Page 60 of A Lady’s Guide to Subterfuge and Science

Kalila suppressed the urge to roll her eyes. “Arguably, yes.”

With one last wicked grin, he was gone.

“My goodness,” Caroline breathed. “I don’t think you’ve ever been in so much danger.”

Kalila shook her head. “I am in no danger at all. Why didn’t you come save me?”

Caroline shrugged. “You know me. I’m terribly sensitive to dust.”

Chapter Fifteen

Kalila blinked as hard as she could in an attempt to fight off the sleep that threatened to take her. Oliver sat across from her, seemingly unperturbed by the early hour. As promised, he’d brought a carriage around to the townhouse at five o’clock sharp the following day.

“Where are we going?” she demanded for the thousandth time, suppressing a yawn.

“I told you,” he said. “We’re going to a lake.”

“It’s going to rain,” she observed. The sky was decorated with large swaths of gray cloud, which told her that they had picked the worst possible day to fish.

“It’ll clear.”

“No, it won’t,” Kalila said, making it very obvious that she was not a morning person. “We might have gone to the market instead.”

“Far less fun.” Oliver leaned back in his seat. “I thought you wanted to impress Comerford.”

She did. She shouldn’t want to, but she did.

“He doesn’t deserve the effort,” she muttered.

“Indeed,” he agreed. “That said, I very much doubt it has anything to do with him. It’s about you.”

That woke her up a little bit. “How do you mean?”

“You’ll always be like this, Rafiq. Hardworking, determined. Both marks of a good scientist. The amount of effort you put in has nothing to do with Comerford.”

Kalila felt a tiny spark in her chest at the compliment. “I suppose.”

Oliver offered her a pleasant smile, and a twinge of sadness descended upon her, the spark snuffed out. This would all end soon, and she’d never see Oliver Booth again. Even if she wanted to—and she did want to—how was she to dig herself out of the hole she’d landed herself in?

“Here we are!” Oliver crowed as the carriage pulled to a stop. Throwing the door open, he hopped out and took a big breath. “Have you ever seen anything so beautiful?”

Kalila emerged from the carriage, a gasp falling from her lips. A large, rolling meadow lay before them, overgrown and wild. An enormous lake sat in the middle of it all, framed by weeping willows. A shed was nestled by the water, appearing as rundown and abandoned as the rest of it. Before she could speak, Kalila caught sight of Oliver, who was absorbing the view with a fond, wistful expression on his face. A thick layer of mist hung in the air, and Kalila was almost tempted to think the whole landscape romantic.

A shame she was pretending to be her cousin.

“A good four hours should do it,” Oliver said to the coachman, who quickly rolled off.

Kalila raised her eyebrows. “Four hours!”

“We’re on the hunt for the perfect specimen, Rafiq,” he said, picking his way through the overgrown grass. “This way, you have enough time to be as judgmental of the fish as you like.”

“I’m not going to be judgmental of the fish,” she argued, following him to the edge of the lake.

Especially not when this is all that stands between me and Painswick, she thought bitterly. Winning the competition would be nice—lovely, even—but it wouldn’t change the fact that she’d made a complete fool of herself. It wouldn’t give her back the time she’d wasted.

“Either way,” he said, handing her a fishing pole, “it may take us time to get a bite.”

“What are we fishing for?” she asked, watching him closely as he cast his line into the water. She soon followed suit, mirroring his motions with perfect precision.