Christopher’s pulse skipped in pleasure.He could not think of anything more noble than instilling young people with respect for and knowledge of the stars.It was a calling he took quite seriously.
Indeed, if travel was his passion, astronomy was his obsession.When a few like-minded scholars had written to inform him that they hoped to found a society of gentlemen astronomers, it had almost been enough to tempt him back to London for an extra month or two.
Adventuring might introduce a man to foreign tongues, cuisine, and cultures, but the one constant in any far-flung corner of the globe was the sky overhead.Each constellation, each celestial body, was more familiar to him than his own reflection.
His pulse hummed.That he should discover twin souls in a sparsely populated Christmas village, of all places… He hurried forward without waiting to summon his greatcoat.He could not let an opportunity to befriend fellow aficionados pass him by.
As he neared the circle, it became quickly apparent that the leader of the sky-walk was not a fellow gentleman astronomer, as Christopher had presumed, but a beautiful young woman.Aladyastronomer.His heart thumped.He had never met a female scholar of the stars.
This one had thick black curls, a truly sensuous mouth, and a sensible fur-lined pelisse to protect her from the weather.Christopher was still too far away to discern the words of her current lecture.He gave up all pretense of nonchalance and began to lope across the garden to catch up with the group and meet their delightful leader in person.
The conservative science-minded men of his acquaintance had long pooh-poohed the idea of a woman learning the intricacies of the stars, but obviously they had never met—
“That’s right, Annie,” the lady astronomer was saying to a child.“Wedocall the brightest star in the sky ‘Brummell’ because it’s as shiny as a dandy’s spangled waistcoat.”
Christopher nearly had an apoplexy on the spot.He drew up short in shock.
To his horror, the other adults in the group clapped and nodded their agreement, as if this heretical redefinition of Polaris had come as a commandment from the Crown.
“And that one?”asked the lady astronomer.
Christopher shook his head approached with caution.Surely, he had misheard her.
“Yes, that is absolutely the front wheel of a landaulet.And this one?”
He was wrong.
She was a madwoman.
“Very good, Nigel!”She ruffled the woolen cap of a boy with a gap-toothed grin.“That is obviously the oar of a Viking’s wooden vessel.”
“It is nothing of the sort,” Christopher spluttered as he shouldered his way into the group.“That is Leo Minor, identifiable due to the arrangement of the three stars visible to the naked eye and its northern celestial position between Leo and Ursa Major.”
“Impossible,” she said without the slightest hesitation.“Nigel just said it was a rowing paddle.”
“Nigel,” Christopher said, staring down at the apple-cheeked moppet, “is five years old.”
“Six,” Nigel corrected.
“Six,” Christopher agreed.“He is hardly a member of the Royal Astronomical Society.”
“There is no Royal Astronomical Society,” the lady astronomer pointed out.
“Is that why I’m not a member?”Nigel whispered.
“No one who thinks Polaris is a spangle upon Beau Brummell’s waistcoat would qualify,” Christopher said.“Gentlemen astronomers are serious, science-minded scholars.”
“Nigel isn’t a gentleman,” she replied.“Neither am I.This is our tour.”
“But you must comprehend the difference between ‘true’ and ‘false’ information.”He jabbed his finger at the sky.“Fact: this is the North Star, not a dandy’s spangle.Fact:thatis Leo Minor, not the oar of some boat.”
“Says who?”a little girl with one mitten piped up.“If there’s no Royal Astronomical Society, then you’re not a member of it either.”
Christopher clenched his teeth to stave off a sharp reply.They were missing the point.Lectures were meant to conveyfacts.
Yet the entire group was staring at him as ifhewere the one who couldn’t tell Puppis from Pyxis.Lunatics, all of them.
He could recognize a lost cause.Rather than continue trying to impose reality on people determined to ignore logic, he spun away from the group and stalked back toward the castle.
