Quicksilver - Amanda Quick [72]
Nick went blank. “What of it?”
“In case you have not noticed, no one in this hall tonight trusts Owen Sweetwater.”
“I see.” Nick looked as if he was beginning to comprehend the situation.
“Thanks to his recent hobby of exposing Leybrook practitioners in the press, those connected to the Institute now consider him a serious threat to everyone’s career.”
“I see,” Nick said again.
“It was one thing for people to believe that Virginia was allowing him to study her powers. But now the rumors are going around that she is conducting an affair with him. They will no longer trust her not to betray their secrets to a lover. I fear that when Mr. Sweetwater concludes his investigation, she will no longer be welcome here at the Institute.”
“Huh.” Nick gave that some thought. “Perhaps she should consider joining Arcane. Come to think of it, both of you ought to join.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, sir. Arcane has never welcomed those of us who must make a living with our talents.”
“They say that the Society is changing rapidly now that Gabriel Jones has assumed the responsibilities of the Master’s Chair.”
“It remains to be seen if Mr. Jones can reinvent Arcane,” Charlotte said. “Even if that is possible, Virginia and I will still be obliged to work for a living. For all practical purposes, that means maintaining an affiliation with the Leybrook Institute. It is not her personal reputation that Virginia is putting in jeopardy by associating intimately with Mr. Sweetwater; it is her career, indeed, her entire future.”
“I see,” Nick said for the third time. He contemplated the scene below. “I’m afraid the damage in that regard, whatever it proves to be, may have already been done.”
Alarmed, Charlotte plucked her spectacles out of her evening bag and pushed them onto her nose. She studied Virginia and Owen. It did not require any degree of paranormal intuition to sense the energy around the pair. Owen stood a little too close to Virginia, just inside the invisible sphere of personal space that a lady always kept in place around her person. There was something both proprietary and protective about his stance. It was as if he were sending a silent message to every other man in the hall, putting them all on notice of his claim on Virginia.
Virginia was in love, whether she knew it or not.
“Damn him,” she whispered. She gripped the railing with her gloved fingers. “How dare he do this to my friend?”
Nick went still beside her. She knew that he was looking at her, not at the crowd down below.
“Miss Tate, do try to remember that my cousin established an association with your friend for the sole purpose of discovering the identity of a killer who may well intend to murder her,” he said softly. “Owen is attempting to protect Virginia.”
Charlotte pulled herself together with an effort of will. “Yes, of course. Forgive me. Sometimes my imagination runs away with my common sense. It may be that I have spent too much time studying the unique properties of the strong energy that is generated between two individuals of talent who are physically attracted to each other.”
“What a coincidence.” Nick was pleased. “I am very interested in the subject, myself.”
“Mr. Sweetwater, really.” She could feel the heat in her cheeks. “Are you always this blunt in your speech?”
“I have been told that I have a tendency to speak too directly at times,” he admitted, abashed. “My apologies.”
“Accepted,” she said stiffly.
He cleared his throat. “Right, then, back to the business at hand, eh?”
“That is a very good idea.”
“From up here it appears that the only other person in the room who is drawing more attention than Miss Dean and my cousin is that tall man in the center of the hall, the one accompanied by the largebreasted blonde.”
“Gilmore Leybrook,” Charlotte said. “He is the founder of the Institute. The blonde is his latest assistant, Adriana Walters. Leybrook has had a number of assistants.”
Nick appeared deeply