Chapter Nineteen

F elix spent a half hour trying to read a book, but his mind kept going back to the art gallery earlier that afternoon. On his wedding day, if anyone had told him that something this wonderful would happen to him, he wouldn't have believed them. Elizabeth had been so angry with him then—and rightly so. But today, she went with him to the art gallery, and they'd had a wonderful time. Why, they had even enjoyed some jokes. His heart was bursting with joy. Things just might work out between them after all.

Someone knocked on the library door and dragged his mind back to the present. At some point, he had stopped looking at his book and had turned his gaze to the window. He blinked in surprise. He didn't recall looking out the window. That only proved he had been lost so far into his thoughts that the rest of the world had faded away from him.

He set the book aside then strode to the door. He didn't realize he'd been hoping the person on the other end was Elizabeth until he felt the stab of disappointment when he saw the butler.

"Forgive the interruption," the butler said. "The footman and I believe we know the identity of the person who wrote that reprehensible message on the front door."

Felix shushed him then stuck his head out into the hallway. Once he noted that Elizabeth wasn't anywhere in sight, he urged the butler to enter the library. The butler complied, and Felix shut the door. "I don't want Lady Roland to know about this."

"No one has said anything about it to her," the butler assured him.

Felix relaxed. Good. That was one less thing he had to worry about.

"The footman and I spoke with the servants working in the neighboring townhouses, and a chambermaid down the street saw a young man wearing a cloak hurrying down the street with a pail and a paintbrush at 4:30 this morning. She says he ran into the home that belongs to Lord Humphrey."

Lord Humphrey? That gentleman lived only five townhouses down from him. Felix couldn't believe someone who lived in such close proximity would do something so brazen. If it was him, he would only paint something crude on a door if he lived at least several blocks from the townhouse. Not that he would do something like that. He might have his faults, but ruining people's doors wasn't one of them.

"Thank you, Douglas," Felix told the butler. "I will have a talk with Lord Humphrey."

The butler nodded and left the room.

Felix walked to the window. He could see Lord Humphrey's residence from here. The gentleman was older in years. Felix thought he had three sons, two of which were already married. But honestly, he knew very little about the gentleman or the gentleman's family.

Felix put his hands behind his back and rolled on the balls of his feet. How was he going to initiate a conversation with Lord Humphrey?

The door opened. Heartbeat picking up, Felix turned from the window. But again, it wasn't Elizabeth who had come to talk to him. This time it was Oscar. And Oscar didn't look happy.

"Why did you have my bedchamber cleaned?" Oscar demanded.

"I didn't. I just had the food and drinks taken out."

"One of those drinks wasn't an actual drink. I combined a couple of chemicals together and was giving them time to mix. I was supposed to take that solution to the lab this evening."

"Why would you mix chemicals together and take it to your bedchamber? Why not just leave it in the lab?"

"Because if the solution had a bad reaction, I wanted to be there to get rid of it."

"What kind of bad reaction?"

"There could be an explosion, it could have bubbled up and poured everywhere, or it could have burned the beaker. I don't know what to expect when I'm working with a new combination of chemicals."

Felix's eyes widened. "You put chemicals that might explode in your bedchamber?"

"It's fine. I know how to handle chemicals if there's a bad reaction."

"But you were sleeping," Felix pointed out.

"I put the beaker close to my bed so I could wake up in time to prevent any damage from happening. I've been doing this for years without any problems."

Felix put his hand over his heart. The room spun around him. "What... How... When... Why...?" Just how many times had Oscar brought something potentially dangerous to his bedchamber without Felix knowing about it? Once he was able to speak coherently, he said, "This is unacceptable. I refuse to let you take any more of those solutions to your bedchamber. From now on, you will keep all of the things you need for your experiments in the lab."

"But it takes a day or two for some of these solutions to start working. You can't expect me to stay down there and watch the beakers for that long."

"Then take one of the beds from the attic so you can sleep in the lab."

"There's no space in that lab for a bed."

"There has to be," Felix insisted.

"Have you even been to that room?"

"Not since you talked me into converting the morning room into a lab."

Oscar gestured to the bookshelves all over the library. "Well, it looks a lot like this except I have beakers, test tubes, cylinders, balances, droppers, gloves, extra glasses for eye protection, funnels, lab coats, thermometers, burners, pH meters, and a lot of books. Oh, and there's crucibles, tongs—"

"Enough," Felix interrupted. The spinning sensation was worse now. He hurried over to a chair and plopped down in it before he fainted. Every time Oscar went on and on about his work, Felix couldn't handle it. "I understand. You have a lot of things in there."

"And I need the space that's left to move around in there."

Felix had to wait a long moment for his head to clear. "I can't allow you to do experiments that might burn down this townhouse. I know we have money now, but I don't want to put it all into repairs."

"My experiments won't burn down the townhouse. I have everything under control."

Felix shot him a skeptical look. "And part of having everything under control is putting solutions that might explode next to your bed?"

Oscar groaned. "I know my bedchamber is a mess. I know I put food in my pocket so I have something to eat when I'm not near the dining room. But I assure you that I keep things as clean as you do when it comes to my lab."

"That doesn't do any good if you mix chemicals together that could explode at any moment." When Oscar opened his mouth to protest, Felix jumped to his feet and held up his hand to stop him. "I realize you would not intentionally burn down this townhouse. But as long as there's a chance this could happen, I'm not comfortable with it. Elizabeth lives here, too. I can't risk losing all of her things to a fire because you mixed the wrong chemicals together." He took a deep breath and released it. "I'm sorry. It's too dangerous. You'll have to find another hobby."

Oscar cut him off before he could continue. "This is not a hobby. This is my work."

"Oh, Oscar, there is no such thing as a love potion, nor will there ever be." How many times did Felix have to say it before his brother finally accepted it? "You can't create something that makes people fall in love with each other. It's impossible."

"You never believed in anything I did in that lab. Worse, you don't even try to understand what I do in there. All you think I'm good for is fixing things around the place. ‘Oscar, I need you to fix the roof in the attic.' ‘Oscar, I need you to make sure there aren't any animals loose around here.' ‘Oscar, replace the front door of this townhouse because someone wrote that Elizabeth is a witch on it.'"

Felix gasped and glanced over at the open door. Thankfully, Elizabeth wasn't there. He shushed his brother. "Don't say that so loud. I don't want Elizabeth to know about the door."

Oscar grunted. "My point is that when you need me, I'm good enough for you. But when it comes to my work, you have no use for me."

"That's not true. I allowed you to set up a lab here."

"And now you're telling me that I can't do my experiments anymore because Elizabeth is here. And, as if that isn't insulting enough, you won't even give me a smidgen of faith that I can accomplish something great."

"I know you can accomplish something great, Oscar. That great thing is just not going to be a love potion."

Oscar's expression darkened. He straightened the front of his tailcoat. "I don't need to keep taking this. There are plenty of people who believe I can make a love potion. I'll move my lab to one of their townhomes."

"Maybe you should do that. Isn't Adam working on that potion with you?"

"He started working on it but had to do some other work."

Felix's eyebrows rose in surprise. So Adam had decided to back away from the project? Maybe he finally realized one couldn't force something like love onto others.

Oscar waved his finger at him. "Stop saying it."

"I'm not saying anything."

"Maybe not with words, but you are speaking with your eyes."

Felix sighed. "It might be for the best that Adam is occupied with something else. This is a sign."

"It is not a sign. I know what I'm doing when it comes to chemistry, and I will create this potion. If it's the last thing I do, I'm going to prove it to you." Oscar stormed to the door.

Alarmed, Felix chased after him. "I don't want you to leave, Oscar. We can find a place for you to have this lab. Or, if you really want the lab here, I can arrange for one of the servants to watch the beakers with chemicals in them while you're asleep."

Oscar stopped in his tracks and spun around to face Felix.

Felix almost ran into him.

"I do not need someone to watch a beaker for me," Oscar snapped. "I am perfectly capable of doing that myself. I am not stupid."

"I didn't mean to imply you were stupid. I'm only worried that something will explode."

"You only think it might do that because you think I'm too stupid to watch the beaker myself."

Felix thought about pointing out that Oscar admitted to sleeping while he waited for chemicals to mix together, but he didn't want to upset his brother further. He chased after Oscar again, but Oscar turned out to be too fast for he reached his bedchamber before Felix could reach him. Oscar slammed his door so hard that Felix came to an abrupt stop.

The laundry maid came running over to him from Felix's bedchamber. "Is something wrong, Lord Roland?" she asked.

After taking a moment to calm down, Felix shook his head. "No, nothing's wrong."

The maid glanced at Oscar's closed door with an uncertain expression on her face, but then she nodded and returned to the new sheets she was putting on Felix's bed.

Felix waited in the hall for a couple of minutes for Oscar to come out until he gave up and returned to the library.