Page 73 of Aurelia

“You are not invading and I am finished work for the day.”

“My first night back you said you would show me your paintings, but we were… interrupted.”

Aurelia recalled the evening well. Lord Crewe had come in and found them laughing and had looked almost frosty. No doubt he believed an impoverished artist was an inappropriate match for his son.

“I would be glad to show you some paintings.”

Captain Walker grinned, the expression so like his father’s that she felt an odd little flutter in her belly.

“I have another favor to ask, too.”

“Yes?” she asked, taking three loosely wrapped paintings from the rack where she kept them.

“I wondered if you would come with me to visit my mother. She is very curious about you and I’ve promised to do my best to lure you to her cottage.”

“Of course, I will come,” she said, ashamed by how very, very curious she was to meet the woman not just because she was Guustin’s mother, but because she was the earl’s former lover. Or at least she thought they were no longer lovers. But who knew?

“Are you free this afternoon?” he asked.

“I can come today,” she said. Celsa would be disappointed, but Aurelia would explain it was an unusual circumstance.

Aurelia gestured to the paintings she’d laid out. “The originals of these have already gone to Edinburgh, but I make copies of my favorite ones for myself. In my spare time,” she felt compelled to add.

“What an astounding shade of pink!” he exclaimed when she removed the paper from the first painting. “And that is also an unusual bill—beak?” he asked, giving her a questioning look.

“It is called a bill. This is a roseate spoonbill.”

“It certainly is striking. And very lifelike, although it is difficult to imagine such a flamboyantly colored creature surviving in the wild.”

“Arthur said he saw great flocks of them. It must take one’s breath away to see the sky turn pink,” Aurelia said. She uncovered the next painting. “This one is called a red velvet ant.”

He laughed. “It is shockingly red and velvety.”

“Yes, it is. It is not an ant, but a wasp. And the earl says it has one of the most painful stings of anything he’s experienced.”

“Isn’t there a saying about beauty often concealing danger?”

“I seem to recall having heard that,” she said, amused. And then she uncovered the last one.

Captain Walker sucked in his breath and looked up from the painting, his expression one of surprise. “Is this—”

“Yes, it is the panther that attacked his lordship and killed Lady Crewe.”

“You mean it is the same kind of animal.”

“No, it is the exact same one. One of the bearers shot the panther and Arthur managed to salvage a great deal of the animal through some skillful taxidermy.” She cocked her head at him, surprised. “Have you not seen Arthur’s menagerie in the armory?”

He smiled, the action crinkling the skin at the corner of his eyes the same way it did his father’s. “I’ll be honest with you, Miss Burton—but don’t tell my father or my cousin—but those stuffed animals give me the woolies so I’ve not actually gone down there.”

Aurelia laughed as she returned the paintings to their proper places.

Just then the door opened and the earl entered. Aurelia could not help thinking this was exactly the way the three of them had encountered each other the last time.

“Beekman told me that you were looking for me this morning while I was out?” he said to Aurelia, his habitual smile nowhere in sight and his gaze reserved, which is how he had looked at her ever since giving her a ride back from the tea shop a week ago.

Aurelia told herself she was relieved he no longer teased her at dinner or sought her out to go riding or rock pooling or anything else. And the few times she had inadvertently encountered him—twice in the library and once down in the specimen room—they’d both hastily excused themselves.

She repeatedly reminded herself that a more businesslike relationship was what she had wanted all along. If she said it often enough, and for long enough, she might even begin to believe it.