Page 46 of An Unexpected Pleasure

“I’m sure they will turn up,” he replied. “Why don’t we continue? What’s upstairs, Coffey?”

Swallowing her irritation, Megan followed Coffey out the door and up the stairs to the next level of the museum, Theo behind her. There were more exhibits in the rooms upstairs, many of them featuring articles from Mexico and the other Central American countries, along with a small library of books focusing on various aspects of South and Central America. Coffey kept up his explanation of the ancient artifacts of the Aztec and Mayan cultures, as well as the more modern exhibits of clothing, jewelry and such.

As time passed, Megan began to really worry about the twins. It was all very well and good for Theo to say that they were contained in the house, but there were doors leading outside, after all, and she knew Con and Alex well enough by now to know that their curiosity might lead them anywhere. It seemed clear that the two of them were not on this floor, either.

“Is there another floor of exhibits?” she asked, interrupting Coffey in the midst of another monologue. “Could the boys have gone upstairs?”

“We have some offices there, and some storage, but little that they would find of interest, I’m sure,” Coffey replied and looked around, a frown forming on his forehead. “I was sure that we would find them up here. Perhaps at the diorama…”

He started down the hall, but at that moment, there was a clatter on the stairs behind them, and the twins appeared. In the mysterious way that Megan had grown accustomed to, the boys had acquired a liberal smattering of dust and stains on their clothes and persons, and even in their hair. She didn’t want to think about where they had been. She only hoped that nothing had been broken on their travels.

“Ah, boys, there you are,” Mr. Coffey said in the hearty sort of voice adults often used with children. “Having fun, were you?”

“Yes, sir,” Con replied. “It’s quite interesting.”

“Especially the animals,” Alex added. “I’ve never seen a jaguar before. I should like to see a live one.”

“I hope you will save that for a trip that does not include me,” Megan told him, smiling. “You missed a most interesting tour. Mr. Coffey is the curator of the museum, and he told us about all the exhibits.”

They made their way back down to the ground floor, the twins pelting Coffey with questions all the way. Con was quite enamored of the feathered cape and the tall, elaborate headdresses on many of the figurines. Alex, as always, was more interested in the various animals.

Megan could see that there was little possibility now of her being able to ask Coffey any questions in private. She would have to return at some other time. Perhaps she could send him a note and arrange to meet him on a Sunday when she was off work. Not this Sunday, though—she was much too anxious to see her father and Deirdre.

They took their leave of Mr. Coffey and walked down the steps to where the Moreland carriage waited. Megan took out her handkerchief and made a largely futile attempt to clean off some of the accumulated dust on the twins.

“Wherever did you go?” she asked. “You must have been crawling about in the dirt.”

“Upstairs and downstairs,” Con replied. “There was a lot of interesting stuff in some of the storerooms.”

“Some of them were locked, though,” Alex added with a grimace as he and Con brushed at their hair and clothes. “There was an enormous room down in the basement.”

“We didn’t get to look at all of the basement,” Con said with regret. “We thought you’d get cross if we were gone too long.”

“I was a little worried,” Megan admitted.

“We’re sorry,” Alex assured her. “Theo should have told you we’d be all right.”

“I did,” Theo hastened to tell them. “And Miss Henderson was admirably calm. She appears to have figured you two out.”

Cook had packed a lunch for them, and they took their well-filled basket to Hyde Park and spread out their picnic on a blanket on the ground. They ate, laughing and talking, and afterward the twins raced off to fly kites, and Theo and Megan watched them, calling encouragement.

Megan could not help but enjoy the outing. The food was scrumptious, the day balmy, and the twins made her laugh. She told herself that it was only the boys’ company that she enjoyed, but she knew she was lying.

It was Theo’s presence that made the picnic more than pleasant. She could not sit there beside him on a blanket without feeling a stirring of excitement. It seemed to her that if she could single out the one particular thing that made him so appealing, she could dismiss it—and him. But it was not one thing, she realized as she tried to analyze what it was and only wound up feeling more and more enthralled. It was the flash of his smile, the way his green eyes lit with laughter under the dramatic slash of black brows. It was the low timbre of his voice, a vibration that seemed to rumble right through her whenever he spoke. It was the whisper of breath against her cheek when he leaned closer to murmur a sotto voce comment. It was the size and subtle strength of him as he sat beside her, the heat.

It was, perhaps most of all, the touch of something wild and untamed about him. It was there not just in the careless tousle of his just-a-little-too-long hair or the small scar that cut dangerously close to his eye, or the taut muscle beneath the smooth material of his jacket. It was in the hint of rawness not far below his surface, the faint hum of restless energy, the sharpness of that clear green gaze. There was power in him, a little frightening even as it drew her.

“What drives you?” Megan asked.

He looked at her, faintly surprised. “What? What do you mean?”

“The boys say you have been all over the world. Why? What is it you’re looking for?”

“I’m not sure.” He gazed off into the distance, thinking. “Excitement, I suppose. At least, that is what most people would say.”

“What would you say?”

He shook his head. “I’m not entirely sure. I just…want to see other things. Do other things.” He lay back on the ground, pillowing his head on his crossed arms and gazing up at the lacy tangle of branches above them. “I never wanted to be Lord Raine. Lord knows, I have no desire to be the Duke of Broughton, either. Reed, now, Reed is the sort who would be an excellent duke. Responsible, careful, concerned.” He cast her a laughing glance. “All the things that I am not—as my great-aunt Hermione will be happy to tell you. I want to know what else is out there.”