erotic, simply because he did it.
“So has Hannah More.”
Solomon smiled at the walnut in his hand, prying the meat out of its shell. “I’m fond of him, though. His family was awfully good to me when Elijah died.”
“You mean they fell awkwardly silent at your approach and gazed at you pityingly over dinner, and occasionally your uncle would lay a supportive hand on your shoulder.”
He laughed. “Well, yes. But—” He had eaten the walnut, but he kept his eyes on his hands. “Elijah was never interested in the shop. Uncle Hathaway was the only person I could be around without wondering if he would have rather I died instead.”
“But—” she began, appalled. “Surely your parents didn’t think that.”
“Probably not. Probably I was the only one who did. But they were all so unhappy. Elijah was always the one who knew what to say, who made everyone laugh. If it had been me, he could have made them feel better. I—I could barely speak to them anymore. I could barely speak to anyone. How could they not wish it?”
“But—”
“You never met him,” Solomon said with finality. “You don’t understand. He may have looked like me, but he was special. When he walked into a room, everyone turned to look.”
When Solomon walked into a room, every fiber of Serena’s being swung toward him like a needle toward the pole. “You’re special,” she said stubbornly. “And your uncle still doesn’t appreciate it enough.”
He sighed. “Serena, I’m going to tell you something, but I don’t necessarily want to discuss it.”
She nodded.
“After Elijah died, I moved my laboratory into the back of the shop for a while.”
“How kind of him, to allow you to use his space in your work for his business. I’ll wager he doesn’t pay you enough either.”
“Did you tell him that?”
“Maybe.”
The corner of his mouth quirked up. “Anyway, that’s not what I meant. I moved it there because I—well, I caught myself eyeing the bottle of arsenic. And I didn’t think I would, but I knew I wouldn’t if my cousin Clara might find the body.”
The oyster Serena had just eaten transformed itself into a brick in her stomach.
“I couldn’t sleep and I’d show up there at all hours to work. Uncle Hathaway took to waking at three or four in the morning and coming downstairs. He’d bring in tea, and then he’d go into the other room and work. He didn’t try to talk to me, but I could hear him through the door and it—it helped.”
Serena leaned back against a tree. “I—”
“I said I didn’t want to discuss it.”
“I know. I just wish I could have been there.”
Solomon looked at his hands. “So do I.”
“Have some gingerbread. It’s good.”
He raised an eyebrow at her, but he reached for the gingerbread. She took the opportunity to brush their fingers together.
“Elijah would have liked you,” he said. “I wish you could have met him.”
She chewed her lip. “Are you sure he wouldn’t have thought I was toying with your affections?”
“I’m sure you would have gone to a great deal of trouble to make him think so.” He grinned at her. “You really oughtn’t to think you’re a heartless bitch just because people tell you so. ‘Forsake the foolish, and live,’ remember?”
“Because you haven’t been affected at all by your family’s expectations that you’re a dull-as-ditchwater milquetoast Quakerish idiot.”
“I am a dull-as-ditchwater milquetoast Quakerish idiot,” he said without heat. “Pass the orange.”
“Precisely, and I’m a heartless bitch.”
He stared at her with something approaching amazement. “Huh. You’re right.”
“I generally am.”
He frowned. “So—does that mean I’m not a Quakerish idiot?”
She laughed weakly and threw the orange at him. “Well, you may be an idiot.”
He pulled a knife from his pocket and sliced it into eighths. Juice ran over his fingers and he sucked it off, looking irked. Somehow that little frown made it even more seductive. “I was unforgivably foolish this morning. Miss Jeeves would bore me to tears, I know that. But—but she looked like you, except—”
“Except what?”
He hesitated. “Except she looked at me as if she—as if she didn’t mind liking me.”
Poor Solomon. He didn’t even ask her to be pleasant. He just wanted her to be willing to like him, and show it. He had such low expectations, and she still couldn’t meet them. What made it worse was that she liked him so damn much. But she couldn’t show it like other women did. She couldn’t be like other women. She didn’t want to be. It was too frightening; it