Eros Element Read Online Free Page A

trouble?” asked Johann.
    â€œI trust you will find my terms to be most reasonable,” Cobb said.
    Edward rose, trusting his friend to take care of the boring financial bits. He supposed he should go back to his office and pack a trunk of the journals and books he would need so he wouldn’t get too far behind while gallivanting about Europe.
    â€œOh, and Professor Bailey?” Kluge asked.
    â€œYes, Chairman?”
    â€œPack light. Once you leave the main Continent, your transportation will become quite limited with regard to luggage space.”
    Edward didn’t miss the glee with which Kluge said the words. Is that true, or is he saying it to torture me?
    When he returned to his office, he found the ivy had been stripped from his window as well, and buckets of paint outside his door indicated his friends Hickory, Dickory and Dock would share a similar fate.

Chapter Three
    Aetherics Department, Huntington University, England, 06 June 1870
    â€œWell, that was a strange meeting,” Sophie said once the gentlemen had departed, leaving the women alone in the conference room.
    Iris looked around at the soiled teacups and crumb-filled plates. I’d pick them up, but I don’t want to set the expectation that I’m going to clean after them. She laid a fingertip on the spoon the American Parnaby Cobb used and focused on its held impressions. Relief and the sensation that his hidden aims had been satisfied beyond what he had dared to hope, like a just-scratched itch but more triumphant. Very strange. She squeezed her eyes shut against the soreness at the base of her skull that often followed her readings, as she thought of them.
    â€œYes,” she said, blinking her eyes and rubbing her fingertip against her thumb to clear the impressions. “But the important thing is that they have no suspicions about us, and we will be able to go on the journey.” She patted her pocket where the telegram about her father’s death usually nestled and, with a shock of terror, found it to be empty.
    â€œSophie, did you take the telegram?”
    â€œWhat? No, Miss Iris. Last I saw it, you had it.”
    â€œOh no, oh no, oh no.” Iris bent and looked under the table, hoping the paper had fallen, but it was nowhere to be found.
    â€œQuickly, we must retrace our steps. If someone else finds it and tells Dean Hartford, we’re ruined!”
    They rushed into the hall, where the musician Johann Bledsoe stood. He studied his nails with a casual air, but something about him made Iris draw up short. It wasn’t her usual talent to determine what a person was thinking, but if she’d been a cat, her hackles would have raised. All she could do was straighten her shoulders to alleviate the squeezing sensation that swept up her spine and made her throat muscles clench.
    â€œMister Bledsoe,” she squeaked with a nod.
    â€œMiss McTavish, Miss Smythe.” He gave them a lazy smile, but Iris didn’t miss his shrewd glance. “It’s a lovely day, and I was pondering stopping by the campus commissary for a spot of tea. Would you care to join me?”
    Iris did not, but his next words confirmed her foreboding: “I suspect our conversation may yield some surprising discoveries.”
    Sophie went pale under her mad yellow curls, and Iris was sure bright pink spots appeared in her own cheeks. “We would be delighted.”
    Bledsoe offered his arm. “Then allow me to escort you.”
    Iris didn’t want to take it, and she made him wait with his elbow at an awkward angle while she pulled on her gloves, taking extra care the seams sat just right. As they walked through the halls and down the stairs, she looked for the folded piece of paper that would save her reputation and financial state, but it was nowhere to be found.
    They exited the building, which had been denuded of its ivy facade.
    â€œA pity about the ivy,” Iris said. “The little green