Page 87 of The English Duke
She gently pried off the back of theGoldfish, her fingers tracing the complex web of pulleys, gears, and chains. She’d launched her ship every day since returning to Griffin House. The mystery still tantalized her and would until she solved it.
Today, however, the sight of theGoldfishbrought on a surprising feeling of sadness. She was more than just her inventions, more than her calculations, her notes, and her experiments.
Even her father, who’d made this cottage his hermitage, had been married twice. She’d known, from their conversations, that he’d adored her mother. She’d often wondered if he loved Marie, but it wasn’t a question she would have asked. Still, he’d ventured out into the world and found someone to love before retreating into his work.
Some people might say she’d done the same, but in an abbreviated manner. In actuality, she’d only allowed circumstances to dictate her actions. She’d never, like Josephine, gripped Fate with both hands, shaken it, and demanded it behave as she wanted.
Where had Josephine gotten her confidence? Martha had never felt such self-possession and poise. Did it come from being beautiful? Of being assured people would notice your appearance, remark upon it, and praise you as if it was something you did? What happened when you aged or if your beauty faded?
Her looks had never before mattered to her. She’d been grateful she wasn’t completely plain, but she’d never wanted to turn a man’s head, at least until now. She didn’t want the attention of any man. Just one.
She’d been thinking of Jordan, not the ship’s guidance system. Her left hand hesitated on a twisted chain. She examined it closely, realizing it had slipped from the rudder.
When she’d created this prototype, she’d duplicated her father’s guidance system exactly, down to the links of the chain and the placement of every component.
Now she stared at it realizing that while the gap wasn’t large enough that she would have noticed it normally, her fingers had registered the deviation.
Standing, she walked to the shelves where all her father’s tools were stored and picked up a pair of crimps. Once back at the table, she began to make an adjustment by pulling off the forward part of the rudder. She stared at it for a moment, remembering the day more than a year ago when she’d first examined her father’s ship. She’d thought that retrieving it from the lake and bringing it back to the cottage had caused the chain to come loose from the rudder.
But what if it hadn’t? What if her father had removed it on purpose? Doing so would cause the rudder to drag slightly in the water, but maybe the drag would also aid in its steering.
She put the crimps down without using them.
Instead, she carefully returned theGoldfishto its crate and replaced the top.
Tomorrow she’d fuel the ship from the compressor and try another run. Maybe, just maybe, this small change might mean the guidance system worked.
If she succeeded, if theGoldfishhit the target, she would have a reason to write Jordan. Or she could just wait until he arrived.
How could she bear watching him marry Josephine?
She would simply have to.
Chapter 25
Jordan asked his driver to stop for a few moments on a hill overlooking Griffin House. Behind him, Reese’s carriage did the same. Reese sat with him while the other vehicle contained his valet, Henry, and his trunks.
In two days he’d be wed to a woman he didn’t know and wasn’t certain he liked. He’d delayed until the last possible moment before leaving Sedgebrook. This journey was the first time he’d left his house in nearly fourteen months.
Griffin House surprised him. He’d expected a manor house, square and solid on the landscape. What he saw was a sprawling estate, nearly the equal of his own home.
The main part of the house was a four-story Palladian building in dark red brick with white columns and cornices. Two wings stretched on either side of the structure and behind those were smaller buildings. A scaffold erected on the western side of the house was a symbol of the York wealth. He couldn’t afford to do any major repairs to Sedgebrook, but money was no consideration to the York family.
Behind the house, surrounded by a good-sized forest, was a lake. Matthew had described it better than his home.
“Impressive place,” Reese said from beside him. “At least she’s an heiress.”
He glanced at Reese but didn’t answer. Yes, at least Josephine was an heiress. That fact didn’t ease the discomfort he felt about his coming marriage, however.
After giving the signal to the driver to continue on, he settled back against the seat and clenched his hand around the top of his new walking stick, a wedding gift from Reese. The gold top of the ebony wood cane was formed in the shape of a griffin, the body of a lion topped with the head and wings of an eagle. He wondered if Reese knew the mythology, that the griffin was the king of all creatures and responsible for guarding treasure. Or had he merely procured the walking stick as a bit of irony considering the name of the York home.
Regardless, he’d brought it with him and he clutched it now, girding himself mentally for the arrival at Griffin House and his reunion with the York women.
He’d been unable to stop thinking of one of them ever since she’d left, but it hadn’t been his soon-to-be bride. Instead, Martha had filled his thoughts. Every time he’d begun work on the new leveling device for his ship he’d seen her smile. Whenever he was working on the pendulum, he heard her voice, low and seductive.
He pictured her in different places throughout his home: in the dining room, her eyes wide at something outrageous her sister had said. He couldn’t remember Josephine’s words, only Martha’s startled expression. Or standing on the landing at Sedgebrook’s entrance, trying to hide the compassion in her eyes and failing miserably.
He’d never thought his memory to be perfect, but he’d been able to remember each of their conversations, how she charmed him when he was certain she hadn’t meant to, or annoyed him when he was sure that had been her intention. She amused him and challenged him and made him wish circumstances were different and he could retrace his steps in time.
