“This is my…this is Lil,” Marietta said, surprised and pleased to note the spark of interest in the aeronaught’s eyes.
“Are you planning another ascent today? If the wind holds I am hoping to fly right over the top of Buckingham Palace.”
“Buckingham Palace?” Lil gasped. “Her Majesty would have you arrested!”
Mr. Keith laughed. “She’d have to catch me first, Miss Lil. Is that short for Lillian, by the way?”
Lil blushed. “That’s none of your business,” she said grandly, but chose that moment to trip over one of the tethering ropes. Mr. Keith leaped forward to save her, catching her arm and holding her steady. Lil’s face turned even redder than before.
“Careful, Lil,” Mr. Keith said gently. “I have many silly traps laid here for unwary maidens.” His eyes twinkled at her, and Lil could not help but respond with a little smile.
“I’ve never seen a balloon before,” Lil admitted, thawing somewhat.
“Lil was saying on the way here that she could think of nothing more exciting than flying high in the sky,” Marietta said innocently.
Lil’s mouth opened and shut, but before she could give Marietta the set down she deserved, Mr. Keith interrupted.
“Then please, be my guest. I can take you up on Saturday. Weather permitting, of course. I would like to show you London from the air, Miss Lil.”
Lil wriggled, clearly uncomfortable at the thought.
Mr. Keith finally seemed to remember Marietta was there. “Did you say you wished to make another ascent, Miss Marietta? It promises to be a perfect day for ballooning.”
“Another?” squeaked Lil, with an accusing stare.
Marietta ignored her. “Thank you, no, Mr. Keith. I came because I wanted to speak to you about Lord Roseby.”
“Max?”
“I have had the opportunity to speak with him, at length.” Well, Marietta spoke and Max listened, but Mr. Keith did not need to know that.
“Dare I hope you’ve taken a shine to my tragic friend? And on such short acquaintance, Miss Greentree—that does bode well for him. I admit, I hoped at the time the two of you might hit it off.”
A matchmaking aeronaught? Marietta wondered if she was as red as Lil, and hoped not. A brief flash of memory filled her head—Max’s mouth on hers. Aphrodite had made a kiss from Max her first task—or rather asking Max to show her how. That meant the spontaneous kiss they had exchanged did not fulfi
ll her mother’s requirements. She would have to do it properly next time…
Marietta smiled. Next time.
“Actually, Max and I met again after the ascent,” she said. “He was hurt…struck down in a lane outside Aphrodite’s Club. He is recovering, so please don’t grow alarmed, sir.”
“Good heavens,” Ian Keith muttered under his breath. “I don’t like the sound of this. Struck down, you say? Did he tell you that this is but one of many times he has been hurt, or almost hurt, in an accident? When he was a boy he nearly drowned, twice, and there were other things…near misses and close calls. Two just last year, before he was disinherited. And now this. It is very strange, more than strange. Miss Marietta, I have to say that I find it downright suspicious!”
So many accidents! It could be coincidence, of course, and yet it did seem odd. Was Mr. Keith right, was it suspicious? Marietta felt a little tingle inside her, and it was a warning that she knew she should heed. After all, the last time she had felt that tingle was just as she and Gerard Jones were cantering away from Greentree Manor, on their way to the Scottish border.
“Do you really think someone is deliberately trying to hurt him, Mr. Keith?” she asked.
Mr. Keith seemed to realize that in his shock he had spoken hastily, and now—perhaps in deference to Max—he tried to play down his concerns. “I am Max’s friend but I know little of the rest of his family. We met years ago, you know, at Valland House, when my balloon came down in the grounds. He was fascinated by the workings of it, and I took him up several times—to his parents’ dismay, I might add. The duke was worried his only son might be hurt.”
“And now he has hurt him in the worst way possible, by denying Max his heritage.”
Mr. Keith looked doubtful. “Struck down, you say? It does sound odd, doesn’t it?”
“Suspicious.”
Mr. Keith smiled, and glanced sideways at Lil. “Miss Marietta is very determined, isn’t she? Do you think Max knows she’s taken him up as her cause? I don’t know if he’d be happy if he did. Max is a very private person.”
“Then you’d best not tell him,” Marietta suggested.