Chapter Ten

D inner was just as tense as breakfast had been. Elizabeth, it seemed, had given up on hiding in her bedchamber. Unlike this morning, however, she had bathed, put on a new gown, and had allowed her lady's maid to set her hair in an attractive style.

Felix wished he didn't enjoy looking at her as much as he did. Perhaps she had been right to reject him. She was much too beautiful for someone like him. But then, what had been the harm in one dance? He hadn't asked her to spend the rest of her life with him. He'd only asked her to give up a few minutes of her time. What was so wrong about that?

As if sensing that he was thinking about her, Elizabeth looked over at him and narrowed her eyes in a way that let him know how much she detested him. He hurried to avert his gaze. He tried not to stare at her. Really, he did. But it was hard to not look at someone who made him think of Aphrodite in Greek literature. If the goddess of love did exist, she would look just like Elizabeth.

He renewed his grip on his fork then poked it into his fish. It was getting increasingly difficult not to reach out and grab Oscar's glass of wine. If Oscar understood how tempting alcohol was for him, he wouldn't request it when he was in the same room with him. The only thing stopping Felix from taking it was the fact that he'd do something stupid if he drank it. Then he'd embarrass himself in front of Elizabeth, and that would make things worse than they already were.

The dinner seemed to go on forever. If Oscar hadn't rambled on about the ridiculous experiments he was working on with various chemicals, Felix didn't think he could have eaten his food. But, fortunately, Oscar had no trouble talking, even when no one was paying attention to him.

Once the meal came to an end, Elizabeth left the room. Felix assumed she went directly to her bedchamber but didn't watch as she hurried off down the hall. He chose to retreat to his library. When everything had fallen apart around him in the past, he'd taken comfort in his books. This evening was no different.

The best part about his library was that there wasn't a single drop of alcohol in the room. Temptation didn't exist in here. That made it easy to block out the rest of the world and truly enjoy himself.

He poured himself a glass of water then stood in front of one of the many shelves in the room. What was he in the mood to read tonight? Holding the glass, he leaned his backside against the desk as he let his gaze sweep over his collection of books. He wasn't in the mood for something funny. One had to be in a good mood for that. He didn't know if he was in the mood for something sad, either. His life was pitiful enough as it was. He took a sip of water. Maybe he should go with something scary. For all of its faults, his life didn't scare him.

A knock came at his door.

He jerked away from the desk and almost spilled the water on himself. Putting the glass on the desk, he cleared his throat. "Yes?"

"It's Oscar. I want to talk to you for a moment."

Felix felt a mixture of relief and disappointment. He didn't really think Elizabeth would come to his library, and yet, he was hoping she might. It would be nice if they could at least speak to each other. That would make eating in the same room less agonizing. If he could bring himself to do it, he'd eat in his library or his bedchamber. But food didn't belong in those rooms.

Felix glanced at the door. "Come in, Oscar."

The door opened, and Oscar slipped into the room.

"Do you have any food in your pockets?" Felix asked.

"No, my pockets are empty."

Felix relaxed. "Good. What do you want?"

Oscar closed the door and approached him. "I really wish you'd give this thing with Adam more thought. Something like this might work."

Felix tensed back up. "It is impossible to make a love potion. You can't make someone fall in love with you by mixing a bunch of chemicals together."

"You don't know that."

If Felix had known this was what Oscar wanted to pester him about, he never would have let him into the room. Turning his back to Oscar, he scanned the books that were in the section he had dedicated to gothic fiction.

Oscar groaned. "Don't you want to make things better with your wife?"

"I can't make something right with someone who doesn't want to speak to me."

"If she drank a love potion, that could change."

Annoyed, Felix gave up his search for the right book and directed his undivided attention to Oscar. "First, Guy, and now you." He pulled open the top drawer of his desk. "Guy thinks wearing this ring will open the key to opportunity with her." He held up the ring with the yellow garnet stone in it. "And he believes this," he showed him the green four-leafed clover tie pin, "will push me toward that opportunity."

"Oh, those charms are nonsense. There's no science behind that."

"Exactly. This is based on superstition." Felix placed the items back in the drawer and shut it. "Just like this love potion idea you and Adam have. None of it is based on reason."

"On the contrary, what Adam and I are exploring has everything to do with reason. The brain is a complex part of the human body. Everything we think and feel starts there. We've been conducting a careful study on Johann Thomas Hensing's theory of the chemical constitution of the brain. Well, I've been studying more than Adam, but he's the one who found Hensing's research."

"I don't care what Hensing is telling you and Adam when you're at a dinner party. I'm not interested."

"This isn't some gentleman I met at a dinner party. Johann Thomas Hensing was a physician and professor of Natural and Chemical Philosophy in Germany. His work has inspired others. Hensing inspired Antoine Lavoisier to study dead people's brains, and Michel-Augustin Thouret went on to study the tissue in the brain itself. Adam and I acquired a tabular form of brain chemical composition that Antoine Francois de Fourcroy and Nicolas-Louis Vauquelin created. The amount of work they did on the brain's fatty acid constituents is a thing of wonder."

Felix stared at his brother in shock. The words coming out of Oscar's mouth sounded like he was speaking in English, but they might as well have been in a foreign tongue. "I'm not sure what you just said, but you are not allowed to talk like that again, especially when your sister-in-law is in the room."

Oscar rolled his eyes. "It's simple, Felix. Everything these gentlemen researched is based on science. Science is a discipline that builds on itself. What one gentleman discovers, another will take that discovery and find something new because of it. Adam and I can take the chemistry in the brain and find out how to manipulate it."

Felix grimaced then took a drink of water. Maybe if he was drinking alcohol, this conversation would make sense. He still didn't fully grasp what Oscar was talking about. "Why are you telling me all of this?"

"To prove that I'm not dealing with a bunch of nonsense. My work is based on the real world and how it works. This is a safe investment. Take some of the money Guy gave you when he married Lydia, and you'll gain some back when Adam and I sell the love potion."

Oh, so that was what Oscar wanted: money. Felix shook his head. "No."

"But when we succeed, you'll be wealthier than gentlemen like Lord Edon. Think of all the gentlemen who'll line up to buy this. Adam and I will give you 20% of every sale we make. That's a generous offer."

"The answer is still no."

Oscar's jaw dropped. "Why not?"

Felix groaned. "We already had this conversation at breakfast. You can't create a love potion."

"With science, anything is possible."

"Even if science can perform such a feat, you won't be using my money to do it." Felix shot his brother a pointed look, hoping he understood it was pointless to keep arguing with him.

Unfortunately, Oscar asked, "What if this does end up working? This will be the most sought-after potion in the entire world."

Felix banged his glass on the desk and gestured to the door. "Get out!"

Oscar blinked but then let out a heavy sigh and headed for the door, his shoulders sagging in defeat.

Felix shook his head. Oscar had been caught up in his scientific experiments in the past, but he'd never been this obnoxious about it. Imagine Felix trying to use the money Guy gave him for a love potion. The money would go to waste. Of all the terrible things he'd done in his life, he wasn't going to squander that money. Someday, he would die and leave Elizabeth a widow. While he knew Elizabeth would prefer that incident to happen sooner rather than later, he preferred to believe he had a few more decades to go before he slipped into his eternal resting place. And when he did, he wanted to leave his family, including Elizabeth, plenty of money.

Felix cleaned up the water he had spilled on the table then poured more water into his glass. He drank it. It wasn't as good as alcohol, but few things in life were. He turned back to his books, and after five minutes, he finally picked a book to distract himself from the nightmare his life had become.

***

E LIZABETH POURED A small amount of oil onto the cloth then used the cloth to wipe her new cutting tool. She pressed the tool into the glass ball. Tilting the tool toward her, she slowly etched in a swirl. When she was done, she brought up the candle to get a better look at her work. Mr. Preston had been right when he'd promised that this cutting tool could do a fine job. Her old cutting tool had never cut with this much ease.

She set the candle back on the table next to her. All was silent in her bedchamber, and that suited her just fine. Silence helped her work better. It kept her focused. She scanned the collection of objects she had engraved over the years. They were nothing like the exquisite work Mr. Preston had done with the owl. She didn't know if she would ever become that skilled, but she would enjoy trying.

Her gaze returned to the glass ball in front of her. She had yet to add the ship. So far, she'd only worked on the waves of the ocean. All the talk Duncan had done about sailing back to America had inspired this piece of work. She had no desire to engrave the countries bordering the Atlantic Ocean. She just wanted to design the ship with the water around it.

Duncan had promised to send her a missive in a year to let her know how his business was doing. She didn't know if she was looking forward to that or not. She barely knew him, but he seemed like an amiable person. Perhaps if he had stayed in London, they might have been friends. She wondered what it would be like to have a friend.

She shook her head. What nonsense. A lady didn't need friends. She just needed clothes, a roof over her head, food on her plate, and an amusing hobby to pass her days. People could hurt you. Her brother and parents had taught her that. But this very special hobby of hers never hurt her. In fact, it was the one thing that brought her joy, no matter what else was happening in her life.

She brushed the etchings she'd made so far into the glass. Yes, this was a fine cutting tool indeed. She'd been fortunate that no one else had purchased the glass ball or this cutting tool. She smiled and forgot about her loneliness.