Lenora lifted her chin. “As a matter of fact, I don’t believe Asquithdoeslike Lord Willard.”
“How would you know?” Millie asked.
“Well…” Lenora considered. “Asquith is reserved, but he greets almost every man he meets in a courteous manner. To Lord Willard, he gives only an obligatory nod.” Lenora demonstrated, holding her body in an accurate imitation of their guardian, making the younger girls collapse again into giggles.
“Chilling,” said Nettie.
“Beware Asquith’s nod,” added Emily.
Lenora lifted her chin. “Joke all you wish. But Asquith is fair-minded, so his noticeable distaste, no matter how subtle, is reason enough formeto be suspicious.” She paused. “But that’s nothing ifyoulike Lord Willard, Millie.”
“Likehim?” Millie scowled. “We only danced!”
“Only danced,” Lenora scoffed. She turned toward the girls. “As I said, his interest in Millie waspointed.”
Millie glanced toward the ceiling. “I was one of a dozen young ladies he asked to dance.”
“Yes, he danced often,” Lenora agreed. “But you were the only one he took pains to please.”
Another odd frisson passed through Millie’s limbs. This one left her cold.
Lenora was correct.
She didn’t recall Lord Willard leaning down and whispering into any other dance partner’s ear. Then again, she hadn’t been observing him very closely. “You think Asquith holds him in disfavor, but how doyoufeel about him, Lenora?”
“We’ve only been briefly introduced, so I couldn’t really say, could I?” Lenora wrinkled her nose. “But therewassomething I could not like in his manner. The way he walked up to you, for instance.”
“Show us,” Nettie urged.
“Oh please, do,” Emily added. “You are so very good at mimicry!”
“Well…”
Lenora closed her eyes and furrowed her brow. Then, she shook out her body. She took a deep breath and puffed out her chest. “To stand thusly, you must be quite rigid.”
Nettie cocked her head. “Like an invisible someone was pressing a finger on his spine just between his shoulder blades.”
“Exactly,” Lenora agreed, returning to herself. “Willard was physically rigid, and yet, allthewhile, he kept smiling, smiling, and smiling, as if he hadn’t a care in the world.”
Smiling, smiling, smiling…Millie chilled, but couldn’t quite place the reason.
“Ifound the contrast unsettling.” Lenora wrinkled her nose. “Didn’t you notice, Mil?”
Millie cocked her head, trying to recall. “I don’t suppose I did.”
“Too taken with his eyes, I suppose.” Emily nodded sympathetically. “All ladies are. Mama once called them Mesmer eyes.”
“Mesmer eyes?” Nettie asked.
“Mesmer was a physician from my Papa’s time. He believed energy could be transferred between things and people through something he called animal magnetism.”
“Mesmerism!” Lenora nodded. “I’ve read about that. Wasn’t his method disproven?”
“Yes. But not completely. Only when Mesmer’s patients were blindfolded did his methods fail, meaning Mesmer’s influence was in his presence, his gaze, his belief in his own power, all things he used to capture the imagination of his patients.”
Millie drew back. “Stuff and nonsense!”
Emily shrugged. “Perhaps so. But Mama calls Willard’s eyes Mesmer eyes because, under the full effect of Willard’s gaze,ladies, and even some gentlemen, find themselves…” She paused to search for a word. “Dazzled, I suppose. Youmusthave noticed how people hung on his every word. Even I have seen as much, and I’ve only had the opportunity to study him a few times, and then only at a distance, in public.”