Free Wait Until Midnight by Amanda Quick Page B

due respect to the incomparable Elizabeth Barrett Browning, I am certain that she was tricked by Home" Adam steered her toward the door. "But I will admit that she was in excellent company. In his prime, Home managed to make fools of any number of people."
    To his great satisfaction, Caroline did not resist his effort to get her out of the lecture hall. But he had miscalculated badly in one regard, he discovered. The gently rounded shape and the enticing, resilient feel of her arm through the fabric of her sleeve proved unexpectedly distracting. He had to struggle against a sudden urge to tighten his hold and pull her closer. This was the first time he had actually touched her. He could not suppress the flicker of excitement that crackled through him.
    She was warm and vivid in a tightly laced green gown trimmed with white at the neck and sleeves. The short train of the dress was gracefully hooked up to enable her to walk without sweeping the floor with the hem. The design ex-posed the toes of dainty shoes the same color as the gown. A large, delightfully frivolous green and gold velvet bow decorated the rear of the dress where the skirts had been drawn up and back into a small pouf. Her hair was twisted into an elegant coil. A tiny flower-trimmed hat was perched at a rakish angle over one eye.
    She looked good enough to eat, he thought, and he was ravenously hungry.
    He guided her along the corridor, intensely, almost painfully conscious of her femininity. The faint, enticing scent of her body mingled with the flowers and herbs of the soap she had used in her bath. The fragrance thrilled his senses. He reminded himself that he was too old, was too experienced and had seen too much of the dark, raw side of life to be so easily overwhelmed by a woman. But there it was. All indications were that he had been struck by lightning.
    They made their way down the main hall of Wintersett House, past an office, a large reception room, more lecture halls and a library.
    As far as Adam could determine, only the ground floor
    had been opened to the members of the Society of Psychical Investigations. The floors above were closed to the public.
    The mansion was vast, bleak and quite ugly, in his opinion. It had been designed in the Gothic style with walls of heavy stone. The rooms were vaulted in the medieval manner. Very little sunlight penetrated the interior of the big house.
    Just the sort of atmosphere the members of the Society no doubt thrived on, he thought.
    When they reached the front hall, he saw two gentlemen engaged in serious conversation. The shorter of the two was a man of some forty or forty-five years of age. Although he was of less than average height, he was fashioned along solid, heavy lines, not unlike the mansion. He projected an intense, scholarly air with spectacles, whiskers, a receding hairline and a rumpled coat.
    The short, bespectacled man was brandishing a photo-graph beneath the aristocratic nose of an elegant, well-dressed, rather bored-looking gentleman. The taller man was endowed with the sort of statue-perfect features that never failed to attract the eyes of the ladies. His jet-black hair was highlighted by a startling streak of silver.
    "The tall, distinguished gentleman is Mr. Julian Elsworth," Caroline whispered. "He is the most fashion-able practitioner of psychical powers in London at the moment. He gives occasional public demonstrations here at Wintersett House, but most of his sittings are conducted in private homes in the most exclusive circles"
    She sounded far too enthusiastic about Elsworth, Adam decided.
    "I've heard of him," he allowed. "We've never been introduced."
    "A formal reception in his honor will be held here later this week," she said. "It will be followed by a demonstration of his abilities. There is certain to be a very large crowd."
    "And the short gentleman?"
    "That is Mr. Reed. He is the president of the Society for Psychical Investigations and the publisher of New Dawn."
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