Midnight Star (Star Quartet 2)
The Spanish dancer more than made up for her lack of acting ability when at last she reappeared onstage to perform her famous Spider Dance. Chauncey heard her own small gasp of shock. She was wearing pratically nothing. During her pantomime, she shook whalebone spiders from her skimpy costume and stamped on them. The crowd went wild.
“You are enjoying yourself a great deal too much,” Chauncey hissed in Delaney’s ear. “That smile of yours is so vacuous, you’d be confined in Bedlam if you were in England.”
He gave her a wolfish grin. “My body isn’t feeling at all vacuous.”
“Cad!” she said, poking him in the ribs. “Such a thing would never be allowed in England!”
“Don’t bet on it, sweetheart.”
When her performance was finished, Lola Montez was deluged with flowers, and to Chauncey’s wide-eyed surprise, gold nuggets were tossed onto the stage at her feet.
“I wonder,” Horace said, “how much gold she’ll be depositing in your bank tomorrow, Del.”
“The vault will be bulging,” Agatha said.
“Actually, love,” Delaney whispered in Chauncey’s ear as Lola Montez took her tenth curtain call, “I was just imagining you wearing that bit of nothing and seducing me with well-placed whalebone.”
“Ah, look,” Horace said, saving Chauncey from making a suitable retort, “there’s Pat Hull. I hear he’s head-over-toes in love with Lola, and she isn’t particularly uninterested in him.”
“Pat who?” Chauncey asked. But she didn’t hear his reply, for her eyes suddenly lit on a man who was looking directly at her from his slouched position in a dim corner of the theater. It was Hoolihan, the sailor aboard the Scarlet Queen. The moment she recognized him he quickly turned away, melting into a crowd of still-stomping and applauding men. She felt a frisson go through her body, raising gooseflesh on her arms. I’m becoming a dithering hysteric again, she tried to tell herself, but the feeling remained.
She was markedly quietly during the carriage ride home. For the life of her, she couldn’t remember what she’d said to the Newtons.
“All right, Chauncey, what is it?” Delaney asked the moment they walked into the drawing room.
She stripped off her long gloves and tossed them onto a chair back. “I’m probably seeing ghosts and imagining things—”
He interrupted her with a sharp slash of his hand. “Cut the bull, Chauncey. What made you withdraw into yourself?”
“All right,” she said on a sigh. “Do you remember Captain O’Mally’s new man—Mr. Hoolihan, I believe his name was?”
“Yes.”
“I saw him at the theater. He was staring at me. When he realized that I saw him too, he made off. Shouldn’t he be on board the Scarlet Queen?”
“Why the hell didn’t you tell me immediately?” He strode to her and grasped her shoulders, shaking her slightly.
“I thought I was just being . . . crazy.” Her voice broke. “I felt something, Del. Something frightful. I . . . I can’t explain it.” She raised wide uncertain eyes to his face. “If he didn’t mean anything, why did he act so furtive?”
“All right,” he said, his voice cool, his control back. “You’re completely safe here.” He began rubbing her arms, soothing her, bringing her warmth. “Do you recall Captain O’Mally telling us that Hoolihan was quite a new man?”
“I’m not sure.”
She shivered and he pulled her against him. “No more of that. Tomorrow I’ll find out soon enough just who this Hoolihan is and if he’s still in my employ. If he is the one responsible for all this, I’ll have him taken care of.”
She nodded, mute, against his shoulder. I am trusting him to protect me. I want him to protect me.
“You know,” Delaney said over her head, “I think I remember that Hoolihan had an odd accent. English perhaps?”
“English,” she repeated, leaning back against his arms and raising her eyes to his. “Oh no! It makes no sense, Del. There is no one in England who would despise me enough to—”
“It does make all sorts of sense, unfortunately, and you know it. Don’t forget what happened in Plymouth. Incidentally, I saw the letter you had Lucas post yesterday to your aunt and uncle in England.”
“Yes, I wrote to tell them that I was once again dreadfully poor and begged them to take me in.” She smiled crookedly at his admiring grin. “It was either that or tell them that I was married. I thought they’d be more pleased to hear the former.”
“Well done, my girl. Well done indeed. If money is at the root of all this, you can believe that your fall from fortune will quickly get around.”
Her eyes fell. But it wasn’t money, she was certain of it. It was another feeling. Just who wanted her removed and why was still a damnably elusive mystery.