamblin.

The challenge: Study the primal nature of men; but not just any man for her study will do. Sherlock has chosen the Earl of March, a man with a scandalous and dangerous reputation. 

Prospero Harrington has returned from exile to claim the title of Earl of March and his late father’s mounting debts. Desperate to secure his future, he responds to an intriguing ad and finds himself the subject of observation by a beautiful woman in exchange for a hefty payment.

Disguised as a man, Elise follows Prospero about London. Their close proximity and adventures provides a fascinating introduction to the world of men, passion, and desire.

Tragedy strikes and Elise must rely on the scandalous rogue she’s been studying. Enemies from Prospero’s dangerous past set their sights on the new earl and the woman who has won his heart, forcing him to face his past or lose Elise forever.

The Care and Feeding of Rogues is a stranger to lovers romance with a lady scientist and a scandalous rogue with a heart of gold. What starts out as a wager becomes the adventure of a lifetime, with a guaranteed HEA.

Leseprobe

THE CARE AND FEEDING OF ROGUES

A LADY’S GUIDE TO ROGUES

BOOK I

LAUREN SMITH

CONTENTS

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Epilogue

About the Author

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

© 2024 by Lauren Smith

Cover by Erin Dameron-Hill - EDH Professionals

All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitutes unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.

ISBN: 978-1-962760-39-3 (e-book edition)

ISBN: 978-1-962760-40-9 (print edition)

For Andrea Hamblin who graciously donated money to the Richardson Literacy program. Our daring, brave and intelligent heroine was named after Andrea’s beloved niece Elise.

PROLOGUE

ENGLAND, 1870

Prospero Harrington hated the dawn. It brought too many regrets, too many thoughts of a life too short, a life he hadn’t even had a chance to live. As he watched the purple velvet of what might be his final night alive fade, he wished this dawn would never come.

The field he stood on was quiet. Only a few songbirds dared to sing as the pink and red hues of the sky became striated with gold light and wisps of vaporous clouds. He drank in this sight and burned it into his mind, knowing that in just a few short minutes that mind might go dark forever.

The trail of darkened footprints behind him where he had disturbed the silver netting of dewdrops in the grass was the only evidence of his trespass. What else would be left of him as a legacy when this dawn had passed to sunny midday? Would he be buried in a lonely field far from a churchyard, or would his parents see his body laid to rest in the family tomb? The thought of being alone, resting in a quiet place where no one could find him, made his throat ache.

I wanted so much more from life than this, he thought bleakly. I’d only begun to taste the joys and pleasures of this bright and beautiful world . . .

“If we’re caught participating in an illegal duel and Jackson dies, you’ll be facing a murder charge… Are you sure about this?” Nicholas Hughes, the Earl of Durham and one of Prospero’s closest friends, asked as they stood waiting for the pair of men coming toward them from the opposite end of the field.

“I’m not sure about anything anymore,” Prospero muttered. The weight of his pistol felt as heavy in his hand.

Nicholas squared his shoulders and cleared his throat as the other two men reached them.

“Morning, gentlemen,” Nicholas greeted solemnly.

Prospero said nothing. He simply stared at the one who had caused all this trouble.

“Mr. Jackson, your pistol please.” Nicholas held out a hand to inspect the weapon.

Aaron Jackson handed his gun to Nicholas. John Gower, the man beside Jackson, held his hand out to Prospero.

“Your weapon, Harrington,” Gower demanded, and Prospero handed his gun over to Jackson’s second. The pistols were carefully examined and returned. Prospero wanted to toss his to the ground, tell the other man he never planned to fire, but he held silent. Jackson wouldn’t let him off so easy, not when he believed in Prospero’s guilt.

“Are we certain this matter cannot be settled in another way?” Nicholas asked. Jackson had been the one to initiate the challenge of the duel, and he could stop this at any point and consider his honor satisfied.

“No. Harrington compromised my beloved sister and will not marry her.”

Prospero gritted his teeth. “If someone slipped into your sister’s bed, it wasn’t me. I know she’s set her cap for a countess’s coronet, but I’ll be damned if I give it to her like this when I’ve done nothing to her.”

He had nothing against the lady. She was pretty and had seemed like a nice enough lady when he’d danced with her. But Prospero was barely twenty-two. He didn’t want to settle down and marry yet, so he’d been damned careful around any young lady who was on the hunt for a husband. As an earl’s son, he was considered quite a catch. He had stolen some kisses since he’d been let loose upon London, but none of those kisses had been with Jackson’s sister, and he’d certainly never gotten a woman with child. If it wasn’t so embarrassing to admit, he would have told Jackson he was still a damned virgin.

“The bastard won’t admit it, so I demand satisfaction for my family’s honor.” Jackson’s tone was icy.

“Very well,” Gower said. “You will stand back-to-back, take forty paces apart, and then you will turn and face each other. On the count of three, you will fire once.”

Prospero turned his back on Jackson, and they each counted their paces. Then they turned. Despite the fact that three other men stood in the field with him, Prospero felt utterly, completely alone.

Prospero drew in a deep breath as he angled his body to make himself as slender a target as possible. He tried not to think about his parents, about how this was all a terrible mistake. Why couldn’t the Jackson girl have told her brother that someone else had taken her to bed? Why the devil had she said it was him? He had done nothing wrong, yet he might perish today for a man’s pride. He did not raise his weapon, however. He wanted no death on his conscience or blood upon his hands.

“On the count of three, you will fire,” Gower called out. “One . . . Two . . .”

Prospero once more filled his lungs with air and prepared himself to meet his end. He tried not to think of the regrets he had of things he’d never done, cities he’d never seen, women he’d never kissed.

“Three!”

Crack!

Pain lanced through Prospero’s upper arm, but he didn’t believe the wound to be fatal. He grimaced as Nicholas ran toward him.

“How badly are you hurt?” Nicholas asked.

“It hurts like a damned devil, but I believe I’ll live.” His shoulder felt numb, which must be the shock from the wound, but he was alive. It was over.

“You made it,” Nicholas murmured. “You made it.” His friend was grinning with relief as he touched Prospero’s good shoulder with a shaky hand. “Thank Christ. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t.”

Good old Nicholas, he thought as his knees buckled a little. It was going to be a long walk back to the coach, but if his friend helped him, he’d make it.

Suddenly, Jackson cursed loudly at him. “Fire your weapon, Harrington!” he bellowed.

Breathing hard, Prospero simply tossed his pistol on the ground and turned his back on the other man. He was done. He wasn’t going to stay here. Honor had been satisfied. Now he could go home and return to his life, to the future he’d so longed for.

“Blood has been drawn, my friend. Let him go,” Gower counseled Jackson. “You had your chance.”

“It’s not enough!” The sudden rush of footfalls was Prospero’s only warning as he spun to face the other man.

Jackson had picked up Prospero’s pistol from the ground and had the barrel aimed at his own chest.

The relief he’d basked in so briefly was now drowned by a sudden wave of rage. How could this fool think to force him to fire when it wasn’t his honor that had been damaged? He wasn’t going to do anything to ruin his life, not when he just wanted to leave this damned field. Jackson’s lip curled in a contemptuous sneer.

“You’re a coward, Harrington. Face me and take your shot!”

Coward? He was no coward. Prospero slowly walked back toward Jackson and stopped when they were almost toe to toe.

“What the bloody hell do you want from me, Jackson? I’m bleeding and your honor has been satisfied,” Prospero snarled as he clutched his wounded arm.

“Take your shot, Harrington,” Jackson growled. “Or I will. Either way, you’ll be damned.”

“You’re mad.”

“Take it, or there will be consequences for everyone you love,” Jackson warned.

“Are you threatening me?”

“I am. Now take your shot,” Jackson said, his voice so cold it could have frosted the air between them.

Prospero pushed the pistol’s handle, trying to turn the barrel away from both of them, and something happened in that instant he had not expected. The pistol fired, and birds shrieked in the distant woods. Jackson’s face drained of color and blood bubbled between his lips as he coughed. Then he grunted and the pistol fell to the ground between them.

Jackson groaned and sank to his knees. “You’ve . . . killed me . . .”

“No, no, I didn’t!” Prospero protested, but as his opponent fell onto his back, he saw a hint of a smile lingering on the dying man’s lips.

This was a trap. Jackson had wanted this all along . . . but why? Why would he want to be killed? It didn’t make any sense. How could he want to destroy someone bad enough to . . . to kill himself?

“We’ve got to go—” Nicholas grabbed his arm and pulled him back from Jackson. “Gower will tell everyone you killed him.”

“But I didn’t. You saw what happened.”

“I did, but you were both struggling with the gun. It still looks bad. Even if you don’t face charges for dueling, you will still be a pariah in society for participating.” Nicholas dragged Prospero away from the field. “We must go, now.”

Gower shouted after them, but they were running fast and they heard no sounds of pursuit behind them.

Dawn now bathed the trees in golden fire. A flock of starlings banked and turned in the air, and the sudden flutter of a thousand wings made an eerie sound in the previously serene landscape. As the birds flew toward the east, he had the sudden desperate urge to follow them, to be free of the storm that was coming his way.

1

ENGLAND, 1882 – TWELVE YEARS LATER

Elise Hamblin raised her skirts with one hand as she climbed the steps up to the townhouse at 223 Baker Street, her heart growing lighter with every step. Just beyond this door, a world of possibilities awaited. A brass plaque hung to the right of the door with the words “Societas Rebellium Dominarum – Established 1821” on it.

Every Monday afternoon, she came here to meet with the other members of the private society. The name was as close in Latin as they could get to “The Society of Rebellious Ladies.” She rang the bell, and the butler in charge of the residence answered the door.

“Good afternoon, Miss Hamblin,” Mr. Atkins greeted warmly.

“Hello, Atkins.” She winked at the butler fondly as she stepped inside and removed her hat and gloves before passing them to a waiting footman. “How many do we have today?”

“Today? Just you, Lady Cinna, and Miss Tewksbury. The rest are still on assignment and will report back next week, I believe.” Atkins, despite his appearance as a stodgy old man, was quite supportive of the society’s efforts to spread intellectual studies among women. It certainly helped that his daughter, a woman who would have otherwise been bound for a life of service as a maid, was studying engineering and had far more career opportunities than a woman in her position would have had without such an education.

“Ah yes, that’s right. Thank you, Atkins.” Elise proceeded up the stairs to the drawing room, where Cinna and Edwina, her friends, would be waiting for her.

As the president of the society, she was tasked with keeping up with the assignments the members took, but this past week she had been busy with daughterly duties for her father and purchasing a fine new racehorse. Between hosting dinners for her father’s business partners and researching the various breeding stallions and mares, she had been quite busy. At twenty-six, she had grown into the hostess role quite well, but it wasn’t her preferred way to spend her time. She lived for the society’s meetings, chances to explore the world around her and even attend horse races. She had a thousand exciting dreams that held her heart and none of those existed in the domestic sphere.

She traced the edges of a gold plaque that decorated the wall next to the drawing room with her finger. It read: All those who seek to learn are welcome here.

Inside, she found her two friends in a lively debate. Lady Cinna Belmont was showing off a design for a bridge, while Edwina Tewksbury argued about the bridge supports it would need.

“Yes, but if you add the height of the cables here—” Cinna’s dark hair tumbled down her shoulder as she leaned in. “Then you can see how it could support the bridge.”

Edwina peered over her shoulder at the paper, her lips pursed. “Well, I suppose it might work. We should test it with scaled models first, shouldn’t we?”

“Nonsense. The math is sound. I’d stake my life on it.” Cinna glanced up as Elise closed the door to the drawing room. “Elise, what do you think?” She turned the drawing on the table toward Elise so she could see it as she approached them.

It was a lovely cable-stayed bridge design. Elise was no skilled engineer like Cinna, but in her time at the society, she had learned far more about engineering than other ladies.

“I’m sure your calculations are correct, but one can never be too careful. Perhaps a model is the right place to start?” Elise said. “Just to test the strength before we send the proposal to Jacobs and Ellicott?” Jacobs and Ellicott was the engineering firm that Cinna secretly submitted her designs to under a male pseudonym.

“Oh, all right then,” Cinna sighed. “Is it time for the meeting?”

“Yes.” Elise collected the latest reports from their members from a nearby table. “Atkins will be up with tea and sandwiches soon. Shall we begin?”

Elise chose a seat on the couch beneath portraits of two of the society’s founding members, Audrey Sheridan and Lysandra Russell. They, along with others, had founded the society in 1821 to give women a safe place to learn, share ideas, and advance themselves in academic, scientific, or artistic endeavors.

It was the only society of its kind that they knew of, and its membership was kept quite secret. Much like the gentlemen’s clubs, they required prospective members to apply for membership, but not everyone was accepted. Those who were turned down were applicants more interested in the excitement of engaging in something they saw as novel or even forbidden, rather than growing their intellectual knowledge. The society had no other restrictions. The women who joined needed to crave knowledge of some kind.

Half of the society’s members were married, and many had children, while the rest were single women or widows. Plenty had found it possible to continue to make time for the society despite having husbands or children. Elise, Cinna, and Edwina were single and spent far more time at the society’s townhouse on Baker Street than the other members. It was rather fun to have their own place to hide from the world, just as the gentlemen had their clubs when they wanted to hide from their wives.

“I call to order this meeting of the Society of—” Elise’s preamble was interrupted by the shrieking strains of a violin. It pierced the walls between the society’s headquarters and the townhouse next door.

“Oh, good heavens,” Elise muttered.

Cinna covered her mouth with her hand to stifle a laugh, and Edwina let out an unladylike curse that made the others giggle. The violin was so loud that it was quite impossible to continue their meeting.

“Whose turn is it this time?” Cinna asked as the violin continued to shriek like a cat with its tail stuck in a door.

“I can’t remember,” Elise sighed. “Shall we play stone, paper, and scissors?” They had recently discovered the Far Eastern game of hand gestures to settle their disputes. It was a tradition that had existed in Asia since the seventeenth century but had only just found its way to England. The three of them leaned forward into a huddle and balled their right hands into fists in their left palms.

“One, two, three,” Elise counted as they tapped their fists into their palms, then each chose a hand gesture to represent a stone, a piece of paper, or scissors.

“Blast!” Elise said. She had stone, while Cinna and Edwina both had chosen paper.

“Good luck with our neighbor,” Cinna called out cheekily as Elise stood and proceeded out of the society’s headquarters and headed for the residence next door.

The woman who answered the door was a plain, middle-aged creature, but she had the most gentle and caring soul Elise had ever known. She had often shared afternoon tea with this woman and commiserated over the man she was about to confront.

“Hello, Elise dear,” the woman greeted.

“I’m so sorry to bother you, Mrs. Hudson. Can I speak to him?” She nodded toward the stairs, where the loudest strains of the violin were now coming from.

“Yes, of course. He’s in a mood, though, dear.”

Elise was well-versed in their eccentric neighbor’s mercurial moods. She marched upstairs and opened the man’s study without bothering to knock. She’d learned long ago that the courtesy of knocking would only be ignored, and so she had taken to responding to this man’s rudeness with her own.

The study was dimly lit, the curtains pulled tight across the windows. A red damask wallpaper filled the room with shadows. Books teetered precariously on poorly crafted shelves, and a large black bear rug dominated the floor, the beast’s face aimed toward the door, its mouth open in a silent roar at anyone who dared enter the room and disturb its master. Little bottles with labels such as borax, copper sulfate, chloroform, and a dozen others were tucked in surprisingly neat rows beside a chemist’s table that lay unused. Thankfully, it was empty of any current experiments. Usually, malodorous scents drifted up from several glowing glass beakers.

A man stood in the corner of the room by the fire, a violin upon his shoulder as he drew a bow over the taut strings of his instrument.

The slender dark-haired man abruptly ceased playing and turned toward her, revealing his aristocratic features that were both harsh and handsome.

“Miss Hamblin.” He spoke in a clipped tone as he greeted her. “To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?” His gaze roved over her, not with any masculine interest, but in simple curiosity. She knew it was one of his favorite parlor games, for him to prepare an impressive list of things to tell her about herself.

“If you’re bothering to ask me that, Mr. Holmes, you are not the genius detective that the papers make you out to be.”

“Ah yes. Society’s rebellious ladies—quite a charming little club you have.” His tone was completely condescending in an attempt to rankle her.

Elise didn’t give the man the satisfaction of letting him see her bristle.

“And what is today’s illustrious topic of discussion? The finding of husbands?”

She scoffed. “We study far more important matters than husband hunting, as you well know.”

He abandoned his violin on a nearby sofa, which was covered with stacks of newspapers, and retrieved his cherrywood pipe. He stuffed it with tobacco and lit it, then puffed the smoke into his cheeks for a long moment as he watched her like she was a puzzle to be solved. She wasn’t perturbed by this. They’d had this battle of wills before.

“Let’s see,” he drawled in his famous tone as he began his favorite game. “You’re not wearing your usual style of unadorned walking dress,” he observed. “This one has a more elaborate skirt, a bigger bustle, and the silk appears to be expensive. That blue color does suit your fair skin and blonde hair, which no doubt is to your advantage when facing gentlemen. You have stains upon your fingers, so whatever occasion you wore the dress for ended with you signing papers a few hours ago.” He walked over to her and leaned in slightly, breathing deeply near her shoulder. “There’s the faintest hint of the stable yard about you, but it’s fresh hay and not dung. That leads me to one conclusion. I must congratulate you, Miss Hamblin. I take it you purchased a new racing horse?”

Elise expected nothing less from the famous detective.

“I am quite aware that I’ve just purchased a horse. You, however, seem to be unable to read the clock and calendar.”

“Yes, all right, I shall wait until your gossip session is over before I resume my practice.” He waved airily at her as if he was ready to dismiss her from the room.

“Gossip session?” Elise couldn’t help but react to that comment.

“Yes.” Holmes grinned as he seemed to realize he had struck a nerve at last.

“Mr. Holmes, you know absolutely nothing of women,” Elise said flatly.

He quirked one dark brow. “Don’t I?”

“You, like all men, believe you understand exactly what makes a woman tick. We are not pretty pocket watches to be carried about and tweaked or adjusted to suit your moods.” She crossed her arms over her chest, glaring. “You know only about criminals and murderers. You know nothing of ordinary people, especially women.”

“It’s rather curious how spinsters end up so shrewish, isn’t it? I suppose it’s because no man wants to hear them complain,” Holmes said as he puffed on his pipe again.

Elise ignored the bait about spinsters and countered with her own verbal attack. “Let’s see . . . you are smoking your cherrywood pipe rather than your clay one. You only smoke the cherrywood when you’re feeling particularly disruptive and have nothing better to do than be a nuisance. Judging by the state of this room, and how no chemicals are currently in use and the neatly folded newspapers are stacked rather than strewn about the room like an untidy child’s nursery, Ideduce that you must be between cases. Therefore, you are delighting in one of your many bad habits, which is disrupting our meetings.”

Holmes’s eyes narrowed on her and his cheeks hollowed out as he drew another puff of pipe smoke into his mouth. She knew he was impressed by her deductions but wasn’t about to admit it.

“I wager,” he began as he pointed the tip of his pipe at her, “that I know far more about women than you do about men.”

Elise tutted. “Please, Mr. Holmes, do not speak untruths that will embarrass you.”

A glint of devilish mischief lit up the detective’s eyes.

“Shall we make it official, Miss Hamblin? As you have correctly deduced, I am between cases at the moment and am in need of a diversion.”

“I have rather far more important things to do than make a study of men.”

“Ah, but that is because you only understand gentlemen. Those are easy creatures to decipher. But what of the rogue, the scoundrel, the cad, the delicious bounder? What about those men who live their lives in a gray area between the black-and-white spheres of your ordered world?”

“I’m not sure I follow you,” Elise reluctantly admitted.

“You claim to study creatures, to focus on the natural sciences. Men are creatures just like any other. But the gentlemen you’ve met, they live by human laws. Their borders are easy to discern, their roads easy to navigate. Don’t you wish to study what a man is like when he is unmotivated by laws or if he chooses to live outside of them? What motivates such a man to be the way he is? Study his base nature, his natural instincts. Study him as you have learned other creatures. To truly understand what men are capable of, you cannot confine yourself to those who are so well behaved. There you are seeing them at their best, you are seeing what they wish you to see. You learn nothing of the baser animal that lies within all men. To know what a man truly is, you must find a man who has battled the world and yet is still standing. Find a person at his worst low, yet he still holds on to who he is. That is where the truth lies, not in those fine gentlemen who escort you to the park or meet you for ice cream or picnics.

Elise rarely accepted challenges unless she was genuinely intrigued by something. Holmes’s words stirred a flash of intrigue in her as she considered the sort of men she’d grown up around. Polite, perfectly polished sons of the kings of industry who paid court to her with flowers and walks in Hyde Park. By their very nature, those men had failed to hold her interest, and therefore, none had held her heart. Struck with a sudden inspiration for a proper wager that would hammer a blow against Holmes in his war against her society, she grinned.

“If I study men and prove I understand them, you will give me your precious violin for winning the wager.”

Holmes glared at the instrument, then turned that scowl upon her. “That is a Stradivarius. It has a value you cannot possibly comprehend.”

“Oh, but I do know its value. That is exactly why you will surrender it when I win.”

“And if I win?” He steepled his fingers as he took a seat in one of the overstuffed chairs. “You and your society will find accommodations elsewhere in London.”

Elise’s heart skipped a painful beat. It would be hard to find another home for the society, and it had already moved so many times over the years. Few property owners allowed women to do anything like what the society did. It was a miracle that the current owner had let Elise sign papers for the townhouse without requiring a man’s signature. She had told the man that she and the other women ran a sewing society. What she hadn’t said was they were sowing the seeds of knowledge rather than sewing clothing.

“You are a terrible human being,” Elise replied to Holmes, though it was rude to speak a truth like that out loud.

Holmes chuckled smugly. “I have one more stipulation,” Holmes said, unfolding the newspaper on his lap and idly flipping through the pages. “You can’t study just any man. You must study this one. In order to win, you must share with me what makes him the man he is. Explain the truth of his nature.” He turned the paper her way so she could see an article headline that read: The New Earl of March Returns to England Twelve Years after Being Suspected of Murdering a Man in a Duel.

“But he is a titled lord. I have no way to approach him, nor would he likely agree . . .” Elise stared at the headline. She couldn’t believe Holmes wanted her to study a man who was suspected of killing someone in a duel, let alone a titled lord. There was no way he would agree to let her study him.

“Lure him to you. I’m sure you can find a way. Isn’t that what feminine charms are for?” Holmes chuckled darkly. “Make him an offer he can’t refuse.” He handed her the newspaper with a smug look. “Do we have a wager, then?”

“I suppose so,” she said slowly.

“You have two weeks, Miss Hamblin.” Then the detective turned his attention to relighting his pipe, his way of telling her she was dismissed.

Elise left the townhouse with Holmes’s newspaper tucked under her arm as her mind raced with the idea of studying a man like the Earl of March. She’d been fourteen when Prospero Harrington, the future Earl of March, had fled to France. At the time, she’d been aware of some scandal but had been too young to understand it. She would need to research her target carefully and dive deeply into his past. Then all she had to do was find a way to lure the earl to her door so she could beat Sherlock Holmes at his own game.

2

Prospero’s lips formed a grim line as he surveyed the condition of his family’s residence. In the twelve years he had been living in France, the once beautiful townhouse had fallen into disrepair. The curtains had been ravaged by moths, the furniture either so worn that the stuffing puffed out of the frayed fabric or the legs were on the verge of snapping. Silver had gone unpolished and rooms had been left undusted. It felt as though no one had lived here in years, yet his mother had been here with a handful of servants since his father’s death three months ago.

Why hadn’t she maintained the place better? He considered the matter with a deepening frown. Given the state of things, it was almost as though the moment he’d left England twelve years ago, his parents’ home had started its descent into decay. His parents had been appalled at his involvement in an illegal, lethal duel, at his leaving the country, at all of it, but when they’d finished shouting at each other, his father had told him the only way he’d be welcome back into England was when his father was dead. Had that been the beginning of this? His heart ached as he stared around at a place he’d once called home that had held such sunny memories so long ago.

“It could be worse . . . ,” his friend Viscount Guy De Courcy said from behind him.

Prospero shot Guy a glance. “Oh? How could it possibly be worse?”

Guy dragged his fingers through his dark-reddish hair and shrugged. “At least it didn’t burn down or have a rat infestation like that first flat you had in Paris . . .”

Prospero’s frown deepened. Twelve years living on very little money had hardened him, but the memory of that place he’d lived in upon arriving in France with barely a pound to his name stung deeper than it should have. The dingy suite of rooms had indeed been filled with rats, and he’d actually been grateful when the entire building was destroyed by a fire a few months later.

Prospero moved deeper into the home. “We’d best see how the rest of the house fares.” So far, there had been no sign of any of the servants his mother claimed to have in her last letter.

“Mother?” He’d expected her to be home, though he hadn’t expected her to be at the door to greet him like a loving mother. He had expected a butler…and there was no one there at all. The door was unlocked and unattended. In that moment, Prospero learned just how little he and his family estate were valued by his mother after his father had passed.

Silence greeted them as they stood staring around at the poor state of this once beautiful home.

“What’s this?” Guy retrieved a letter that had been tucked into the corner of the mirror in the entryway. He studied it before he passed it to Prospero. “It has your name on it.”

Prospero opened the letter, a sense of dread building in him.

Prospero,

I let the servants go and have gone to the country to stay with my sister. Do what you will with the house. I no longer desire to live there.

It was his mother’s handwriting, but there was no date as to when it had been written. So she’d left London before he’d even returned, and given the state of the dust on the surfaces, it might have been weeks, possibly months ago since she’d let go of the servants and abandoned the house. The thought pinched his heart. To have not seen her in twelve years . . . and to have her leave him in a quiet, cold, dusty house. The iron inside his heart turned even harder.

“It seems my mother has gone to the country to stay with my aunt. She’s let go of the staff.”

Prospero set the note on the table by the mirror and sighed. She’d given him yet one more burden to cope with. He would have to convince decent staff to work for him, or suffer hiring those who weren’t of the caliber this house required. The cloud of scandal that had shrouded his life over the past decade still had not cleared. London society had a long memory when it came to scandals, and even the downstairs staff had their pride when it came to who they worked for.

“Perhaps Nicholas’s butler will know where to post position notices to attract the best servants?” Guy suggested. He, like Prospero, had spent the last twelve years in France, and much of London had changed upon their return.

Prospero didn’t say so aloud, but he was glad his friend had wanted to accompany him back to England so he didn’t have to make this journey alone. Nicholas had wanted to come with him to France, but of his two friends, they both knew Guy would fare better on the Continent as he had fewer responsibilities than Nicholas since he no longer had any living relatives. Nicholas, newly made the Earl of Durham at the time, had the responsibility for his mother and two sisters. So Nicholas had reluctantly agreed to remain in London and watch over things here. It was Nicholas who notified Prospero of his father’s death.

“Did you have a chance to pay our dues to Berkeley’s for this month?” Prospero asked.

“Yes, thank Christ they didn’t have a problem with reinstating us. A man would die without his club, wouldn’t he?” Guy chuckled. “Why don’t we have a drink and meet up with Nicholas?” he offered. “He left word for us to send for him when we arrived.”

“Good idea. I don’t want to stand here another minute. It’s giving me a headache.” He left his travel cases just inside the door, then they left.

They hailed a hackney and headed for their club. Unlike most things in England, the private gentlemen’s club of Berkeley’s was remarkably unchanged, which both relieved Prospero and filled him with melancholy.

Once he and Guy settled into a pair of chairs in the reading room, he paid a young lad to send a message to Nicholas Hughes’s residence to meet them at the club for drinks.

“So, what’s to be your plan?” Guy asked as he poured two glasses of scotch and handed one to his friend.

“I honestly hadn’t thought about it. Just the idea of coming home after so long . . . It’s been the only thing to fill my mind for weeks.” Prospero tasted the fine scotch and relished the gentle burn at the back of his throat. The whiskeys from the cheap taverns in France had lacked the quality and finesse of good whiskey from Scotland.

Prospero was silent a long moment. “Before I visited my solicitor this morning, I thought that Father would have left his estate—now mine—with some money in it.”

“He didn’t?” Guy asked, his brows knitting in concern as he stared at Prospero.

“Apparently, after I left England, my father’s investments turned sour and he took up gambling to such an extent that he nearly bankrupted the estate. Our country house, Marchlands, was sold. All we have left is the townhouse, and you saw what condition it’s in.”

“Christ . . . I never thought your father would . . . That seems so unlike him,” Guy admitted.

“Yes, well, it seems having a son like me broke his heart, and he did all he could to ruin his life and his estate because of it.” Prospero hated that he sounded so bitter, but knowing that something he’d had no control over had caused such devastation to his family was almost too much to bear.

“Well, you have a couple of choices,” Guy offered. “Find an heiress or go into business. I recommend an heiress. You’ve never had a problem seducing women. With all those million-dollar beauties coming from America every day, you will be tripping over rich, pretty women in no time.”

Prospero didn’t immediately dismiss the idea of an heiress, but marriage was such a permanent solution. Yes, a man could live apart from his wife and take his pleasures on the side, but Prospero, as infamous as he was for his sensual appetites, had no desire to have a mistress. He was a loyal lover when he was in a relationship, and that especially applied to matrimony. That loyalty had made him a favorite in Paris. Wealthy young widows, eager to have a faithful lover who had no expectations except to be quietly paid for his companionship, were quick to seek him out.

For twelve years, he had moved from one widow to the next, keeping a roof over his head and food in his belly by being loyal to them until they sent him on his way and he found the next widow looking for companionship. But selling himself like that was not something he wanted to do again, not unless he had to. When he married, he wanted it to be to a woman who would hold his heart, what was left of it, and he wanted to hold hers in return. He didn’t want to resort to marrying for money and fearing that at any moment his wife would stray from their marriage bed because she saw him as valueless as his own parents had.

“I think I’d rather pursue business for the moment,” he said.

“Without any capital to invest, you’ll need to find a way in the door,” Guy said. “And by the look of the grumpy old fellows when we walked into the club, you’re not going to find anyone sympathetic here.”

“True,” Prospero admitted. His gaze rose and moved around the room, studying the men there. He recognized most of the older gentlemen who were around his father’s age. Those men wouldn’t have anything to do with him. Being involved in Aaron Jackson’s death had cast a long shadow over him.

“Perhaps I could find someone more willing in a younger set of men. Those who don’t remember Jackson.”

Guy frowned a little. “It’s possible, but most of the younger set don’t have money, and the ones who do tend to throw it away on women, gambling tables, and other vices.”

There were a handful of younger men he believed wouldn’t be caught up in the self-indulgence, men either his age or a few years his junior. They would also seek to prove themselves in the world of business, but they might become competition rather than allies.

Was he destined to repeat his life from Paris here in London? The thought turned his stomach. Even if he wanted to pursue that route, he was far too well known—or rather, too infamous. His current status made it impossible. A common gentleman could have gotten away with being a kept companion, but an earl? Any rich Englishwoman would have too much sense to get involved with him. The scandal could be ruinous. No woman would want to take him even as a husband, especially not an heiress who could have her pick of eligible, titled men.

A finely dressed man in his early twenties was intently reading a paper one table over and nursing a glass of brandy. His thin mustache twitched as he suddenly chortled. When he glanced about to see if he’d disturbed anyone with his laughter, he noticed Prospero watching him. He smiled ruefully.

“Sorry, old boy. Just couldn’t believe what they print in the papers these days. Look at this.” The man leaned over in his chair and tossed his newspaper to Prospero.

“What is it?” Prospero asked as he caught the paper and examined the pages.

“That advertisement, in the left middle column. Can you believe that?” The man laughed again. “What nonsense. Someone wants to pay to study gentlemen? What are we? Animals?”

Curious now, Prospero examined the advertisement, and Guy peered over his shoulder to read as well.

Man Wanted for Scientific Study

A gentleman is required to participate in a two-week observation to further the study of natural sciences. This will include the manners, habits, and haunts of the participant. Participant must agree to be interviewed on various subjects and must be prepared to answer questions of a sensitive or intimate nature. Interested parties may come for interviews at 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday the twelfth at #223 Baker Street. The successful applicant will be paid for his time at the rate of £50–75 per week. Please send a message to the above address if you wish to be interviewed.

“Baker Street?” Guy murmured. “Why does that sound familiar?”

“You might be thinking of Sherlock Holmes. The one written about in thepapers?” While they had been in Paris, Prospero had kept abreast of news events in London including Sherlock Holmes’s cases.

“You don’t suppose it’s him, do you?”

“Holmes is at 221, and this is 223 . . . This is next door,” Prospero said.

“So someone wants to pay to study a man? How odd.”

“Not just any man. It seems they’re looking for a specific sort.”

“Even odder.” Guy laughed. “I wonder why?”

Prospero wasn’t laughing, though. Given that he had no food at his home and no servants, he was desperate enough to investigate this.

“Wait, you’re not considering applying, are you?” Guy exclaimed, his brows rising as Prospero.

“Why not? At least this way I’m not a paid companion, but a paid subject for the advancement of the natural sciences. Surely that sounds more noble.”

“Perhaps . . . ,” Guy agreed reluctantly. “But I have my doubts as to what it is they are truly after.”

“Only one way to find out,” Prospero said, then turned to the man who had given him the paper. “May I keep this?”

“Certainly, I’m done with it,” the man replied, then patted his pockets as if looking for a cigar. “Pardon me, I’m off for a smoke.” He rose and left the room.

“Really, Prospero, you need not succumb to such desperate acts. I’d offer you to stay with me, but since I haven’t a decent flat at the moment, I know Nicholas offered to host you until you have your house in order again.”

Prospero wished he could accept Nicholas’s offer, but he feared Nicholas’s family would be touched by the scandal.

“He has two younger sisters who debuted recently. I don’t want my presence to ruin their prospects in husband hunting with my mere presence in their house.”

“Nonsense,” Guy declared. “Friendship comes first. If Nicholas made the offer, he clearly thinks his family can withstand the scandal.”

“I’ll be all right. The interviews are tomorrow. I’ll go and see what I think of this . . . study and whether it really does pay that much.”

It couldn’t be that hard to answer some naturalist’s questions, whatever they might be. Naturalists were bookish sorts by nature, but that didn’t intimidate Prospero. He took the paper under his arm and tipped his glass of scotch back, letting the burn of whiskey take away his worries for a short time. He would think about his troubles tomorrow.

* * *

The man who had given his newspaper to Lord March paused in the smoking room and checked his pocket watch before closing the lid and tucking it back into his waistcoat pocket. He then made his way down the stairs to the front door of the club, where he retrieved his hat from a footman, who summoned a coach for him.

He nodded his thanks to the footman. Then he climbed into the hackney and gave the driver his desired address.

It stopped in front of a townhouse on Baker Street. The man got out and walked up the steps, tapping the knocker when he got to the top. A butler answered and stared down at the man for a minute before rolling his eyes.

“You’d best come in before someone sees you,” the butler, Mr. Atkins said.

The gentleman stepped inside, removed his hat, and gave it to a footman, who studied him with a raised brow but said nothing as he politely took the item.

“Miss Hamblin is in her study,” Mr. Atkins said.

The gentleman nodded and proceeded to the room with a grin that made his mustache twitch.

* * *

Elise adjusted her spectacles, moving the third magnification lens in front of her right eye as she studied the antennae of the privet hawk moth, the Sphinx ligustri. Its large pink-and-black striped abdomen and hind wings were often mistaken for a hummingbird when it hovered over flowers to drink nectar. The moth twitched its wings as it crawled over the petals of a large pale cluster of pink peonies.

“You are a handsome fellow,” Elise murmured as the moth dipped its tongue into the flower, exploring it.

“I know! Funny, isn’t it?” a voice said from the door to Elise’s study. “But I do make for a deuced good-looking chap.”

Elise glanced up and winced as her spectacles made the distant world far too out of focus. She quickly removed her spectacles and set them down. A gentleman stood in the doorway wearing a light-gray three-piece suit. He stroked his mustache and watched Elise with amusement.

Elise laughed and got to her feet. “Cinna! Good heavens, you actually do look quite dashing.”

The gentleman, who was no man at all, peeled the mustache off her face and shrugged out of her coat. The cleverly cut and styled wig covered Cinna’s dark-brown hair, which had been flattened with pins and a cap to her scalp to allow the wig to settle on her head. She removed the pins holding the wig and the underneath tight-fitting cap in place and then began the process of freeing her hair so that it fell in loose curls around her shoulders.

Elise perched on the edge of her desk as Cinna settled into a chair opposite her. “Did it work?”

“I think so. I caught his attention with my comment on the advertisement like we discussed, and when he seemed interested, I passed him the newspaper. He even asked if he could keep it. He and the man he was sitting with were discussing his dire straits, and his friend seemed quite convinced that March was considering coming for an interview with you.”

Elise watched Cinna pull the remaining pins out of her hair.

“You had no trouble getting into Berkeley’s, then? I always thought they’d be clever enough to catch females trying to sneak inside.”

Cinna shook her head. “My elder brother is still in Scotland, and we resemble each other enough that passing servants don’t seem to notice the difference when I’m dressed like a man. I gave them my brother’s name at the door and spoke with a lower voice from deep within my chest, and they just let me in.” She loosened the ascot around her neck and drew in a deep breath. “Lord, I despise wearing these things. It feels like I’m being strangled. You’d better write that down for your research. Between the ascots and binding my breasts, I feel rather squished. It’s as bad as wearing a corset.”

“So, what exactly did you overhear March say?” Elise asked.

“Well, it’s as you expected, given the dossier you prepared on March. He’s practically penniless. He got by in Paris by bedding some widows who funded his existence. He seems interested in business, but you know how people can be. Being involved in an illegal duel with a man who dies under somewhat disputed circumstances and suddenly no one invites you to parties or wants to do business with you.” Cinna’s tone was light, almost teasing, but her words made Elise frown at Lord March’s situation.

“It was never proven that he killed that man, only that there had been an altercation following the duel and that the gentleman who challenged Lord March died.” Elise moved the vase with the peonies to the side of her desk so she could retrieve the paperwork she’d prepared on Prospero Harrington. The hawk moth fluttered his wings as he repositioned himself on the thickly petaled flowers, but he did not fly off. She scoured the notes she had made the day before.

“The only son of the late Earl of March. He’s thirty-four years old, which means he was only twenty-two at the time of the duel. He left for France shortly after, and his father’s business ventures went from bad to worse over the last decade. He died three months ago. His mother is alive but apparently no longer in London, according to my sources. At this point, the man has nothing much left to offer London society except the title of March for some young woman who’s willing to risk her reputation by marriage to him.”

Cinna toyed with the loose ends of her ascot. “He and his friend were discussing the possibility of an heiress. Are you in the market for a husband?” Cinna winked at Elise. “He’d be happy to take you on, I’m sure.”

“Heavens no. I cannot think of anything more burdensome than a husband. Papa has his steel company and the railway investments to keep him busy, and I have the society to run and my academic papers to pursue.”

“Yes, but your papers are penned under the name Elliott Hamblin,” Cinna reminded her as she fixed Elise with a look. “No one is going to give a woman, even one as brilliant as you, the recognition you deserve in scientific journals. Even if you became the queen of England, they’d still put you in your place because you wear skirts. At best, they’d humor you if you had a nice title and money for their society, but they’d never let you participate as an equal member.”

Elise continued to frown as she leafed through some of the articles she’d collected on Prospero Harrington.

“I love our society,” Cinna said softly. “I love that we have a safe place to learn and teach each other about the things that matter. But what if we can never break the walls trapping us in? We’re no better than butterflies pinned down in a box and covered with glass so that men might come along and admire us until our wings fade in color and the life within us shrivels from loss of food and freedom.”

Cinna wasn’t wrong, and that hurt Elise’s heart more than anything else. Time and again women had doors shut in their faces, conversations stopped, and opportunities removed from their lives simply for the crime of being female. For indeed they were treated no better than prisoners, no matter what level of society they lived at. To be told, over and over, that their minds were smaller, incapable of comprehending mathematics or sciences, that to sit quietly, sew, look pretty and bear children was their only true value . . .

There was nothing wrong with wanting to marry and have children, but every woman was entitled to dream of more, to have dreams that went beyond what they could give men with their bodies. Women deserved the freedom to choose their own paths, their own destinies, whatever they might be.

“In nearly every species except humans, the females are stronger, braver, tougher,” said Elise. “They live longer, have skills or natural advantages that allow them to thrive and carry on their species. They have colors that help conceal them from danger so they might survive. They are the dominant force over the males, so why do humans act so contrary to the laws of nature? We are animals too. We are beholden to the same conditions of this planet as the rest of the creatures on it.”