Page 4 of An Heiress and An Astronomer (Gentleman Scholars #3)

"W hy was he watching them?

It couldn’t be jealousy motivating him, could it? Sydney Peters was his friend. If the cartographer wanted to dance with the woman, why would Pierce mind?

That would be foolish beyond all acceptance. As a serious scientist, Pierce didn’t believe himself capable of foolishness. But this could be evidence to the contrary of his convictions.

The woman really was lovely when one looked past her unsmiling mouth and odd stylistic choices. He suspected, though, that it was the gleam of intelligence in her eyes even though she had little to say, that supported his supposition that she was intelligent. Really, they hadn’t even conversed that much.

Pierce began to suspect it was Lucy’s interference that was making him see Greta Billingsley as appealing.

Was he as trainable as a dog? He had seen some fellows experimenting with pets and their trainability.

Was a suggestion from his mentor’s wife all it took to have him smelling spring flowers in connection with a woman?

A well-dowered woman, if the rumors were to be believed.

Pierce shook his head. He hated to think of himself as a fortune hunter, but that was what he would be if he married a woman for access to her funds.

If he finalized his design of the new telescope, he wouldn’t need anyone else’s funds, he reminded himself. And if he found Lady Evangeline’s treasure that the other fellows were pursuing, he would gain their respect too.

He would have everything he had always wanted. Especially once the Royal Society agreed to meet with him.

A female life’s companion would just be the culmination of all his pursuits. The urge to laugh nearly overtook him. And that reminded him of one reason why Miss Billingsley wasn’t the right companion for him.

She didn’t laugh.

She barely even smiled unless you counted those seemingly forced little stretches of her mouth that occurred from time to time when it seemed to cross her mind that she had been frowning.

Why was she so serious?

And why did he care?

Again, the urge to laugh swept through him. He ought to return to the estate and finish the adjustments to his latest lens. He certainly couldn’t work on it at Eveleigh House even if Lucy hadn’t banned all experimentation from the earl’s fancy town house.

Pierce had met Lord Eveleigh. The old codger didn’t strike him as being all that stodgy about experimentation, so he suspected it was actually Lucy’s edict. It might have something to do with one of the fellow’s tales of catching his room on fire one time because it was only afterward that the rule had been made.

He couldn’t really blame her. If the chemist or even the physicist were to make a mistake, there could be dire consequences.

What harm could a mathematician, cartographer, or an astronomer do?

But Lucy believed in fairness. She said it would appear like she was playing favorites. So, no experimentation was allowed in Town. If they wished to do so, they would require their own accommodations.

Pierce’s grandfather was generous. Lord Ingleshire kept his favourite grandson in pin money. Pierce could afford to stay elsewhere. But there was no fun in that.

He enjoyed the company of the other scholars far more than he ever would have expected. He had no desire to stay anywhere else if they were in Town. Or he could return to the estate. Perhaps he would.

Except now he was intrigued, thanks to Lucy and her infernal machinations. Miss Greta Billingsley bore watching.

Lucy was determined to manage them all as she saw fit. He suspected it was the maternal instincts within her. She had them already to a certain extent before their daughter was born, but now, it was as though she were a queen, a governess, and a law clerk all rolled into one being.

She wore it well, this dictatorial inclination she had developed. Pierce was certain Lucy had everyone’s very best interests at her heart. But she thought she knew what was best for everyone while she was surrounded by adults. Adults who had been managing themselves for quite some time.

Of course, the scholarly adults might not manage certain aspects of their lives terribly well.

Pierce was well aware that most of them would forget to eat now and again if they were deeply involved in some sort of study or project. But decision making and directing their lives was well within their skill set for the most part.

They all tolerated Lucy’s interference though since they knew her heart was big enough to include every last one of them.

Most of the fellows had been ostracized in one way or another from their own families. It was a comfort for them to have found their chosen family at the Northcotts’ Scholarly Institute.

Most of them had a shared history that went back to boyhood when they had been together at Eton and then Cambridge or Oxford.

Roderick Northcott, the youngest son of the Earl of Eveleigh, had chosen to be a professional student, declaring to his family that he would remain at Oxford until he had read every book in their extensive library system.

It was rumoured he had managed the feat.

But despite his love of learning, Roderick didn’t have a scientific specialty like the other fellows. Rather he had specialized in making friends with all the misfits who were at the school to study rather than to make social connections. They had formed a band of brothers of sorts.

Then Roddie had discovered he had a penchant for helping the fellows make money from their studies. He had become their benefactor rather than the sponsors most of them had been beholden to.

Thus, had been born the Scholarly Institute. Pierce was certain Lucy’s considerable dowry had helped.

Because the Northcott marriage was a love match, though, Lucy had got it in her head that she needed to help everyone else find their match as well. Whether they were searching for one or not.

Just look at Lady Evangeline and Sean Smythe, the mathematician who had once been a scholar at their institute. And now there was Severn, or rather Lord Beaverbrook now, and the little paid companion he had sent to his cousins. If Pierce wasn’t mistaken, now Lucy had set her eyes on several matches if her direction to the gentlemen to find dance partners was any indication.

Pierce didn’t even mind. Not really. But he did resent the implication that he couldn’t find a match on his own. And the thought that the beautiful but humorless Miss Billingsley might be a match for any of the scholars let alone him, the jolliest of them all, was perfectly laughable.

Since Grandfather Ingleshire was so generous to him and never made a fuss over his staying so long at school, Pierce had the least pressure of any of the scholars to find accomplishment with his science or even follow the edicts of a benefactor. For that reason, he suspected, his wit was the lightest and his laugh the readiest of the fellows. But they were all good men, worthy of a lively companion. And he didn’t think Miss Greta Billingsley fit that description.

So then why did he find himself a few days later hovering in the entry hall when he heard from the servants Lucy was about to return to the house with said female in tow?