She felt heat rise in her cheeks. “Truly?”
“Truly,” he responded, taking her hands into his own.
A shiver of delight ran up her spine, which she quickly resolved to ignore. “I’m glad.”
“Good. That’s settled.” He released her abruptly and resumed the search.
Daisy removed her gloves once more, and after promising to be careful not to dirty her gown and accessories, spent the next moments scouting through the last of the soil beds with him, lifting every pot and searching in, under, and around every leaf. They found a lady’s mirror and an earring under a bench, a man’s glove and a shoe buckle among the ferns, but no sign of the necklace.
“Does your offer still stand?” she finally asked miserably. “I mean, about the dance. I’d very much like one. It’ll be the only pleasant memory salvaged from this disastrous evening.”
“Perhaps later. First, let’s find your heirloom.”
Daisy’s cheeks suffused with heat. She sputtered an apology about not meaning to force him to do anything he did not wish to do, and that he needn’t dance with her ever, or feel compelled out of politeness or by order of Eloise to endure her company.
“Daisy, I do wish to dance with you. I just assumed our top priority was to find the lost necklace.”
“It is. It’s just that you’ve been so patient and—”
“You hate to impose further on my time?”
“Yes, exactly.”
“I’ll let you know when you become an imposition. Come here, you have a smudge on your nose.” He drew out his handkerchief and stepped toward the small fish pond to moisten one edge of the fashionable cloth. “I’ll be damned,” he muttered, staring into the water. “I thought you said you looked in here.”
“I did.” She came to his side and followed his gaze. “It’s clear enough to see straight through to the bottom.”
“But you didn’t stick your hand in it.”
“No, why should I? My vision is perfect and there’s nothing swimming in the pond but two goldfish.”
He sighed and pulled his cuff up as far as it would go. “Your knowledge of science is limited. Not your fault at all, but rather the idiocy of society in restricting the formal education of women.”
She turned to him in surprise. “That’s quite forward thinking of you.”
“You sound shocked. Did you believe me to be as stodgy as the fossils who run the Royal Society?”
“Indeed, no. But neither did I expect you to hold such radical views about women and their rights to an education,” she said with a nod of approval. “What does losing my necklace have to do with science?”
“Do you see how the light plays on the water?”
She returned her gaze to the small pond and studied the movement. “Yes, it’s quite beautiful. But what are you doing?”
“Hopefully retrieving your heirloom.” He dunked his hand into the shallow water, feeling about the bottom, and finally pulling out—a miracle!
“You’ve found it!” she gasped, watching the strand of pearls shimmer like starlight between his fingers.
He laughed, obviously feeling quite proud of himself. “Crisis averted.”
She gazed at him in amazement. “How did you know?”
“I stayed awake during physics class at Cambridge,” he said with a wry grin. “Though I never expected to put the theory of refraction of light to such good use. The bottom of the pool is deeper than it looks, you see.” As though to make his point, he held up his jacket sleeve to show that even his drawn-up cuff had gotten wet. Fortunately, not too badly.
“I don’t know what to say. ‘Thank you’ doesn’t seem enough,” she whispered in relief. She felt giddy, elated, and in danger of actually starting to like Gabriel.
“Put them in your pocket,” he suggested after wiping droplets of water off each shiny bead with his handkerchief.
“I haven’t one. This gown wasn’t designed with much fabric to spare,” she said with a wince, feeling the heat of a blush creep up her neck and onto her cheeks. Her gown had been purposely fashioned to cling in the most obvious places.
“Ah, um... I see the problem.” He studied her attire, his gaze slowly drinking in every curve of her body as though he could see through the fabric. He coughed as he stuffed the necklace into his breast pocket and patted it. “I’ll hold it for the moment.”
She wondered how she might feel cozily tucked against Gabriel’s chest. However, she quickly shook out of the bumble-headed thought. “My sister, Lily, tried to teach me about physics. She’s brilliant and an excellent tutor, but we’d hardly begun before the family caught on and put a quick end to my studies.”