"YOUR LATEST MISTRESS IS CREATING A SENSATION BACK IN London, Masters. Society finds her vastly entertaining." Charles Trescott, seated before the fireplace, downed a swallow of brandy and eyed his host with a sly expression. "As you've taken a notion to rusticate here in the country at the height of the Season for some odd reason, I thought you'd better know what's going on back in Town."

"Very thoughtful of you to go out of your way to give me the latest gossip."

"Least I could do, especially since it's your name that is on everyone's lips at the moment. I know how that sort of thing annoys you." Trescott, bored and dissolute at thirty, paused with a barely concealed air of anticipation.

"You are mistaken, Trescott. I do not give a bloody damn what the ton chooses to gossip about over tea."

Trescott was disappointed but undaunted. In the manner of a willful child intent on provoking a lion in a cage, he made another stab at eliciting a reaction. "Must admit, I'm as curious as everyone else to know why you're letting her get away with her outrageous conduct. Whole world knows that you always insist on discretion from your paramours. Thought that requirement was one of your infamous rules." Marcus Valerius Cloud, Earl of Masters, turned the crystal brandy glass slowly between his large, callused hands. He studied the reflected glow of the flames imprisoned within the heavy cut glass.

Several months ago he had grown interested in the curious properties of light and glass. He had undertaken extensive experiments with prisms and mirrors.

Those studies had led him to his current passion for telescopes. Astronomy had proven so fascinating that had left London at the height of the Season this year in order to pursue his experiments at one of his more remote estates. The night skies here in Yorkshire were pristine and clear, unlike the smoke-filled air of the city which impeded the view through his new telescope.