Read The Bargain for Free Online Page B

always popping up and creating a nuisance,” he told her, relieved to see that she seemed to have recovered her composure.
    â€œNuisance?” she echoed.
    â€œThey want to borrow money or be squired about London or stay at the house for months at a time to save themselves a few guineas when they haven’t the least need to do so.”
    She smiled slightly, and Alan felt a surge of gratification all out of proportion with the occasion. “My great-uncle Oliver amassed one of the largest fortunes in England by the simple expedient of never going home,” he added. “Indeed, he didn’t have a home. He saved the expense by visiting his relatives, in turn, through the year. You could judge the season by it. If Uncle Oliver was visiting, it must be April.”
    She laughed, and Alan felt his heart lift in the most incomprehensible way. “They can’t all be like that,” she protested.
    â€œNot all,” he conceded.
    â€œYou told me you have brothers?”
    â€œBrothers,” he echoed feelingly. “You can’t imagine what it’s like having five older brothers.”
    â€œNo,” replied Ariel softly. “I don’t suppose I can.”
    â€œEverything has been done before you get to it. Everyone you meet has opinions about you—and not always favorable ones. You are born part of a mob, and you have to fight to become yourself.”
    â€œYou do?”
    Alan looked up and found that she was gazing at him very steadily. Why had he said that, he wondered? It had nothing to do with the matter at hand. He had come here for information, and so far he had gotten none at all. “I’m happy to visit the family at holidays and do my duty on great occasions,” he said, closing the subject. “But I need the rest of my time for my work.”
    â€œYour work with light?”
    â€œYes.” He was amazed that she’d remembered.
    â€œHow can you study light?” she asked. She gestured at the shaft of sunlight flooding through the window. “It’s just… there.” She moved her hand in and out of the glow, briefly illuminating its delicate shape.
    She really was like a creature of light herself, Alan thought. He had seldom seen such coloring. The rich brown of her hair, the greens and browns of her eyes, the peach tones of her skin emphasized by the golden sun—they all seemed to fit with the subtly rounded figure, those full lips that made a man…
    â€œLike air,” she added.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œLight is like air—all around but insubstantial. How can you study it? You can’t put it in a jar and… and pour chemicals over it.”
    â€œNo. But you can bend it and refract it through prisms and… other things.” She couldn’t really understand this, he thought, though she looked genuinely interested.
    â€œPrisms,” she repeated. “And mirrors. People use mirrors to send signals because they reflect light. I’ve read about that.”
    â€œThey do,” he replied, more and more surprised. She actually seemed able to hold on to an abstract idea for more than an instant. That was most unusual.
    Ariel moved uneasily under his gaze, seeming suddenly self-conscious. “We are supposed to be discussing our investigation,” she said.
    They were, thought Alan, and he did not precisely understand how they had gotten so far off the subject. He did not even recognize his twinge of regret as he took a slip of paper from his waistcoat pocket and unfolded it. “I have laid out an investigative plan following last night’s incident. After you have given me all the information you possess, I will proceed to—”
    â€œWe must find the servants,” interrupted Ariel. “Mama’s dresser, Clarisse, was a very… resourceful person.”
    Alan looked at her.
    â€œAnd John the coachman was a man of… varied experience.”
    She had been about to