Page 58 of An Unfamiliar Duke

“Deuce take it, I missed him!”

“The courier?”

“Yes.” He ran the fingers of his free hand through his hair. “He sent a message to say that he would be here by one o’clock.”

“Will he return another time?”

“If there was nothing for him today, he was told to return in two days.”

“Then all is not lost. He will be back.”

“Two days, Rosalind.” His voice rang with regret. “It can make all the difference in the race these inventors have embarked upon.”

“Have you finished reviewing the sheets?”

“All but the last one, which, in actuality, is the first one.”

“I do not understand.”

He smiled. “Forgive me. It must seem as though I am talking in riddles. I have completed all the paperwork that outlines how the mechanism functions. The only pages remaining are the ones that list the specifications of the machine itself. Those figures are static and are used within the more complex calculations as necessary.”

Rosalind picked up the paper she had rescued. “This was crushed beneath your arm. Is it the one?”

“Yes.” He sighed. “I’ve been unable to find a flaw anywhere in the mechanical engineering equations. I had thought I would read through the final specifications just so that I could tell Meikle I had looked through every page.”

“Meikle? He is the inventor?”

“He is.”

Rosalind swallowed the lump in her throat. Sometime between when Sebastian had taken her hand and now, they had crossed an indiscernible line together. “I will not betray your trust, Sebastian. Or Mr. Meikle’s.”

“I know,” he said.

“I . . . I glanced at this page when I tried to smooth out the wrinkles. I long to understand how numbers can be used in the way you describe. Would you show me one day? When you are not too busy or tired or . . .”

“Yes,” he said. “And this page would be the perfect place to start.”

“Now?” she gasped. “What about your food?”

He tilted his head so that he could see the plate on the table. “Did you bring Chelsea buns?”

“Two for you and one for me.”

He grinned. “Perfect. It will be our reward for reviewing this last page together.” He rose and drew her to her feet. “Come. We will sit together at the table.”

When Rosalind was seated, Sebastian set all the other papers in a tidy pile at the far end of the table and placed the page he’d been holding before her. “Do you know how to calculate the area of a surface?” he asked, sitting beside her.

“Yes. You take the length of the object and multiply it by the width.”

“Very good.”

Rosalind warmed at the admiration in his eyes.

“What about the volume of a cylinder?”

“You find the area of the circle and multiply it by the length,” she said.

Sebastian raised his eyebrows. “Your governess has my deepest respect.”