Magic in the Stars (12 page)

“I cannot bed an army sergeant. If it is now my duty to produce
heirs, I need a wife. You will behave until that happens, or I’ll poison you in
your sleep.”

Duncan snorted. “Cook is doing a damned fine job of that
already. Who told him I was supposed to eat pig swill?”

“Cook quit. We’re all eating pig swill. But Lady Azenor is
bringing in a troop of servants. I’m hoping she’ll know a cook who won’t mind
dogs in the kitchen.”

Unable to see the latch to the wardrobe, Duncan thumped his
fist against the panel until it popped open. “The solution there is
astonishingly obvious,” he said dryly.

“Right, build Will his own kitchen so he can raise his
litters in it. My observatory comes first, though.” Theo slammed out, shutting
in the damned hounds and leaving the marquess to dodge puppies and find his own
trousers.

Not hearing screams from the bathing room just yet, he took
the north stairs down, planning on cutting through the courtyard to the stable.
Outside, he glanced back at the house—and saw a chain of sheets being lowered
from the bathing room window.

Aster was not so intrepid that she had any particular
intention of climbing out the window. She actually
longed
to soak her bruises in a hot tub of water. Like her cats, she
was a creature of comfort who preferred warmth and order and pampering.

She did not, however, appreciate being hauled about and
locked up as if she were a noisome basset hound.

And she had no intention of undressing until she had clean
clothing in which to dress herself when she was done. Not to mention that she
couldn’t unfasten her laces without help.

She smirked in triumph as Lord Theo saw her warning flag. By
the time he’d stormed back up the stairs, she’d located another key on the door
frame and unlocked the door. Men were so very predictable. She returned the key
to the frame and stepped into the corridor as he reached the landing, breathing
fire and brimstone.

“I will need a maid and my trunks before I can accept your
generous offer of hot water,” she said amiably, limping down the hall. “I would
like to check on the rooms assigned to my family.”

“You need a keeper,” he replied in a surly growl, stalking
ahead of her to throw open doors. “Maids.” He gestured at a narrow room.

“Your sister.” He opened the door on an elegant four-poster
covered in what appeared to be a fading medieval tapestry.

“Your cousin.” Another poster bed. A slightly more frayed
tapestry.

“Clean linen.” A lovely closet crammed with what was
probably threadbare sheets. “Mrs. Smith only tipples in the afternoon after her
duties are done.”

Trying to ignore his masculine ire, Aster studied the chambers
he opened. “Since they did not bring their own maids, I think it would be best
if Briana and Deirdre share a room. I take it you do not house maids in your
servants’ attic?”

“Not currently. If yours want the female dormer, Mrs. Smith
can show them where to find linens. I couldn’t tell her if you were bringing
ladies’ maids or how many.”

“My great-aunt will be joining us as a chaperone. She’ll
require this chamber with a fireplace. Her feet are often cold, and she likes
to put them up before a good fire. We’re training new girls as ladies’ maids
and underservants. Let’s keep them near us for now. This room with the trundle
beds should suffice.”

She verified that there were stairs on either end of the
corridor, plus the stairs on the connecting wing. Aster supposed that was
necessary for safety, but she’d have to find means of keeping out male
intruders. Great-Aunt Nessie was for appearances only. Practically speaking,
she was half-deaf and would be useless as a chaperone. On the other hand,
Nessie wasn’t likely to fret too much over howling dogs and inexplicable explosions.

A commotion of crashes, curses, and howls from below
indicated new arrivals.

“Don’t!” His lordship warned, catching her arm before she
could hurry to greet her company. “You will ruin that foot if you hobble about
anymore. I’ll send everyone up to you to order about as you please.”

She sighed in exasperation and gazed up at her tall host.
Lord Theo truly had amazing silver-blue eyes, but his brows were drawn down in
vexation, giving him a most uncongenial expression. “Perhaps if you will accept
that I can take care of myself, and you would better spend your time taking
care of your brothers, we might swim along a trifle better.”

He scowled even more but gave her suggestion some thought.
“I don’t want to lose your help before the guests arrive. I am trying to
protect you from the worst of Iveston’s elements and show off the best. If you
will promise not to run screaming into the night once I turn my back, I will
attempt to do as you say.”

“Do I look like someone who runs screaming into the night?”
she asked with asperity.

“Yes, actually you look like a ball of fluff. But so do
Saturn’s rings and they’re not, so I’ll accept that you’re tougher than you
look. Hie yourself to the bathing room, and I’ll have your trunks and maid sent
up.”

Aster didn’t know if a
ball
of fluff
was flattering, or what Saturn’s rings might be. She didn’t know
how to take his lordship’s seeming agreement when he was still ordering her
about. She tried very hard not to think about Lord Theo at all after he’d
departed. Instead, she mentally rearranged rooms for her servants. When her
muddled mind deemed that impossible—his hands upon her had left an indelible
impression on her thoughts as well as her person—she decided to be irritated at
his arrogance. She would be very glad to send him about his business while she
went about hers.

Perhaps he was right. Perhaps if she despised him, they
could work together.

Her cousin and sister arrived battered and torn and not
precisely happy—until she introduced them to the bathing room.

They gasped in wonder and began darting about, examining the
linen wardrobe, turning up the sconces—and revealing the naked mural. Even that
didn’t disturb them greatly. Their family homes contained Roman statues and
even an ancient mosaic or two.

“Oh, this is marvelous! I shall marry Lord Theo just for his
tub,” Briana declared worshipfully, running her hand over the tiled enclosure.

“You know nothing of mathematics, farming, animals, or tenants,”
Aster reminded her sister, perhaps a trifle waspishly. “And you enjoy the city
too much and lack the patience to endure living in this rural outpost
surrounded by heathen Ives.”

She wasn’t any better, Aster reminded herself. She
needed
the city and its libraries and
lectures. She had to quit behaving like a bird-witted miss because a strong,
handsome scientist had swept her across the threshold in his arms.

“Emilia would love that courtyard for her herbs,” Deirdre
said loyally. “Perhaps if she marries an Ives and gains her inheritance, she
could hire people to manage this place.”

“Emilia won’t be of much help to Lord Theo,” Aster warned.
“She always has her head stuck in a book or her laboratory. But the marquess
might be a convenient match for her. From the sounds of it, he throws things. She
could ignore him.”

Limping, she left to direct the new maids in their duties.
Fresh from her Aunt Daphne’s rural village, the maids might know how to milk
cows, but they’d never seen wardrobes of the size and elegance of Iveston Hall.
Azenor explained where things went, had them press out fresh gowns under the
tutelage of Mary and Molly, her two trained maids, and sent them to carry the
garments to the bathing room for Briana and Deirdre.

Her ankle ached so badly by the time she reached her room
that she had to sit on the bed and remove her boot. She nearly wept from the
agony of her effort.

Unaccustomed to physical weakness, she persisted, finally prying
off the offending leather. Studying her swollen ankle, she wondered if she
hadn’t bitten off rather more than she could possibly chew.

Indecision was the negative side of being a Libra, she knew.
She simply had to keep reminding herself to move forward and not look back.

The riotous barking of dogs warned of a new arrival. She
sighed and searched through her trunk for a pair of slippers.

By the time she’d tidied her nest of curls, hidden the worst
wear and tear on her gown with a shawl, and limped into the corridor,
Great-Aunt Nessie’s solid square figure was bearing down on her, followed by
her harried maid and one of Aster’s inexperienced footmen carrying a stack of
luggage.

“There you are, dear girl! So thoughtful of you to ask for
me.” Garbed in the full skirts and petticoats of a prior century, her iron gray
hair sporting a beribboned mob cap, Nessie cruised slowly down the corridor
like a massive brigantine.

Aster hugged her mother’s aunt. “It was lovely of you to
come. I fear the house is a bit of a hubble-bubble.”

“The mouse is trouble? Always are, dear. I brought my
kitties, never fear.” She gestured at a mewling basket carried on her arm.

Aster knew better than to correct the lady, or she’d be in
the drafty corridor until dinner time. Imagining what would happen if the
adventurous kittens escaped into the dog-ridden household, she shuddered and
led her aunt to the furthest chamber in the ladies’ wing—her lone centurion to
guard against invasions up the front stairs.

“I had the footmen make up a fire,” she told her aunt. “Just
sit and rest and I’ll come fetch you in time for dinner.”

“Your young man is a winner?” Nessie inquired, settling into
an almost-respectable wing chair. “He appeared a bit beleaguered to me. Did he
win a great deal?”

“A great deal,” Aster repeated, pressing a kiss to her
aunt’s cheek and escaping before the conversation became any more torturous.

She reached the corridor only to bounce off a solid wall of
embroidered blue waistcoat that she recognized rather well by now. She tilted
her head to scowl up at his lordship. “This is the ladies’ wing, sir. What kind
of example do you set?”

***

Theo regarded his maddening guest with impatience. “How
will you direct a house party if you cannot even walk?”

He lifted her fluffy skirt to examine the ominous swelling
of her ankle. Lady Azenor cuffed his ear for his rudeness, but accustomed to
much stronger blows from his brothers, Theo ignored her puny effort. He liked
that she didn’t run off shrieking, so he merely offered his arm rather than
hauling her around. “You will soak that injury until the physician is done with
the coachman and can see you.”

“Now that I have my trunks, I will be most happy to soak it
in one of Emilia’s medicinal herbs. I do not need your quack, who will want to
suck my blood or something else inordinately obnoxious.”

His ball of fluff limped irately—but obediently—down the
corridor with him. “We only use the most modern of physicians, I assure you. If
you keep track of our family, you will recall that we have members all over
Northumberland and Edinburgh who know the finest medical students. Dr. Joseph
probably saved Duncan’s life.”

“But not his eyesight. I’ve changed my mind. I’ll be happy
to speak with him—after I’ve bathed and soaked my ankle.”

“You will not read his stars,” Theo ordered. “Joseph is a
man of science and does not believe silly superstition.”

She released his arm and stalked ahead of him, limping as
fast as her lovely, swaying hips could go. “Your family signs are now on the parts
of peril and secret enemies. The entire summer is likely to be one immense
disaster after another. I suggest that you not alienate me into leaving before
you find a wife and create an heir.”

“I am not reassured that I will be marrying while peril is
hanging over me,” he said dryly. Although he had a notion that his idea of
disaster and hers might be two entirely different matters. Marrying him might
be a calamity for a lady—but a blessing for his family. A point to ponder when
he didn’t have a desirable pocket Venus twitching her curves beneath his nose.

“I was not looking for family and relationships at the time
I perused your brother’s chart,” she acknowledged, dismissing his argument and
apparently oblivious to his panting admiration. “I shall do so this evening. It
is a complex undertaking, since our families are very large, and it’s difficult
to separate our parts from those of the ladies I’m bringing out here, some of
whom are also distantly related.”

Lady parts often looked alike in Theo’s experience, but he
was quite certain this lady’s parts would be easily recognizable. He actually
bit his tongue on that comment.

“Good to know that your scientific journey is as difficult
as mine,” he said instead. “I left the reports you requested in your room—a
little night time reading to put you to sleep.”

He enjoyed her expression of delight and approval—which
meant he needed to annoy her again so they could remain enemies. “I don’t
expect you to understand a word of the treatises, but I always keep my
promises.”

That returned her glare. She knocked peremptorily on the
bathing room door. “It is my turn,” she called to the occupants. “You must keep
Aunt Nessie entertained and the maids in order and the kittens out of the halls
until I’m done.”

Kittens? Theo shuddered.

Two laughing nymphs emerged with damp curls, followed by two
young maids carrying armfuls of frippery. Theo swallowed hard at the mountains
of delicate lace and cast a gaze to the dragon lady’s skirts. What did she wear
under that colorful swathe of exotic muslin? Not a mountain’s worth of
petticoats, he’d seen for himself.

But the glimpse of her ankle was sufficient to have him
salivating without imagining what else she was or wasn’t wearing. She had
slender, well-turned ankles to match her hourglass figure.

He didn’t care if their planets fell from the sky or shot
through the heavens. He wanted
this
woman in his bed and to hell with any other.