Love in the Time of a Highland Laird (A Laird for All Time Book 3) by Angeline Fortin (whitelam books .TXT) 📗

provided yet another part of her for him to admire. The long, spiraling locks had driven him mad for days, nearly consuming him with the desire to wind them around his fingers, around his body.

Och, she might make a rake of him yet.

How could she not see it? How she enthralled him with her splendor? Even the normally stoic Artair had fallen victim to it. Yet she remained blind.

It boggled the mind.

Perhaps the perception of beauty had changed over time. It had happened before. If that were the case, Keir was glad to have her here where she might be appreciated as she deserved.

Though he was saddened for her, in losing all she might have held dear in that life, he was happy to have her here with him now. Not simply because she was so bonny to look upon, but because she held a wealth of knowledge in her head.

Knowledge he longed to explore.

Having managed to tamp down his desire, he swept an arm upward, drawing her attention to his most prized possession. “This is why I brought ye up here. I thought ye might appreciate it as few others. A better way to see the stars than merely gazing up at the skies.”

*

Cursing his ability to remain so unaffected when she was shaken to the core by longing and desire, Al turned on wobbly legs and saw an enormous wooden cylinder suspended by a network of ropes and pulleys, angling outward and upward from a wood-framed support structure on top of the turret.

“What is it?”

“’Tis a telescope, lass,” he said in a tone clearly implying she should have known that.

It was, she realized as she walked around the monstrous structure. Obviously it wasn’t like any she had ever seen. The body of the telescope must have been four feet in diameter and at least thirty or more feet long.

“Where did you get it?”

“I built it.”

Awed into silence, she listened with half an ear as Keir expounded on the device. How he’d taken an interest in the stars after becoming acquainted with James Bradley, the Astronomer Royal at the Royal Academy, but hadn’t truly considered the science noteworthy until his study of light waves with Euler in recent years.

“I had it shipped from Paris when Father recalled me,” he went on, climbing the stairs to the top of the platform constructed at the lower end of the mammoth cylinder. He turned to lend her a helping hand. “My men just finished assembling it this day. Would ye care tae take a wee peek?”

Nodding, Al gathered up her long skirts in one hand and took his hand with the other. His warm fingers squeezed hers before letting her go.

“This is amazing,” she said, examining the eyepiece. “You did this all yourself?”

Shrugging modestly, he shed his jacket and unbuttoned his vest before loosening his neckcloth. Her eyes followed him, wishing she could put her lips on the pulse whispering along his taut neck.

Shaking away the urge, she tried to pay attention to what he was saying.

“I designed it based on other reflecting telescopes and had a small hand in the actual construction of the housing. I employed the services of a mathematical instruments maker named James Bird who has a shop in London on the Strand to help me with the mirrors. Grinding the glass took us almost eleven months but the magnification potential far exceeds other telescopes I’ve seen. Look, Al,” he urged. “See how far out into space its view can stretch.”

She was prepared to be underwhelmed. Compared to the telescopes of her day, surely this one couldn’t see very far. Even though it was so big. The moon, of course. Maybe a couple of the closer planets?

But as she peered into the telescope, listening as Keir pointed out different planets while tugging on winches to adjust the positioning, she found herself impressed by both the telescope and his knowledge. He showed her the planets, Jupiter and its moons, then Saturn. Speaking on the discovery of each by Galileo.

“I suppose you know him, too,” she asked jokingly.

“Unfortunately I dinnae hae the pleasure of meeting him ‘ere his death. He was verra ill when Hugh and I traveled through Italy.”

She’d just been joking! How incredible it was that he had been blessed with such opportunities.

“Since I’ve had this telescope, I’ve found reason to believe Saturn has more moons than the five determined by Cassini. And even more interesting, if ye look beyond Saturn,” he continued, adjusting the positioning of the instrument, “ye’ll see something I believe has ne’er been noticed before.”

He waved her away from the eyepiece and set about adjusting the focus before rising and motioning for her to take a peek. “See, there are more planets beyond. I’ve observed this one and another well beyond Saturn.”

Al looked into the telescope again but hardly paid it a bit of attention. Keir pressed up behind her, his cheek just inches away from hers as if he could guide her line of sight. “Do ye see it, lass?” he asked close to her ear. “If ye’ll look closely, ye’ll see it has moons of its own as well. Several, I think.”

How was she supposed to look when he was distracting her like that? “I can do it myself,” she huffed.

“Of course, ye can,” he agreed amicably enough, but he was grinning as he stepped away.

Taking a calming breath, she peered into the eyepiece once more, seeing a blue planet more clearly and far closer than she would have thought possible.

“You found this past Saturn?”

“Aye.”

“That’s Uranus.”

His enthusiasm fell away. “‘Tis already been discovered?”

She frowned, trying to think. To remember some bit of forgotten knowledge. “Yes, but…”

“And the other? The bluer one beyond it?”

“Neptune.”

“Bugger it, I’d submitted my findings to the Royal Academy before I left,” he said. “I’d thought I was first tae happen upon them.”

“Maybe you are,” she reminded him. “I’m not much of a astronomical historian. Besides, remember, what we know in my time doesn’t reflect on what