Mrs. Danbury pressed a handkerchief to her mouth and sat back, blinking. Then a childlike smile spread across her face. "My goodness," she said, and she laughed.
Inglethorpe turned to Lady Breckenridge and offered the bag to her. She loosened the mouth of it and put it to her nose, inhaling and squeezing the bag in a practiced way.
Mrs. Danbury continued to titter as though she could not stop herself. Inglethorpe, smile wide, continued across the room.
Lady Breckenridge closed her eyes and leaned back a moment, then opened her eyes and gave me a beatific smile. "Excellent for the humors," she said.
Mrs. Danbury found her statement amusing, judging from the escalation of her laughter. The bag passed to the gentlemen but emptied before it got to me.
Inglethorpe handed me the second bag and loosened the string for me. I lifted it to my nose and tried to duplicate what I'd seen the others do.
A waft of air forced its way into my nostrils, but it smelled in no way unpleasant, or, indeed, any different than the air in the rest of the room. I wondered whether Inglethorpe was making fools of us.
As I passed the bag to the next gentleman, however, my lips and tongue began to tingle. It was a curious sensation. I touched my tongue to my lower lip and resisted the urge to tug it. Lady Breckenridge laughed quietly at me.
As I turned from her, my injured knee collided with the gilded edge of the settee. I felt a jarring but no pain. For a moment, the fact did not connect in my head, and then, in pure astonishment, I stared down at my leg.
I felt no pain. All day long my knee had throbbed in the damp, and now, it seemed as right as it had been before I'd hurt it.
For two years after the original injury, which had shattered the bones, my knee and lower thigh had hurt continuously, some days more than others. Always the leg was stiff; every morning I had to walk about to loosen it up. If I used it too much during a day, such as today, I woke aching and cursing in the night. And now, I felt no pain.
Amazed, I stood. Mrs. Danbury pressed her handkerchief to her mouth and laughed at me, her eyes shining. I grinned back at her.
"Do you like it, Captain?" Inglethorpe asked. He passed the second bag to Lady Breckenridge and picked up the third.
"Certainly," I answered.
I paced back and forth. I glanced at my walking stick, which I had left leaning against the settee. My bad leg moved where I wanted it to go without protest. I turned in a circle, resting my weight on my left leg. Nary a twinge. I laughed.
Inglethorpe handed the third bag to me. I took it and inhaled gladly, taking a long breath.
I wondered what the concoction was. Grenville had called it a "magic" gas. I felt awake and alert and rested. Brandy and gin left one heavy and sleepy, opium gave a false euphoria and a weightiness in the limbs, but this made me feel fine and fit. I wanted to leap about the room, and to my alarm, I found myself nearly starting to do so.
"Dance for us, Captain," Lady Breckenridge said. "Do, please."
Several of the gentlemen laughed. The others leaned back, idiotic grins on their faces. Inglethorpe, the only one who had not partaken, watched us all with an indulgent expression.
I crossed the carpet and held out my hand. "Do you waltz, Mrs. Danbury?"
She gazed at me in astonishment and through the strange clarity I felt a twinge of embarrassment. Then she smiled, put her hand in mine, and rose to meet me.
I waltzed Mrs. Danbury up and down the long room and around Lady Breckenridge's settee to the windows. Lady Breckenridge turned to watch us as we went by.
I had learned to waltz in Spain, when the fashion first took. I had waltzed with Louisa, under her husband's glowering eye, and with the wives of other officers. My injury had, of course, put an end to this entertainment.
Never had I danced with a woman who simply wanted to dance with me. No pity for the lonely officer who had no wife to escort. No duty in attending the wives of superior officers. Just dancing for the pure joy of it.
Mrs. Danbury matched her steps to mine and rested her hand on my shoulder. I grasped her about the waist, my fingers fitting to the slim curve of her body.
I had not felt so well in a long, long while. I realized I wanted to kiss her. I wanted to lean down and touch her red lips, to feel them open beneath mine.
She must have sensed my wish, for she whispered, "They are all watching."
I gave her a reassuring look and lowered my eyelid in a wink. I certainly would not cause a scandal. She could trust me to be a gentleman.
Mrs. Danbury’s smile broadened. We danced some more, moving back and forth across the room. I felt light on my feet and light in heart.
I lost track of time. I'd come here planning to question Inglethorpe about Peaches, about who she talked to, what she and Lord Barbury did here, and whether she had come here Monday, either alone or with someone other than Lord Barbury. Inglethorpe had begun this entertainment at four o'clock; soon after four on Monday, Peaches had met her end.
Instead, I danced. Mrs. Danbury and I went around and around the room. She gazed up at me, seemingly happy to be dancing with me. It had been so long since a lady had looked at me in such delight that I could not bear to break the spell.
The windows darkened. Several of the gentlemen departed. Inglethorpe disappeared. Mrs. Danbury danced into me, a luxurious crush of female body.
I at last let her sit down, out of breath, and I seated myself on a stool before her and looked at her in a way I had no business to. Mrs. Danbury did not seem to mind. Her color was high, and her eyes sparkled.
This was not like being drunk. I felt refreshed and aware and at last free of pain. Whatever Inglethorpe’s concoction was, I liked it.
A heavy wave of French perfume swept over my shoulder and Lady Breckenridge said into my ear, "If you want to know about Lord Barbury, Captain, you have only to ask me."
I glanced quickly up at her but as usual, her dark blue eyes were enigmatic.
Lady Breckenridge left the room without further word, and a footman closed the door behind her.
She wanted me to rush after her. She wanted me to wonder what she meant and not rest until I found out.
Devil take the woman, that is exactly what I did. I rose, made some excuse to the bewildered Mrs. Danbury, and hurried from the room.
Inglethorpe was on the landing.
"Come again, Captain," his congenial voice floated after me as I moved past him down the stairs, barely acknowledging him. "Perhaps next time you will persuade Mr. Grenville to accompany you."
I did not answer. I reached the ground floor hall, snatched my coat and hat from the footman, and plunged outside.
The street had darkened and rain made it darker still. I did not see Lady Breckenridge at first and balled my hands in frustration, wondering if she’d simply gone without me. Then another carriage moved out of the way, and I spied her across the street, being helped into a closed landau.
She'd donned a jacket and hat, and she smiled down at me as I made my way to her. "Shall you ride with me, Captain?"
I looked at the landau, rain streaking its black leather top. An unrelated lady and gentleman riding in a closed carriage could be scandalous, although widowed women of the upper classes had a little immunity. The rain decided it for me, as well as the fact that I'd made a fool of myself in Inglethorpe's sitting room and come away with no information.
I accepted.
Chapter Six
The footman assisted me into the landau, and I found myself in a conveyance as opulent as Grenville's. The walls were fine parquetry, the upholstery, velvet. Boxes of coals warmed our feet, and coach lanterns lightened the gloom of the darkening evening.
As soon as I half fell into the seat facing Lady Breckenridge, the landau started with a jerk.