She said nothing.
Geoffrey’s chest squeezed. Had he been too late in declaring his feelings? Had he lost her?
He pulled her hands to his lips, brushing her petal-soft skin against his mouth. “Dear God, Liliana,” he whispered, “I love you so much.” His voice caught, as if it alone understood that by admitting his love, his vulnerability, she could use it to push him around like so many pieces on a chessboard. But he no longer cared. It was more important to show her that he trusted her to do with his love as she pleased. “I love you. And I’m sorry, more than I can say. Please, forgive me. Marry me.” A hot tear slipped down his cheek. “Love me.”
And he gave her a little tug. Nothing that would upend her if she didn’t wish to come, but enough to let her know that she was wanted, needed. Another tear followed the first when she dropped to her knees along with him.
“I do,” she whispered. “Oh, Geoffrey, I do.”
He moaned, clasping her to him with all of his strength. A part of him registered that she held him equally tight. “Liliana,” he said, pulling back so that he could see her eyes, but he couldn’t long resist the need to kiss her, nor to run his hands over her hair, her face, anywhere he could touch to assure himself she was real, was here, had chosen to stay with him. She tasted of apples and honey and salty tears…and of happiness and promise and love.
Her tongue delved past his lips and desire flooded him, raging through his body nearly as fiercely as his love. Yet he reined it in. After the events of the day, Liliana must be exhausted. And they had their whole lives…“Sweet, you need your rest—”
His bold little scientist cut him off with a voracious kiss of her own, her hand trailing down his stomach and caressing him. “I need you more than I need rest,” she said, breaking her kiss. “I need this—to make love with you knowing that there is nothing between us. No lies, no secrets, just need.”
“Just need,” he whispered. Dear God, there was that. He let his reins go, setting his hands free to roam over her. His lips trailed to her cheek, which had flushed with heat. He could feel her excitement, smell it radiating from her skin, and it spurred his own.
“One day,” he gasped, pulling at her skirts as her own hands tore at the fall of his trousers, “I’d like to actually make love to you in a bed.”
Her throaty chuckle sent a shiver racing down his spine, and the touch of her hand on his bare cock sent it racing back up again. He shifted from his knees to a sitting position, spreading Liliana across his lap.
“Don’t you think a bed would be rather conventional for your lady chemist wife?” she teased.
Geoffrey’s only answer was a harsh groan as he slid inside her wet heat. He held her tight to him, fully seated, fully surrounded by her for as long as he could stand it. Then he lifted her hips and started the rhythm he knew would bring them both to fiery completion.
“My lady chemist wife,” he said when he could breathe, and hugged her tighter to him. Liliana certainly filled his life with chemistry of the very best kind.
And he would do his very best to fill hers with love.
Epilogue
June 16, 1817
“Q
uite a day it’s been, hasn’t it, my love?” Geoffrey wrapped his arms around his wife’s soon-to-be-expanding waistline, discreetly caressing the life that lay within.
Liliana pushed at him. “Not in front of all of these people,” she whispered, blushing to the roots of her chestnut locks, which glowed with the sheen of impending motherhood. Or happiness. He liked to think both. “What if someone should guess?”
He chuckled, moving his hands away from her middle. He knew she intended to keep her condition secret for a few weeks longer—at least until after they traveled to Penelope’s surprise wedding.
Just this morning, Liliana had been by his side as the Poor Employment Act of 1817 was signed into law and commissioners were appointed who had the authority to loan money for up to three years to those who could demonstrate they would use it to create employment opportunities.
And now here they were, surrounded by their family. Liliana and her aunt had made both amends and apologies and seemed to be settling into a comfortable relationship. As for he and his mother—well, she’d attended the wedding and, to his surprise, had even come along this morning. Though he couldn’t ever foresee great warmth between them, perhaps there was hope for peace.
“I wish they could be here to see this,” Liliana said, and Geoffrey knew she meant their fathers.
He looked out at the assemblage—scholars, scientists, philanthropists and the curious alike—eagerly awaiting a glimpse of Cleopatra’s corselet, which had been the talk of the town when Liliana had worn it in their wedding, and which had then been generously donated to the British Museum by Lord and Lady Stratford.
As the director of the museum began his speech, filled with half-truths about how the corselet came to be in British hands, and dedicating the donation to Lord Edmund Wentworth and Sir Charles Claremont, Geoffrey watched his wife.
He sent up silent thanks to their fathers. Without their having met, he’d never have found Liliana. Geoffrey kissed the top of her head, hugging her to him.
“Your father would have been very proud of you,” he said.
She turned in his arms. “And yours would have loved to see the man you’ve become.”
Geoffrey smiled, content. Yes, his father would have been happy, for his son had finally learned what it meant to love and be loved.
Author’s Note
I
hope you enjoyed reading Sweet Enemy. The spark of idea for this story came from my visit to the Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering and Technology in Kansas City, Missouri, which was hosting an exhibition on Napoleon’s scientific expedition to Egypt. While perusing the fascinating display, I learned that Napoleon abandoned his scientists there and that the British, while rescuing them, also confiscated their findings. I started to wonder, What if? What if a French scientist had been able to sneak out a valuable treasure…Then I had to decide who that French scientist would try to enlist to help him fence said treasure, which led me to an English scientist—Liliana’s father—and a story, and his daughter was born.
Of course, while creating the character of Liliana, I had to delve into the chemistry of the time, to really discover what made her who she was. The late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were exciting times in the world of chemistry. Arguably the two best-known “fathers of modern chemistry” were the English scientist Joseph Priestly and his French counterpart Antoine Lavoisier. Lavoisier, however, distinguished himself above all others and is credited with starting the Chemical Revolution in 1789 with the publication of his paper “Elements of Chemistry.” Moreover, he encouraged modern chemists to begin investigating and disproving the long-held hypothesis of the ancient Greeks, and he conducted some of the first truly quantitative chemical experiments, a crucial jump that would lead to the rapid advancement of chemistry in his age. Tragically, his life was cut short upon the guillotine in a political move during the Reign of Terror. A year and a half later, Lavoisier was exonerated as wrongly convicted as a traitor, but the world had lost a true genius.