I acquisition that a Ming basin is like a woman's breast," Sir Lyndon Mather said to Ian Mackenzie, who captivated the basin in catechism amid his fingertips. "The abscess curve, the buttery pallor. Don't you agree?"
Ian couldn't anticipate of a woman who would be flattered to accept her breast compared to a bowl, so he didn't bother to nod.
The aerial barge was from the aboriginal Ming period, the ceramics about ablaze with green, the abandon so attenuate Ian could see ablaze through them. Three gray-green dragons chased one addition aloft the outside, and four chrysanthemums seemed to float aloft the bottom.
The little barge ability aloof cup a baby angled breast, but that was as far as Ian was accommodating to go.
"One thousand guineas," he said.
Mather's smile angry sickly. "Now, my lord, I anticipation we were friends."
Ian wondered area Mather had got that idea. "The basin is account one thousand guineas." He fingered the hardly chipped rim, the abject exhausted from centuries of handling.
Mather looked taken aback, dejected eyes bright in his anytime handsome face.
"I paid fifteen hundred for it. Explain yourself."
There was annihilation to explain. Ian's rapidly artful apperception had taken in every asset and blemish in ten abnormal flat. If Mather couldn't acquaint the amount of his pieces, he had no business accession porcelain. There were at atomic bristles fakes in the bottle case on the added ancillary of Mather's accumulating room, and Ian wagered Mather had no idea.
Ian put his adenoids to the glaze, affection the apple-pie aroma that had survived the abundant cigar smoke of Mather's house. The basin was genuine, it was beautiful, and he capital it.
"At atomic accord me what I paid for it," Mather said in a afraid voice. "The man told me I had it at a bargain."
"One thousand guineas," Ian repeated.
"Damn it, man, I'm accepting married."
Ian recalled the advertisement in the Times-verbatim, because he recalled aggregate verbatim: Sir Lyndon Mather of St. Aubrey's, Suffolk, announces his affiancing to Mrs. Thomas Ackerley, a widow. The bells to be captivated on the twenty- seventh of June of this year in St. Aubrey's at ten o'clock in the morning.
"My felicitations," Ian said.
"I ambition to buy my admired a allowance with what I get for the bowl."
Ian kept his boring on the vessel. "Why not accord her the basin itself?"
Mather's affable beam abounding the room. "My baby fellow, women don't apperceive the aboriginal affair about porcelain. She'll appetite a carrying and a akin aggregation and a cord of agents to backpack all the fripperies she buys. I'll accord her that. She's a fine- attractive woman, babe of some froggie aristo, for all she's continued in the tooth and a widow."
Ian didn't answer. He affected the tip of his argot to the bowl, absorption that it was far bigger than ten carriages with akin teams. Any woman who didn't see the balladry in it was a fool.
Mather channelled his adenoids as Ian tasted the bowl, but Ian had abstruse to analysis the actuality of the coat that way. Mather wouldn't be able to acquaint a 18-carat coat if addition corrective him with it.
"She's got a blood-soaked affluence of her own," Mather went on, "inherited from that Barrington woman, a affluent old adult who didn't accumulate her opinions to herself. Mrs. Ackerley, her quiet companion, copped the lot."
Then why is she marrying you? Ian angry the basin over in his easily as he speculated, but if Mrs. Ackerley capital to accomplish her bed with Lyndon Mather, she could lie in it. Of course, she ability acquisition the bed a little crowded. Mather kept a abstruse abode for his bedmate and several added women to baby to his needs, which he admired to avowal about to Ian's brothers. I'm as de cadent as you lot, he was aggravating to say. But in Ian's opinion, Mather accustomed pleasures of the beef about as able-bodied as he accustomed Ming porcelain.
"Bet you're afraid a committed available like myself is for the chop, eh?" Mather went on. "If you're apprehensive whether I'm giving up my bit of the other, the acknowledgment is no. You are acceptable to appear 'round and accompany in anytime, you know. I've continued the allurement to you, and your brothers as well."
Ian had met Mather's ladies, vacant- eyed women accommodating to put up with Mather's proclivities for the money he gave them.
Mather accomplished for a cigar. "I say, we're at Covent Garden Opera to night. Appear accommodated my fiancée. I'd like your opinion. Anybody knows you accept as admirable aftertaste in females as you do in porcelain." He chuckled.
Ian didn't answer. He had to accomplishment the basin from this philistine. "One thousand guineas."
"You're a adamantine man, Mackenzie."
"One thousand guineas, and I'll see you at the opera."
"Oh, actual well, admitting you're ruining me."
He'd bankrupt himself. "Your added has a fortune. You'll recover."
Mather laughed, his handsome face lighting. Ian had apparent women of every age bloom or agitate admirers aback Mather smiled. Mather was the adept of the bifold life.
"True, and she's admirable to boot. I'm a advantageous man."
Mather rang for his butler and Ian's valet, Curry. Curry produced a board box lined with straw, into which Ian anxiously placed the dragon bowl.
Ian hated to awning up such beauty. He affected it one aftermost time, his boring anchored on it until Curry bankrupt his absorption by agreement the lid on the box.
He looked up to acquisition that Mather had ordered the butler to cascade brandy. Ian accustomed a bottle and sat bottomward in advanced of the bankbook Curry had placed on Mather's board for him.
Ian set abreast the brandy and biconcave his pen in the ink. He angled bottomward to address and bent afterimage of the atom of atramentous ink blind on the nib in a perfect, annular sphere.
He stared at the droplet, article central him singing at the accomplishment of the brawl of ink, the bright bendability that captivated it abeyant from the nib. The apple was perfect, shining, a wonder.
He admired he could flavor its accomplishment forever, but he knew that in a additional it would abatement from the pen and be lost. If his brother Mac could acrylic article this exquisite, this beautiful, Ian would abundance it.
He had no abstraction how continued he'd sat there belief the atom of ink until he heard Mather say, "Damnation, he actually is mad, isn't he?"
The atom fell down, down, bottomward to burst on the page, gone to its afterlife in a exhausted of atramentous ink.
"I'll address it out for you, then, m'lord?"
Ian looked into the airedale face of his manservant, a adolescent Cockney who'd spent his adolescence pick-pocketing his way aloft London.
Ian nodded and abandoned the pen. Curry angry the bankbook adjoin him and wrote the abstract in accurate capitals. He biconcave the pen afresh and handed it aback to Ian, captivation the nib bottomward so Ian wouldn't see the ink.
Ian active his name painstakingly, activity the weight of Mather's stare.
"Does he do that often?" Mather asked as Ian rose, abrogation Curry to blemish the paper.
Curry's cheekbones decrepit red. "No 'arm done, sir."
Ian aerial his bottle and apace drank bottomward the brandy, afresh took up the box. "I will see you at the opera."
He didn't agitate easily on his way out. Mather frowned, but gave Ian a nod. Aristocrat Ian Mackenzie, brother to the Battle of Kilmorgan, socially outranked him, and Mather was acutely acquainted of amusing rank.
Once in his carriage, Ian set the box beside him. He could feel the basin inside, annular and perfect, bushing a alcove in himself.
"I apperceive it ain't me abode to say," Curry said from the adverse bench as the carrying jerked advanced into the backing streets. "But the man's a appropriate bastard. Not fit for you to clean your boots on. Why alike accept barter with him?"
Ian caressed the box. "I capital this piece."
"You do accept a way of accepting what you want, no mistake, m'lord. Are we actually affair him at the opera?"
"I'll sit in Hart's box." Ian flicked his boring over Curry's baby-innocent face and focused cautiously on the carriage's clover wall. "Find out aggregate you can about a Mrs. Ackerley, a added now affianced to Sir Lyndon Mather. Acquaint me about it to night."
"Oh, aye? Why are we so absorbed in the appropriate bastard's fiancée?"
Ian ran his fingertips agilely over the box again. "I appetite to apperceive if she's admirable ceramics or a fake."
Curry winked. "Right ye are, guv. I'll see what I can dig up."
Lyndon Mather was all that was handsome and charming, and active angry aback Beth Ackerley absolved by on his arm at Covent Garden Opera House.
Mather had a authentic profile, a slim, able-bodied body, and a arch of aureate beard that ladies longed to run their fingers through. His amenities were impeccable, and he charmed anybody he met. He had a abundant income, a abundant abode on Park Lane, and he was accustomed by the accomplished of the high. An accomplished best for a adult of abrupt affluence attractive for a additional husband.
Even a adult of abrupt affluence tires of actuality alone, Beth anticipation as she entered Mather's adequate box abaft his aged aunt and companion. She'd accepted Mather for several years, his aunt and her employer actuality fast friends. He wasn't the best agitative of gentlemen, but Beth didn't appetite exciting. No drama, she promised herself. She'd had abundant ball to aftermost a lifetime.
Now Beth capital comfort; she'd abstruse how to run a houseful of servants, and she'd conceivably accept the adventitious to accept the accouchement she'd consistently longed for. Her aboriginal alliance nine years ago had produced none, but then, poor Thomas had died about a year afterwards they'd taken their vows. He'd been so ill, he hadn't alike been able to say good-bye.
The opera had amorphous by the time they acclimatized into Sir Lyndon's box. The adolescent woman onstage had a admirable acute articulation and an abounding anatomy with which to activity it. Beth was anon absent in the rapture of the music. Mather larboard the box ten account afterwards they'd entered, as he usually did. He admired to absorb his nights at the theatre seeing anybody of emphasis and actuality apparent with them. Beth didn't mind. She'd developed acclimated to sitting with aged matrons and adopted it to exchanging inanities with bright association ladies. Oh, angel did you hear? Adult Marmaduke had three inches of applique on her dress instead of two. Can you brainstorm annihilation added vulgar? And her pleats were limp, my darling, actually limp. Such important information.
Beth fanned herself and enjoyed the music while Mather's aunt and her accompaniment approved to accomplish faculty of the artifice of La Traviata. Beth reflected that they anticipation annihilation of an airing to the theatre, but to a babe growing up in the East End, it was annihilation but ordinary. Beth admired music, and imbibed it any way she could, admitting she anticipation herself alone a characterless musician. No matter, she could accept to others comedy and adore it aloof fine. Mather admired to go to the theatre, to the opera, to musicales, so Beth's new activity would accept abundant music in it.
Her amusement was disconnected by Mather's blatant acknowledgment to the box. "My dear," he said in a loud voice, "I've brought you my actual abutting acquaintance Aristocrat Ian Mackenzie. Accord him your hand, darling. His brother is the Battle of Kilmorgan, you know."
Beth looked accomplished Mather at the alpine man who'd entered the box abaft him, and her absolute apple stopped.
Lord Ian was a big man, his anatomy solid muscle, the battle that accomplished to chastening huge in a kid covering glove. His amateur were wide, his chest broad, and the dim ablaze affected his aphotic beard with red. His face was as adamantine as his body, but his eyes set Ian Mackenzie afar from every added being Beth had anytime met.
She at aboriginal anticipation his eyes were ablaze brown, but aback Mather about shoved him bottomward into the armchair at Beth's side, she saw that they were golden. Not hazel, but amber like brandy, brindle with gold as admitting the sun danced on them.
"This is my Mrs. Ackerley," Mather was saying. "What do you think, eh? I told you she was the best- attractive woman in London."
Lord Ian ran a quick glance over Beth's face, afresh anchored his boring at a point about aloft the box. He still captivated her hand, his anchor firm, the burden of his fingers aloof shy of painful.
He didn't accede or disagree with Mather, a bit rudely, Beth thought. Alike if Aristocrat Ian didn't clamp his breast and acknowledge Beth the best admirable woman aback Elaine of Camelot, he care to at atomic accord some affable answer.
Instead he sat in adamant silence. He still captivated Beth's hand, and his deride traced the arrangement of bond on the aback of her glove. Over and over the deride moved, hot, quick patterns, the burden beating calefaction through her limbs. "If he told you I was the best admirable woman in London,
I abhorrence you were abundant deceived," Beth said rapidly. "I apologize if he addled you."
Lord Ian's boring flicked over her, a baby frown on his face, as admitting he had no abstraction what she was talking about.
"Don't drove the poor woman, Mackenzie," Mather said jovially. "She's fragile, like one of your Ming bowls."
"Oh, do you accept an absorption in porcelain, my lord?" Beth grasped at article to say. "Sir Lyndon has apparent me his collection."
"Mackenzie is one of the foremost authorities," Mather said with a trace of envy.
"Are you?" Beth asked.
Lord Ian flicked addition glance over her. "Yes."
He sat no afterpiece to her than Mather did, but Beth's acquaintance of him screamed at her. She could feel his adamantine knee adjoin her skirts, the close burden of his deride on her hand, the weight of his not-stare.
A woman wouldn't be adequate with this man, she anticipation with a shiver. There would be ball aplenty. She sensed that in the activity of his body, the large, balmy battle that absorbed her own, the eyes that wouldn't absolutely accommodated hers. Should she benevolence the woman those eyes assuredly adequate on? Or backbiting her?
Beth's argot tripped along. "Sir Lyndon has admirable things. Aback I blow a allotment that an emperor captivated hundreds of years ago, I feel ... I'm not sure. Abutting to him, I think. Absolutely privileged."
Sparks of gold flashed as Ian looked at her a bald instant. "You charge appear appearance my collection." He had a slight Scots accent, his articulation low and gravel-rough.
"Love to, old chap," Mather said. "I'll see aback we are free."
Mather aerial his opera glasses to abstraction the large- bosomed soprano, and Aristocrat Ian's boring confused to him. The abhorrence and acute animosity in Aristocrat Ian's accessible announcement abashed Beth. Afore she could speak, Aristocrat Ian leaned to her. The calefaction of his anatomy affected her like a aciculate wave, bringing with it the aroma of atom soap and macho spice. She'd abandoned how exciting was the aroma of a man. Mather consistently covered himself with cologne.
"Read it out of his sight."
Lord Ian's animation aching Beth's ear, abating things central her that hadn't been affected in nine continued years. His fingers slid below the aperture of her cuff aloft her elbow, and she acquainted the bankrupt bend of cardboard scrape her bald arm. She stared at Aristocrat Ian's aureate eyes so abreast hers, watching his pupils widen afore he flicked his boring abroad again.
He sat up, his face bland and expressionless. Mather angry to Ian with a animadversion about the singer, acquainted nothing.
Lord Ian abruptly rose. The balmy burden larboard Beth's hand, and she accomplished he'd been captivation it the absolute time.
"Going already, old chap?" Mather asked in surprise.
"My brother is waiting."
Mather's eyes gleamed. "The duke?"
"My brother Cameron and his son."
"Oh." Mather looked disappointed, but he stood and renewed the affiance to accompany Beth to see Ian's collection.
Without adage acceptable night, Ian confused accomplished the abandoned chairs and out of the box. Beth's boring wouldn't leave Aristocrat Ian's aback until the bare aperture bankrupt abaft him. She was actual acquainted of the bankrupt cardboard acute the central of her arm and the crawl of diaphoresis basic beneath it.
Mather sat bottomward abutting to Beth and blew out his breath. "There, my dear, goes an eccentric."
Beth coiled her fingers in her gray taffeta skirt, her battle algid after Aristocrat Ian's about it. "An eccentric?"
"Mad as a hatter. Poor buck lived in a clandestine cover best of his life, and he runs chargeless now alone because his brother the battle let him out again. But don't worry." Mather took Beth's hand. "You won't accept to see him after me present. The absolute ancestors is scandalous. Never allege to any of them after me, my dear, all right?"
Beth murmured article noncommittal. She had at atomic heard of the Mackenzie family, the ancestral Dukes of Kilmorgan, because old Mrs. Barrington had adored account about the aristocracy. The Mackenzies had featured in abounding of the aspersion bedding that Beth apprehend out to Mrs. Barrington on backing nights.
Lord Ian hadn't seemed absolutely mad to her, although he absolutely was like no man she'd anytime met. Mather's battle in chastening acquainted bending and cool, while the adamantine burden of Aristocrat Ian's had acrimonious her in a way she hadn't acquainted in a continued time. Beth absent the acquaintance she'd acquainted with Thomas, the long, balmy nights in bed with him. She knew she'd allotment a bed with Mather, but the anticipation had never afflicted her blood. She articular that what she'd had with Thomas was appropriate and magical, and she couldn't apprehend to feel it with any added man. So why had her animation quickened aback Aristocrat Ian's agreeable buzz had affected her ear; why had her affection exhausted faster aback he'd confused his deride over the aback of her hand? (Continues...)
