Read Online Magic in the Stars by Patricia Rice - Free Book Online

bridge of his nose. “I hate this. I trust
finding a steward will be simpler.”
    ***
    Finding a steward wasn’t simpler. Theo stopped at one of
Duncan’s clubs to make inquiries and ran into the Earl of Lansdowne. The earl appeared
to know him even if Theo didn’t recognize the distinguished older man until
they were introduced.
    “Ashford took a fall, did he?” Lansdowne asked, fastening
his coat buttons in preparation for leaving the club. “Will he be back for the
September session?”
    “One assumes,” Theo answered edgily, having no idea what the
answer ought to be. “I’m just here to inquire about the names of likely men for
the position of steward.”
    The earl shrugged and donned his tall hat. “Everyone’s out
of town. Surely one of your bastard brothers can look in on the tenants.”
    At the deliberate insult, Theo rolled his fingers into
fists, but even he knew better than to punch an earl. “The bastard who is
training the royal hounds, perhaps?” he asked coldly. “Or the one engineering
the Manchester railway? We’re all such layabouts, I’m sure you’re right.”
    He strode off, leaving the earl and his companions to glare
after him. So much for asking the help of his so-called betters.
    He managed to collect a few references from more helpful men
and left word in several places without biting anyone else’s head off. But too
many people asked after Duncan, and he had nothing to give them. He had a vague
notion he was supposed to pound men on the back, make jokes about Ashford
spending time in bed, and assure everyone that the head of an industrial
fortune was right on top where he belonged.
    But Duncan was flinging shoes and tea trays and Theo
couldn’t speak such a massive lie.
    After following up every lead he’d been given and finding
himself near Lincoln's Inn Field, Theo rewarded his perseverance by stopping in
to see if the library of the Astronomical Society had any new treatises. John
Herschel was writing at a table and glanced up at Theo’s appearance.
    “Still think your lens can find more than the six moons on
Saturn mine can find, Ives?” Herschel asked, setting aside his pen and rubbing
his brow.
    “Certainly,” Theo said with a shrug. “I just need better
weather.” He rummaged through the pamphlets on display.
    “If we’re to win the royal charter, we need to produce a
discovery of sufficient magnitude to gain His Majesty’s recognition. I’ve been
promising his highness he’d hear from us by September. If you can’t produce
your new glass, we’ll have to call on someone else.”
    A chance to display the achievements of his new glass had
been Theo’s goal ever since he’d developed the new lens. But he needed more
time to test it and write up the report and produce more . . .
Theo wanted to raise his fists and howl.
    “It can’t rain forever,” he said in surly acceptance while
he scanned Herschel’s latest tract.
    “Your name will be mud with the society if you can’t
produce,” Herschel warned.
    “I have the glass,” Theo insisted, fighting his panic that
he’d never test the glass at this
rate. He waved the pamphlet he’d been reading. “ Inductive reasoning?” he asked in incredulity. “You would infer a
scientific principle based on what . . . intuition ? Have we all gone mad?”
    “Don’t question the premise until you’ve been married for a
year as I have,” Herschel said dryly. “We can often see probable evidence that
women think differently than men, but it is impossible to provide deductive or
empirical evidence of the theory—as just one example.”
    Thinking of Aster and her insane theories of the universe,
Theo considered punching his own eyes out. “You would prove astrology true?” he
asked irritably.
    “Unlikely,” Herschel agreed. “But we do not always have the
instruments to measure what is obvious from observation. Take the tract and
study it. There is more to science than mathematics.”
    “I really