Page 56 of To Wed an Heiress
“Yes, I think it is.”
“It’s difficult on you, too,” he said, surprising her. “I’m sorry.”
“And I’m sorry for your loss,” she said. “I’m guessing that you loved your brother a great deal.”
He nodded. “Robert raised me after our parents died. He was the one who insisted that I go to school in Edinburgh.”
“What would he think about your adventures now? Would he be angry that you didn’t finish your schooling?” Before he could answer, she asked him the one question that had truly intrigued her. “Why did you go to school to become a doctor when you’ve invented all those things?”
“I needed a profession,” he said. “Tinkering was not a suitable occupation.”
“I think you do more than tinker, Lennox.”
He glanced at her.
“Your airships,” she said. “They’re quite involved and intricate.”
He nodded, then led the way down the corridor to the kitchen.
Irene wasn’t there, but the pan of tablet was on the table under the window. Lennox ignored it, going to the cupboard for his bag.
“Will we need whiskey again?” she asked.
“To drink or for medicinal purposes?”
“I think I should avoid drinking it from now on,” she admitted. “It put me to sleep.”
“I don’t think we need it.”
To her surprise, removing the stitches took only a moment.
When he was finished she said, “I thought it would hurt.”
“Did it?”
“No. It was just a pinch.”
Lennox combed his fingers through her hair, an intimate gesture she should have rebuffed.
She should’ve pulled away, too, when he placed his hands on either side of her face and tilted her head back.
“There you go, Miss Mercy. All healed and as good as new.”
“Thank you, Your Lordship.”
“If I agree not to call you Miss Mercy, will you simply call me Lennox?”
She nodded.
His grin startled her. “Would you like to see what I’m working on now?”
“In the courtyard?”
He nodded.
Would he remove his shirt again? That was a question she wouldn’t ask, but she hoped he did.
Why was it permissible to look at a statue of a Greek or Roman, to admire the form, the sculptor’s talent, and not feel admiration for a living body?
