Lord Lightning (35 page)

“What?”

“She is Pythagoras Farrell’s daughter.”

Lady Hartwood’s eyes widened. “Evesbury’s boy? Well, that explains the Greek! But the man is as mad as a hatter. Not a speck of common sense. No wonder she fell into such disreputable society as you run in. Still, it is a relief to know that my grandchildren will have noble blood running in their veins after all.”

“But that can only happen if Eliza will have me,” Edward corrected her. “She has already refused me once and I haven’t the courage to ask her again. Whoever her father might be, I’m not sure she is mad enough to accept my offer.”

“She’d be a fool not to,” Lady Hartwood snapped. “But I shall hold my tongue. Whatever
I say, she is sure to do the opposite. The girl has spirit. I will give her that. And there is no denying she has made a change in you.”

When they had made their adieux and resumed their places in the carriage, Edward said, “Now that my mother has given us our blessing, I expect there is no hope you will ever have me.”

Eliza felt herself smile. “It does add a new twist to a subject already twisted beyond untangling. But after observing you over this past hour, I must tell you I am truly proud of you, Edward. I know what it must have cost you to forgive your mother, and yet you did it.”

“I take no credit for it.”

“Oh yes. I know you wish to take no credit for any good deed and I’ve promised never to see good in you where you assure me there is none, but your grant of forgiveness to your mother was an act of love, disinterested love, which must be the highest kind, since you could expect to receive nothing in return for extending that forgiveness to her but the knowledge that you did the right thing.”

“How could I have done otherwise? Her husband’s treatment of her was truly monstrous.”

“How indeed?” Eliza said. “With the good heart that hides beneath your breast, you had no choice.”

“I will not argue. You are making me resigned to owning a loving heart.” He grinned, for only a moment, then a troubled look swept over his
handsome features. “Still, I must be honest with you, Eliza. I have given much thought to your reproaches, for they were well deserved. And as much as I would wish to change myself to better deserve your love, I cannot woo you under false pretenses.”

For a moment Eliza’s heart stood still. What would he confess to her now? Terrible possibilities flooded into her mind, replacing the joy that had filled it only a moment before. She sat bolt upright, trying to be brave. As she awaited his explanation, it struck her with renewed force how much she loved him and how hard it would be to give him up.

He sensed her dismay and his voice softened. “I have nothing
that
terrible to confess,” he reassured her. “No wife tucked away in the country or anything like that. It is only that I don’t think I shall ever be able to give up playing, even if it would win your heart for me. My true father was an actor, after all.”

He had reassumed that nonchalant look and now lounged against the rich upholstery of the carriage, but she was not deceived about the depth of the emotion with which he awaited her answer. She met his eyes and let her smile convey the love she felt in her heart. “I’d much rather learn that your father was an actor—not a rake and a reprobate. But you’re probably right. Your life remains dramatic even when you attempt to give up playing. Consider, in just this single day I’ve
been made captive and you have rescued me quite cleverly, to say nothing of making a stunning discovery about your birth and engaging in a scene of reconciliation that must bring a tear to every eye. All that remains, I should think, is for some god to ride down from the heavens on a piece of stage machinery and give us our happy ending.”

“Would that I could bring that about, too,” Edward said with a faint smile. “Then a chorus of maidens would accompany us to our marriage bower as the curtain slowly dropped to great applause. But it is a serious thing to join our lives together. I’m not the easiest man to live with, no matter who my father might have been.”

“Of course. Uranus rules your life, so it will always be filled with unpredictability. But if I’m to be honest, I must admit your playfulness and unpredictability are a large part of your appeal to me. I delighted in Lord Lightning long before I learned to know and trust Edward Neville. Indeed, I should be hard-pressed to say which of the two I love better.”

The smile of relief that filled his face was so genuine, she had to pause for a moment before continuing, “I also have a confession to make. I know myself now to be too firmly under the sway of the planet Uranus to love a man who did not embody its energies as you do. I should not love you half as much if you behaved as you ought to. That’s why my aunt was so afraid I would grow up to repeat my mother’s imprudence—and why I let her fears become my own.”

She gave up speaking, to better enjoy the way his deep brown eyes glowed with unconcealed delight that seemed to grow greater with each passing moment.

“And do you still fear to repeat her pattern?” His question was dead serious.

“How could I not?” she replied, in a tone as sober as his own. She saw his face fall and, seeing that, had not the heart to torment him any longer. “When your mother shared her painful story with us, Edward, it made me consider something quite unexpected. For
she
did the prudent thing in staying with her husband, and look at what a mistake that turned out to be. Her prudence ruined her life.”

“Then you must take warning from her example, and avoid prudence lest it ruin yours,” Edward said, dropping to his knee awkwardly and looking up at her from under his long pale lashes with eyes empty of every emotion but love. “You know, Eliza, you really would make me the happiest of men if you would have me. I’ll lead you a merry dance, no question about it, but I’ve come to think you rather like dancing. And I cannot bear to give you up.”

Eliza sighed. “I can’t bear to give you up, either. And as terrifying as I find the idea of marriage, I don’t think you’d let me stay on as your mistress anymore.”

“No, I certainly wouldn’t,” he said with a grin. “It would be far too exhausting. Indeed, if you’ll have me, I vow I’ll never have a mistress again.”
His face had suddenly grown serious. “I mean it, Eliza. I love you.”

She reached out for his hand and lifted it to her lips. “I love you, too, Edward. As I probably have from the moment you first abducted me. So I suppose there’s no help for it. I shall have to marry you and take the consequences.”

“You will? You’ll really have me?”

When she nodded, he enfolded her in his embrace and pressed her to his heart. Then he released her and with his mahogany eyes full of mischief added, “There is nothing to keep us from driving all the way to Gretna. I’m capable of doing it, you know.”

“You’re capable of anything, Edward. Don’t think I don’t know it! But London will do just as well for marrying, and it’s a great deal closer.”

“To London then, to get a special license, for it’s long past time you became my Lady Lightning.”

“Lady Lightning, indeed! Though with my imprudence so well rewarded, I am afraid that together we shall set a terrible example to the world.”

“I warned you from the start that I love to set a bad example.”

“I cannot deny it.” She laughed, remembering the first time he had said that, the first night they had spent together at his town house. But the time for banter was over and now she wished only to give herself up to the happiness of his embrace. As she leaned toward him, he met her lips with his, and together they luxuriated in the contentment
that engulfed them as they kissed. It was only after a very long time had passed that Edward relaxed his hold on her and Eliza recovered the ability to speak.

“Such a
very
bad example we will set,” she said, breathing a sigh of pure happiness. “It will be a puzzle to know what to tell our children when they ask how we first met.”

“Not at all, my dearest.” He grinned, fixing her with Lord Lightning’s most impudent smile. “Only this: That you read my horoscope and saw the love that lay hidden in my heart, while I discerned
your
wisdom in the glorious constellations of your freckles.”

I
hope you’ve enjoyed sharing the adventure as Eliza’s astrological charts came alive—at times a bit more than she bargained for. You can be sure that even though she’s found the lord of her House of Love, she’ll still be peering at her charts, especially the one that answers the question, “Is it a boy or a girl?”

If you’ve read this far you might be interested to know a bit about the actual way astrology was used in Eliza’s time. Most history books report that astrology fell out of favor in the West during the Age of Reason because it was unable to recover from the blow to medieval cosmology delivered by the discovery of Mr. Herschel’s new planet. But this is not true. Though astrology did
almost vanish on the continent, it continued to be practiced in England throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth century.

Moore’s popular astrological almanac,
Vox Stellarum,
had a print run of 393,750 copies in 1803, and the number published almost doubled in the succeeding decade. Several astrological magazines were also published during this period, as well as textbooks by astrological authors like Ebenezer Sibley and John Worsdale.

The first known English woman astrologer was a Mrs. Williams, who in the 1780s advertised her practice in London and at the fashionable watering places of Bath and Bristol Hot Wells.

Many astrologers in this period practiced the kind of astrology described in William Lilly’s book,
Christian Astrology,
published in 1647 and still in print today. Because accurate birth data was hard to come by, these astrologers often relied on horary charts which were cast for the moment when a question was asked, though the kind of character delineation that Eliza uses here was also popular.

For readers who are curious, Eliza’s birth information is 11/29/1788 01:42
P.M.,
London. Edward Neville’s is 7/29/1785 10:30
A.M.,
Brighton. Astrologers who review these charts will see that I have played fair with my interpretations, though I have also taken hints from the placements of Neptune and Pluto to get deeper insight into Eliza and Edward’s personalities.

Neptune was only discovered in 1846. One
hopes Eliza would have lived long enough to have learned how helpful it is in understanding why both she and Edward had such a penchant for self-delusion, as well as why the circumstances of Edward’s birth were shrouded in such secrecy and caused him so much pain. But Neptune also gives the capacity for selfless love which both Eliza and Edward would need to build the kind of life together that would truly satisfy them. Pluto of course was not discovered until 1930.

Those familiar with midpoint composite charts may notice that the midpoint composite chart describing their relationship bears a Sun-Mercury conjunction near the midheaven that could be read as describing a relationship filled with banter, or, alternatively, one that occurs in a book. The North Node on the Ascendant on the Capricorn/Cancer axis of the midpoint composite chart also suggests that their relationship would be one that would help Eliza and Edward come to terms with issues of parenting, security, and emotional control.

Readers who would like to learn more about how to use astrology to analyze character should read Donna Cunningham’s
How to Read Your Astrological Chart
or Stephen Forrest’s
The Sky Within.
For a fascinating look at historical methods of reading charts, read psychiatrist Anthony Louis’s classic,
Horary Astrology Plain and Simple.

“You’ve been alone with me long enough that whatever respectability you might have had is gone. Your reputation, should you have had one, is in tatters.”

A look of alarm crossed Eliza’s face. But all she said was, “I can’t imagine I should make much of a mistress for you. It is years since I put on a spinster’s cap, and besides, I am covered with freckles.”

Lord Hartwood roughened his voice. “Freckles or not, I need a mistress.” Taking a breath, he let his tone soften as he prepared for the final insult. “Do not fear, Miss Farrell. Though I will ruin you, I will pay well for your services. I am heartless, but my purse is deep.”

As his words sank in, her freckles stood out more sharply against the growing pallor of her face. He reached out and slowly let his fingers drift along her shoulder, languidly drawing a line down the front of her dress, along the muffled curve of her breast.

“So tell me, Miss Farrell,” he murmured, bending to whisper into her flaming, pink-tinged ear. “Will you become my mistress?”

L
ORD
L
IGHTNING