Chapter Nine

A fter dinner, when Wendy had left her spicy book on the kitchen table, Dustin leafed through it. It was a sweeping love story with everything the heart desired: passion, longing, and witty banter between Princess Leela and Prince Jai. Some passages had Dustin laughing out loud. His mind wandered to the stunning young woman and her bashful smile when he'd first seen her. "Lexi," he mumbled, for he didn't even know her full name. But there was something about her that drew his thoughts back to her. It didn't matter that he didn't know her name or who her family was. She had captured something within him with her personality and smile that was deeply… unsettling. As a medical professional, Dustin should be concerned about the fluctuations of his heart when he thought of her. But as a man, he longed for more.

If he were courageous like Prince Jai, he'd ride to her house, climb the trellis up to her room—because in a romantic tale, there was always a trellis—wrap his arms around her, and kiss her so thoroughly that it would make even Princess Leela blush, though there was little that could accomplish that based on what he'd read. He'd met plenty of beautiful women and was well-versed in the art of love that Prince Jai only indirectly encountered in the book.

Dustin humphed. Lexi probably didn't even know exactly what went on that made Princess Leela scream with joy. He'd love to show her how the pages could come to life. If she was as curious in bed as she was in his examination room or in the laboratory in the attic, the endeavor would be most scintillating. Trying to suppress the thought, Dustin pinched his eyes shut.

"Dr. Fitzwater, I'm here to pay my bill." A tender voice pierced the stillness of the kitchen and Dustin shook his head. He was starting to hear voices now—specifically Lexi's—and it was time to move on and secure his passage to Maryland before he lost more than his heart to a patient here. "Dr. Fitzwater?"

Dustin twisted his back and looked over his shoulder, ready to dismiss the voice as a figment of his imagination. But when he saw the gorgeous girl standing in the doorway, he shot up from the chair so quickly, it nearly toppled over.

"Miss…" he coughed realizing he still didn't know her surname, "Lexi?" His voice broke like it hadn't since he was fourteen.

"I've come to pay you." Her voice was firm but her gaze gentle.

His heart leaped when he saw her, but his chest tightened. Pay him. The duke who needed money to restore his family's good name, desperately wanted the money.

"No need," he said.

"But I received a bill, I'm here to pay it." She held an envelope out that seemed rather bulky, probably stuffed with banknotes.

"Wendy probably sent the bill, I wouldn't have," Dustin said.

The beauty squinted. Her eyes were lined again and emphasized the clear blue irises even more. She was breathtaking, truly striking, and Dustin let his gaze travel along her outstretched arm toward her chest. "This is my pin money." She put the small envelope stuffed with banknotes on the table. Dustin knew with one glance that it wasn't nearly enough to even cover the material costs, much less his services. And it didn't matter to him.

"This supposed to be a first installment," she said.

" Um , no."

She wrung her hands. "My father won't let me pay from my dowry, so—"

"I won't take your money, thank you," he said and picked up the plate, carried it to the sink, and dropped it in the pan of waiting water.

"But you said you'd be leaving soon, so I thought you'd need the money."

Dustin nodded, avoiding her gaze. He was a duke washing the dishes and she was a high-born lady for all he knew. In fact, it was most likely given her impeccable demeanor and elegant day dress. Dustin knew all too well how the unmarried young women of the ton would live their lives, and there was no room for him.

Her dowry was set aside for titled suitors who'd surely be lining up outside her door every morning with flowers. He was just a dentist now, not a duke who could bestow flowers upon a girl and obtain her father's permission to court her.

"Why are you going to America?" she asked.

"I'm going to the University of Maryland to assume a post at the faculty of dentistry," Dustin said when he turned to her and wiped his hands on a dish towel. "A post is reserved for me." Yes, that was it. He had to make it clear to himself as well as her that he was leaving soon, embarking upon a new life in the New World. He'd leave his title behind, clear the family's name, and finally be free. Except, he wondered, what would this freedom allow him to do if not pursue a girl who'd stirred so much within him?

"Are you going to be a professor then?" she asked.

"In a way, yes."

"And in what way not?" She left the envelope on the table and walked toward him, surveying the sink full of dirty dishes.

"I have an agenda to stop the use of amalgam in dentistry," he said. She raised an eyebrow, so he continued to explain. "It's the material used for the blackish silver fillings. Surely, you've seen it?" She nodded. "Well, it leaks into the tooth and stains it grey," Dustin continued as he rolled up his sleeves and fished for a piece of red beet from the leftovers on one of the plates stacked up next to the sink. Then he squeezed it over a piece of boiled potato on one of the plates, and the beet's juice stained it pinkish red. "Almost like this, but it takes a bit longer. It's not a good material, especially if the mix is bad."

Dustin scraped the food off the plate and began to scrub it with a rag. He was an idiot, scaring a lovely girl away with talk of amalgam and washing the dishes like the pauper he pretended to be. But he couldn't tell her who he was. What if she didn't keep his secret? If he touched her beyond the treatment, he'd ruin her. He could be held in London and forced to assume his position in the House of Lords. Or his name would bring her entire family down. He'd never catch Corrigan, and he'd never clear his name. Self-control was the only way forward.

She remained quiet and watched him rinse plate after plate. He hated it, a dishwasher instead of a duke while he wanted to put on his finest velvet coat and show her who he truly was.

Moments passed. The silence grew uncomfortable.

"It's natural," Dustin mumbled as he set the first clean plate on the counter, bringing his thoughts back to the metal scandal that had set his family's name on the downward slope. He knew all too well that the path of least resistance, the shortcut to riches, was the one most people traveled, regardless of the ethical considerations of their actions. That's why he wasn't rich.

"I don't understand how it could be natural; amalgam is a mix of so many different materials that wouldn't come together in nature. But it's hard to know what it is, isn't it?" Her thoughtful question surprised him.

"I meant, it's natural for humans to search for the easiest solution to a problem," he added.

"Oh. I don't understand how this affects the metal mixtures."

"Well, placing fillings is difficult for the dentist and the patient."

Lexi pinched her lips while her eyes bore witness to her attention to his every word.

"I try to make my patients comfortable," Dustin said, "but not every dentist takes the time to learn how, nor does each dentist proceed to care for his patient's comfort."

"My father always speaks of amalgam as if it were a curse word," Lexi muttered as she unbuttoned her pelisse, sliding it off before she draped it over the back of a chair.

"He's right; it's a curse on the patient. It stains the white part of the tooth, it's porous, and it leaks. It's not a material that's medically sound, and they don't allow it in America yet."

"Is why you want to go to Maryland?"

"Yes and no. If anyone at the Faculty of Dentistry in Maryland begins to use amalgam, everyone will, and the entire continent will suffer just as the British do."

Lexi shook her hand in disgust. "Because it's legal, it's not necessarily ethical."

"Yes, that's why I must go there. The dental faculty in Maryland must hear me out."

She let his words sit and then inhaled to speak again. "I never understood why anyone thought fixing a white tooth with a black material was a good idea. If you had white marble stairs, you wouldn't use a spatula and black paste to fill the cracks."

"Especially not if the black bled into the white," Dustin said, setting the last clean plate on the other side of the sink to dry off.

"And yet it's done with teeth. It's ugly," Lexi added. "The men at the balls, my father's friends, even women—"

"Patients trust the dentists and that's why they don't question the use of the materials. They usually think that a black hole must be stuffed with a black paste," Dustin said.

"I asked you so many questions about the gold," Lexi said with wide-open eyes. Was she embarrassed for her intelligent questions? It had meant the world to him that she cared and, even more, that she appreciated the skill involved in the work he did. "I didn't understand then that it's the amalgam which is so bad."

"Cheap and easy, that's what it is."

"What do you mean? How's a silver mix cheap?" Lexi asked.

"There's so little silver in amalgam that the mix is cheap. And it's soft, like a paste. You can quite easily push it into a hole in the tooth, and it will harden by the next day."

"I thought you said it never hardens completely."

"That's true. It hardens significantly, but amalgam is an alloy of materials, so it has creep, which means it moves and expands. When one puts pressure on the filling by chewing, the metals put pressure on the tooth."

"And the tooth is hard and rigid, so it breaks like glass under pressure?" Her hand flew to her mouth. "That's what happened to my father."

"I can imagine that quite easily. The filling doesn't keep its shape as well as you'd hope, and then the tooth under and around the metal begins to fail."

"Easy, easy. Not everything in life is about being easy." She used clipped words.

"Cheap and easy. It all comes down to money and who has the power to declare amalgam safe and efficient."

"If it's medically unsound, no such declaration is valid. It's unscientific." She crossed her arms; her decision was made. She was adorable and smart. Dustin had never met a female who easily and intelligently spoke to him about material science. He'd never spoken to a woman this freely before, ever.

"Much in medicine is. Amalgam is in the British military. And if I don't intercept the middleman—at least this one, the one that I know of—it'll soon be in America."

"Why is gold better then? It's not white either," Lexi asked.

Dustin leaned back and crossed his arms. "Gold is a whole other story."

"Tell me." Lexi propped her chin on the back of her fist in a girlish way, her eyes bright and curious.

"Gold gives the tightest seal and stays in place indefinitely without affecting the rest of the tooth surface. It does less harm."

"So, it's against the Hippocratic oath to use bad materials?" Lexi asked. "Did you take the oath even though you are a dentist?"

"I did when I completed the first three years of my studies in medicine. Then I trained as a dentist."

"Most dentists aren't doctors but you are." She leaned forward.

He wondered if his golden touch would suffice to redeem what his father's business had damaged? Unable to resolve the question, he plunged his hands back into the soapy water. The only thing he knew for sure was that he'd been a duke, and now he was washing dishes.

Lexi had barely slept the night before with thoughts of the prince-dentist, his tender eyes, and the curl of his breath on her cheek when he worked. He'd healed her but cracked her heart wide open and she feared he'd be the only one who could mend it. Especially when she'd recalled his words: If nobody has kissed you by that time, and you still don't believe you are one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen, come back, and I'll do it.

In a day, the two weeks would have passed since her prince doctor had made his promise. Lexi's heart skipped a beat. She didn't dare. Or did she?

Lexi wasn't sure what to make of this prince-dentist. He had a certain je ne sais quoi that clashed with his surroundings. For certain, his mannerisms were refined, and he seemed more like a gentleman on a quest rather than a crafty laborer, almost as if he didn't belong in this setting. Now, mesmerized by the mystery, Lexi couldn't take her eyes off him.

He'd rolled his white linen sleeves up and she saw the blood vessels and tendons under his skin as he moved his muscular arms. Although his hands were large and manly, she knew how tender and precise their movements could be and she wanted to feel them again. Bony wrists under his smooth skin were evidence of his youth, but the strength in his broad shoulders spoke of menial labor. Yet how was it possible that he seemed like a prince?

Carried by her curiosity and the desire to smell his enticing scent again, Lexi erased the distance between them. He stilled and turned to face her, his breath hitching and his Adam's apple bobbing visibly. Although he was only about half a head taller than she, he brought his eyes to the level of hers. He withdrew his hands from the pan of water, and they dripped soapy water.

Lexi took the dish towel from the handle on the cabinet next to her and handed it to him. He took it but she didn't let go of it and when he pulled the towel closer, she came so close that her nose almost touched his.

With parted legs, his stance was strong. His gaze burrowed into hers. Lexi felt seen like never before. Although she couldn't think of anything to say, she felt more alive in this little kitchen tucked into the back of a rowhouse in Marylebone than she'd ever felt at the most lavish balls. She sucked in air as if she were drowning, and filled her chest with courage not to withdraw for she was as terrified to be near him as she was eager to get closer.

Except that closer meant that she'd touch him.

As she filled her lungs his eyes fell to the lace on her collar, and he parted his lips when his gaze returned to hers.

If nobody has kissed you… Lexi thought. Had he meant those words? Maybe he did? Would he kiss her? She leaned in even closer…