"Yes, you can." He began to eat, watching her as he did so. "Tell me what you feel."
Theo took a mouthful of chicken, then gave up. This game had chased away all vestige of ordinary appetite. She leaned back in her chair, her breasts lifting on her rib cage. "Everything?" Her voice was low, her eyes a swirling riot of arousal.
"Everything."
Chapter Twenty-seven
"So you see, Edward, it won't be at all dangerous for either of us." Theo sat back in the swaying darkness of the carriage, bearing them to the Vanbrughs' rout party that evening.
Edward shook his head. "You are suggesting that you'll lead Neil Gerard into the maze at Hampton Court and get him to talk at gun point about Vimiera, while I hide behind a goddamned box hedge listening, so if he says anything incriminating, there'll be a witness? Theo, you have windmills in your head."
"It'll work," she said stubbornly. "He was at Vimiera, and he's behind these attacks on Sylvester. Now we just have to find out what really happened. Then we can tell Sylvester what we've discovered, and he can do what he wants with it. If it's enough to reopen the court-martial, then he can clear his name once and for all."
"But just why hasn't Stoneridge hit upon such a brilliant plan himself, if, as you're so certain, he knows that Neil Gerard is the man who's been trying to kill him?" Edward inquired with naked sarcasm.
"I don't know," Theo said as stubbornly as before. "I don't know because he won't tell me anything. But this will work – only there has to be an objective witness."
Edward sighed. "You're playing with fire, Theo. As badly as you were on Dock Street. And if Stoneridge sends you to live with his mother, I wouldn't blame him," he declared unequivocally.
"Oh, you're so infuriatingly priggish these days." Theo sat forward urgently, laying her hand on his satin-clad knee. "Nothing could be simpler. He wishes to drive to Hampton Court, and it's a perfect place. You be waiting on Curzon Street and simply follow us. Gerard will never notice a curricle behind him. And he won't notice anyone following in the general press of people at Hampton Court. My wanting to go into the maze will be the most natural thing in the world. There's no way he could harm me in such a place, and anyway, I'll be the one with the pistol."
"And what makes you think he won't be armed himself?"
Theo detected the beginning of a waver in her friend's opposition. "Why would he be? Besides, I don't think he's too clever."
"What makes you think that?" Edward asked glumly.
"If he had been, he'd have succeeded in killing Sylvester by now. He strikes me as thoroughly clumsy."
Edward couldn't find any argument to this terse rejoinder. However, he felt obliged to point out that even the not so bright and clumsy could be extremely dangerous. In fact, possibly more so, since they could be unpredictable.
"Yes, but we won't be in the least danger," Theo said impatiently. "How could we be, in such a circumstance?"
The carriage arrived at their destination, and Edward took advantage of the opportunity to delay his response. "I'll tell you at the end of the evening," he said, jumping down and reaching up his hand to help her alight. "But if you mention it again before we're in the carriage on the way home, I won't entertain the idea. Is that understood?"
"Yes, Edward," Theo said meekly, laying her hand on his arm, wondering why the men in her life had become such high sticklers.
Link boys were running up and down the street directing the press of carriages, and lights blazed from the open door at the head of a red carpet rolled over the pavement.
"Oh, dear," Theo said, "I do so hate these parties."
But Edward didn't seem to hear. He was trying to catch the eye of a tall gentleman in naval uniform some yards ahead of them under the awning as they proceeded to the entrance.
"Who is it?" Theo asked curiously, standing on tiptoe.
"I'm certain it's Hugo Lattimer," Edward said. "He was first lieutenant on the ship that brought me from Spain. Without his aid I'm sure I would have died. He gave me his cabin and slung his own hammock in the gun room. He was the soul of kindness, always ready to talk when I was really hipped, and his man Samuel nursed me as if I were a baby."
"Then I owe him my thanks," Theo declared. Cupping her hands around her mouth, she called, "Lieutenant Lattimer, sir?"
The tall young man turned, piercing green eyes raking the startled throng. Theo, blushing as she realized the attention she'd drawn to herself, waggled her fingers at him.
"Theo! How could you?" Edward exclaimed in a fierce whisper, but the naval officer had stepped aside from the column and was waiting for them to reach him.
"Fairfax," he said warmly, extending his hand. "It's good to see you looking so well, man."
"Oh, I'm doing well enough, Lattimer. May I introduce the Countess of Stoneridge. Theo, this is Lieutenant… oh, no I beg your pardon, Captain Lattimer. I didn't notice the epaulets, Hugo. Congratulations."
"I do beg your pardon for shouting in that indecorous way, sir," Theo said. "But I was so infected with Edward's enthusiasm that I became carried away. He was saying how good you were to him on the voyage, and since he is my very best friend, I couldn't wait to meet you and thank you."
"Your very best friend?" drawled a pleasant, slightly husky voice. "Fairfax is indeed a lucky man."
"Well, there is my husband, of course," Theo said cheerfully. "But we are friends in a rather different fashion, you should understand, sir."
"Oh, I believe I do." The naval officer's slightly startled eyes shot toward Edward.
"Theo and I have known each other since nursery days, Hugo," he said.
"That would explain it," Hugo Lattimer said. "Are you recently arrived in London, ma'am?"
"It seems we've been here forever," Theo said, finding something very comfortable about this man. It wasn't just that Edward spoke highly of him, although that would have been enough, but there was a humorous spark in his eyes and a twist to his mouth, and when he laughed, as he did now, it was a rich, merry sound. He would be about twenty-five, she decided, a couple of years older than Edward.
"That tedious, eh?"
"Precisely, sir." Laughing with him, Theo entered the house and moved to the stairs to greet Lady Georgiana Vanbrugh.
She'd hoped to spend some more time with Edward's savior, hoped even for a dance, but to her disappointment Hugo Lattimer disappeared as soon as they'd reached the ballroom. She glimpsed him once or twice throughout the evening, standing against the wall, a glass in his hand, and his expression had lost the cheerful spontaneity that had so appealed to her. In fact, he looked morose, and there were shadows in the green eyes.
She thought of approaching him herself, but there was now something strangely forbidding about him, as if he were constructing a thicket around himself.
"Captain Lattimer doesn't seem to be enjoying himself," she observed to Edward when they'd met up with Elinor and her sisters and were sitting in the supper room.
"I've never yet met a naval officer who's content when he's waiting for a new command," Edward said. "They exist on half pay and haunt the Admiralty, and twiddle their thumbs the rest of the time."
"Mmm." Theo didn't sound convinced.
"He drinks a great deal," Edward said somewhat reluctantly. "Not while he's sailing, but as soon as he's in port. I was with him at Southampton, when we landed. There's something that troubles him. He calls them painted devils."
"Oh," Theo said. "Invite him to join us, Edward."
"I don't think that's wise, Theo," Elinor said, glancing at her older daughters. "If the gentleman chooses to keep himself to himself, then we should respect that"