Ether & Elephants (26 page)

“I see.” Elgin swirled the liquid in his glass. “I’d recommend bringing Sir Vivek in on this. If there’s anyone I trust here, including my own staff, it’s him. I’m not saying he likes having his country occupied by foreigners, but he’s convinced that rebellion would serve nothing more than to get his compatriots killed and their land destroyed. He’s also not above importing the latest technology to improve the lives of his peasants. I’ve also seen him, reluctantly, order the execution of a murderer, so I know he won’t want to have any truck with your Alchemist fellow.”

“With your permission, I might. Having someone who knows the area on our side might make all the difference.” Plus, the man had the ability to see ghosts and sense magick. He could be helpful in any number of ways. “He did seem to quite readily accept Nell as his daughter.”

“My boy, I’ve been a lot of places in my life and seen a lot of things. Knew a werewolf once in Canada and a seer in Japan who could have told me what I had for breakfast on my seventh birthday.” Elgin chortled. “I’ve never seen a vampyre, but I know they’re real, just like electricity or magick. For you, this sort of thing is part of your everyday life, and I think it may be the same for the nawab, so I suppose there was some kind of proof involved that I wouldn’t have seen if it was right under my nose.”

Tom decided not to mention it was a ghost. He just tipped his head in agreement.

“Then take it for what it’s worth. The man just found out he has a daughter, one who isn’t a child but a grown woman of what, twenty? Twenty-one? He’s a good man. What else is he going to do but accept her? Wouldn’t you?”

“She’s twenty-five.” Tom thought back to when he’d first found out Charlie might be his son, the conflict he’d felt, and the disappointment to know it wasn’t so. “I had a grandfather once. Didn’t know I existed until a few months before he died. In those few months, I think he loved me more than some people feel in a whole lifetime. Nell deserves all that, and more.”

“Then give her time to spend with him by bringing him in on your mission. I wouldn’t ask the son, though. Might be all right in a few years, but right now, he’s a spoiled twit.” Elgin finished his drink and flicked the mechanism to close the bar. “Now get some sleep, son, or you won’t be any good to anyone. I’ll have a carriage waiting for you right after breakfast.”

“Thank you, sir.” Unable to refuse the older man’s instructions, Tom emptied his glass and preceded his host out of the library. “Do you often come down in the middle of the night, sir?”

“More than I’d like,” Elgin said as they walked together up the marble stairs. “I’ve a feeling my days on this earth are numbered. So much to do, so little time.”

“I’m sure you’ll be around for many years to come, Your Excellency,” Tom said, because it was just the thing one said in a situation of this sort.

“No, I won’t.” Elgin sighed. “Damned Japanese seer. I don’t know the day or year, but my end is coming, faster than I would wish for the sake of my wife and children.”

“You can’t know that, sir.”

Elgin shrugged. “And yet I do. Hell, we’re all mortal, even a young man like you. So take my advice. Live your life while you can, my boy. Don’t go to your grave regretting that you didn’t fight for the things that matter most.”

Belinda’s words echoed in Tom’s mind.
Be the Emperor. Don’t give in to your doubts.
He hadn’t known what doubts she meant, but he suspected now that it was his worthiness for Nell. Or perhaps his ability to convince her to give him another chance. Back in his own room, he prepared for bed, thinking about what Elgin had said. Did the man mean he should fight for Nell? Maybe not, but in the end, that’s what his words meant to Tom. Nell was what mattered most. In fact, Elgin’s advice reminded him of what Belinda had said, as well. Trust your instincts. And don’t give up.

Tom switched off the gaslight and smiled into the darkness. He wasn’t giving up. Not now, not ever. He wasn’t going to her tonight. He wasn’t that dishonorable. But one way or another, he would fight for Nell to the end of his days. And, then, by God, he’d haunt her. Wouldn’t that just chafe her hide?

The image of his ghost taunting an elderly Nell evoked a bubble of laughter that finally lightened his mood enough to let him sleep. He pulled back the coverlet on his bed and prepared to climb in. Tomorrow would be a long day, fraught with emotion and intrigue. For tonight, he could fall asleep, dreaming about how Nell looked under that rosy gold dress. One of these days, he hoped to find out just how accurate his dreams were.

Something dark and round uncoiled on the sheet, roughly where his knees would be, had he moved even a moment faster. Without his heightened vision, Tom would have never seen the shape that stretched, forming into a rope perhaps eighteen inches long, the rounded head searching for the source of its disturbance.

Tom yelled and jumped back from the bed. The snake continued to move about the bedding, looking for something to attack, Tom was sure. Even though the thing was small, it was probably deadly.

Very carefully, he approached the bureau and picked up the pistol he’d set aside earlier, not wanting to go armed to the ball. His hands shook, but he steadied, lining up his shot.

The door burst open, and there was Nell with her ESD and an etheric torch. “What is it?”

“Stay back. There’s a snake in the bed.” Steadier, now that he had to protect her as well, Tom cast a light spell, filling the room with a blue glow.

“I see it,” she said. Aiming her stunner, she zapped the snake, which twitched and thrashed its way across the bed and onto the floor before lying still. “What kind is it?”

He swallowed hard. “I have no idea, nor do I want a closer acquaintance.” Using the tip of his walking stick, he lifted the limp snake and dropped it out the window into the garden beneath. Then he began to shake.

Nell was there in an instant, her arms wrapped around him. “Dear heavens, if you’d gotten into that bed…” She shook almost as badly as he did.

They stood there for what seemed like forever, him naked and her in a shift, wrapped tightly in one another’s arms.

As soon as he stopped shaking, Tom’s body let him know in no uncertain terms that it had better ideas. She didn’t seem to notice his erection pressing against her hip. She just pressed against him, her short nails digging into his back.

“We should check for others.” Finally, his rational mind got a thought in edgewise.

She pulled back, turning to light the gas lamp while Tom pulled on his discarded evening trousers. Together, with his walking stick, his magick and her stunner, they checked every nook, cranny, drawer and surface, even under the bed.

“No more snakes.” Nell sighed. “Your screaming nearly gave me a heart attack. But how could it have gotten in here?”

“Not on its own,” Tom said. His second-floor window was a good twenty feet off the ground to allow for the first floor’s tall ceilings. “We should check your room as well.”

Nell gestured toward the door. “By all means. Perhaps it’s a good thing we’re leaving here in the morning.”

Tom couldn’t help but agree.

“But who?” Nell asked as they searched her room just as thoroughly, finding nothing. She’d been reading, he saw, with the bedside lamp lit and a book open on the floor where she’d probably dropped it in her haste to get to him.

Tom had no idea. “Anyone. I’ve made enemies in my work. Then there’s your new brother. Hell, any member of the embassy staff might be cooperating with the Alchemist and the kidnappers. Maybe one of your many suitors thought I was an impediment to his advances.”

“Be serious.” She shot him one of her schoolmistress looks, which he found oddly erotic. “It must have to do with Charlie and the Alchemist.”

“Most likely.” Tom assumed the same. “All we can do at this point is watch our backs.”

“I’d rather watch your front.” Nell clapped her hand over her mouth, obviously horrified that she’d said something so sexual. She must have come to terms with it, though, because she giggled.

Something in Tom’s heart stretched and nearly purred. He grinned. “You look almost as good from both angles, but there’s something unfair here. You have your shift on.” Her skin flushed a fiery red, all the way down to the tops of her breasts, just visible above her low neckline.

Nell gazed at Tom and licked her lips, which had suddenly gone dry. “Yes, you put on quite a show.”

He took one hand and pulled her to him, kissing her the way he had on the ship. Long, deep, like something out of a dream.

When at long last he paused, running his lips down to her throat, he said, “You want me.”

“Shush.” She arched her neck to give him easier access. Of course she did. No matter that her heart and mind knew better, her body ached for his. “I told you that you could kiss me again.”

“And I intend to enjoy every second of that privilege.” When he eased his hands down to the hem of her thigh-length shift, she didn’t resist, just lifted her arms so he could pull it over her head. Why not? Men had relations just for the fun of it all the time. She wasn’t fertile, having just finished her courses. Why shouldn’t she take what she wanted for a change?

He sat on the bed, pulling her close so her breasts were level with his face. Nell gasped as his warm breath brushed her nipples, which felt swollen and tender. Another persistent ache, low in her belly, urged her to rub her sex against his, but the touch of his lips on her breast held her frozen.

“You do love me, just as I love you. Marry me, Nell.” He kissed the tip of her nipple and pulled it between his lips, making her cry out with the pleasure.

“No. And you’ve already broken the rule. Don’t do it again.” She could barely speak as she arched her chest forward, pressing deeper into the heat of his mouth. She wanted him, but she was not going to let him use sex to coerce her. “I’m not going to marry. Maybe I’ll just take a lover from time to time.” Times when she felt like this, shivering and on fire at the same time.

He reached between her legs and began to rub the lips of her sex. “You’re soaking wet, darling. It’s me you want. Not anyone else.” His fingers moved on her, making damp sounds as he stroked in time with his mouth suckling her breast. “Admit it.”

He blew on her damp nipple then switched to the other as his fingers found the nub at the top of her cleft and began to circle. Her legs gave out and she sat on his, straddling his thighs, her feet dangling off the floor.

Nell wasn’t so innocent that she didn’t know what was happening. She’d touched herself, brought herself to orgasm, but that had been nothing like this. “Want, yes.” She panted, pushing into his hand. She reached into his unbuttoned trousers and took his hard cock into her hand. “Marry, no.”

“Come for me, dearling.” He nipped her nipple with his lips over his teeth and scissored two fingers over her clitoris.

Nell came, the orgasm more powerful than anything she’d known. She cried out his name and squeezed down on his erection. As she slumped against him, she felt a hot rush of fluid cover her stomach and the underside of her breasts.

Tom leaned his cheek on the top of her head while they both regained their breath. “Marry me, Nell.”

“No. And stop asking. But thank you for tonight’s education.” She wasn’t proud of the hurt she saw in his eyes as he went for a damp cloth from the adjacent bath and washed his seed from her skin. It was just that if she wasn’t harsh, she could so easily find herself giving in, and that was the wrong thing to do. Wasn’t it?

He didn’t speak again, just returned the cloth to the washroom, and left.

* * *

Tom met Nell at breakfast the following morning and found himself unable to look in her eyes without flushing like a schoolboy. Lord Elgin was already in his office, but the vicereine was present, along with her personal secretary and two ladies in waiting. Rather than sit next to Nell, he chose a seat beside the secretary. Nell shot him an arch look, but recovered quickly, offering a sisterly, “Good morning,” before turning back to her conversation with the vicereine.

Later when they left Government House, he debated over how close to sit to Nell in Sir Vivek’s landau. For propriety’s sake, since it was an open carriage, he chose to sit as far away as possible, practically clinging to the door of the coach. Nell was stunning in a day dress of white dotted Swiss and a straw hat with white roses. Whatever she wore, she wore well, whether vivid jewel tones or demure pastels. Even the drab gowns she’d worn to teach had looked better on her than on most other women. Tom admitted he might be biased, but based on the looks they attracted from every passing male, he wasn’t far off the mark.

Bringing himself back to the business at hand, Tom took advantage of the short journey to inform Nell that Lord Elgin recommended bringing Sir Vivek in on their mission. “No one knows the region better, he’s familiar with the supernatural and he has a record for being a strong supporter of the law and justice.” They both knew that the two weren’t always the same. “I cabled Kendall this morning, and the Order has given me leave to make the decision.”

Nell fidgeted with her gloves. “It’s a perfect plan from my point of view, because I can get to know him better on the course of a mission than in a million days of sitting in a drawing room, but I don’t want my personal desires to complicate our task. You’re the professional here, and the decision is entirely yours. I’ll support whatever you wish.”

“I think I will ask for his help.” He hadn’t realized until this moment how proud he was that she trusted his judgment, at least in a professional capacity. “We’ll see how things go this morning. For the record, however, Lord Elgin advised against bringing in your half brother. He seems to think the lad has some maturing to do before he’ll be entirely trustworthy.”

“That would concur with my first impression,” Nell said. “He’s young. Only twenty-one, I think. Unlike us, never had to deal with hardship of any kind. He’d have been a child during the rebellion in 1857, kept securely behind locked gates. His wife is only seventeen and he didn’t even have to make that decision. Apparently my…grandfather—now that’s an odd word to come out of my mouth—arranged it shortly after Vidya was born.”