Page 32 of A Lady’s Guide to Subterfuge and Science

“Tell me more about Painswick,” he said, trying to coax her into speaking again. “It’s in Gloucestershire, isn’t it? I’ve never been.”

“It’s quiet,” she said. “And green. It’s like a comfortable cocoon. I’ve always wondered why my father chose to settle there, but he gives me a different answer every time.” When he didn’t respond, she lifted her mouth in a half smile. “A Mesopotamian province called Mosul.”

“I—”

“I could tell you wanted to ask. As I was saying, Painswick is comfortable but that’s also because of the way my family is.”

“The way your family is?”

She shrugged. “Loving. Supportive. The only pressure I’ve ever felt has been self-imposed.”

“Pressure to be a better scientist?”

“A better everything.”

A long, heavy silence fell as they examined one another. He wanted to ask her how she could possibly be better than she was. She was as sharp and fearless as one had to be to fake their identity to overcome whatever held them back. And it was so obvious, made so clear to him in the three days he’d known her. And, like someone who couldn’t commit to his own ideas about finding happiness with another person, he was overcome with the desire to know more.

Comerford had been right, he thought. Rafiq was smarter than him, and Oliver had wanted to remove the buffer of paper, ink, and time to reassure himself that he was every bit her equal. But he wasn’t her equal. She was better.

And, somehow, he didn’t feel worse for it. She was the sort of better that made him want to be better. She looked at him like he held promise.

Everything suddenly held promise.

His eye caught a stray curl that had escaped her wig. It brushed against the nape of her neck, and the fact that his mind immediately recognized it as a deep brown, the fact that his heart lurched at the mere suggestion of who she was beneath the disguise, told him one very important thing.

Oliver Booth was in trouble.

Chapter Nine

“That’s all I have for today, gentlemen,” Comerford said. “I’m expected to give a seminar at the Royal Society.”

“Traitor,” Oliver grumbled.

Kalila glanced over her shoulder at him, only to be given a cheeky wink. Last night had been wholly unexpected, although she could admit to enjoying it even if she had received a verbal thrashing from Dameer and Caroline the moment she’d crossed the threshold of the Southcott townhouse. It was Kalila who had insisted on bringing her and Oliver’s nighttime adventure to an end—partially because it had been late and partially because the long hush that had fallen between them had made her skin prickle. He, in turn, had fixed her with the strangest look, hopeful and uncomfortable all at once.

That look was gone at present, replaced with his typical mischievous twinkle. She shook her head at him and was rewarded with a crooked grin.

Insufferable.

And yet there was more to him than she had initially anticipated, a revelation she found herself dwelling on as she walked home. It seemed to her that Oliver Booth spent more time than necessary trying to hide his wounds under a guise of charm and humor. There was nothing wrong with hurting, she thought later as she removed her disguise and replaced it with a dress the color of yellow butter. If you allowed it to show, it was sure to attract people who would help you to heal.

You’re one to talk.

Kalila approached her desk, prepared to spend her free time refining her paper. Dameer knocked, poking his head into the room when she called for him to enter.

“I thought we might have tea together,” he said. “I’ve barely seen you these past four days, and I’m expected at Willow House soon.”

Guilt invaded Kalila as she realized how little it had taken for her to disconnect from her real life. “I’m sorry, I—Dameer?”

“Hmm?” He came to stand by her as she ruffled through the piles of papers that sat on her desk. “What is it?”

“Have you seen my paper?”

“No?”

And then it hit her. She’d forgotten it in 107, having pushed it aside after a brief break to return to her microscope. Panic rushed through her, and she spun around to face her cousin.

“It’s at the university. I need to get it.”