The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics (Feminine Pursuits, #1)

by Olivia Waite

“Science merely exists. She can’t raise a hand to anyone. It’s people who do all the wounding.”

So she picked the safest one, and used it as a shield against all the dangerous questions around it. “What was her name?” “Priscilla.” There was no mistaking it. Only love could make the name drip from Miss Muchelney’s mouth in those honeyed tones. Even a love in mourning still had sparks in it.

“You must miss her very much.” Aunt Kelmarsh went utterly still, staring at Lucy. Lucy looked back, her face calm, her eyes soft. Tension crackled in the air, making Catherine tense her shoulders and bite her tongue to silence questions. Aunt Kelmarsh sent her one flicker of a glance—and straightened, lifting her chin in the air. “She was my very soul.”

“They don’t let you have anything whole, you know. If you don’t follow the pattern. You have to find your happiness in bits and pieces instead. But it can still add up to something beautiful.”

“I don’t think love works like that. You might as well ask the earth whether the sun or the moon is more important.” She blushed a little pinker and raised her eyes, star-bright. “You can’t always judge by what came before. Sometimes, there is a revolution.”

“Loving you is entirely different. You make me feel expansive, as though my heart is big enough and strong enough to contain the whole world. As though I can become anyone I need to, or want to, without fear—I can reach higher and farther and not lose you for the striving. And oh, my love, do you know how great a gift that is?”

“It’s much easier to leave the past behind when you can leave the place it happened in.”

“But I never would have had the thought before I met you. So you see, you did set me free after all.” “I’m glad,” Lucy whispered.

“If I am right, it puts Oléron in a position that is at best awkward, at worst horribly vulnerable, with respect to the Society. They’ve already done most of the harm they can to you—I am trying to help correct that, without opening anyone else up to similar abuse. It is a very fine line to have to walk, I admit.”

Are they a woman?

I was wrong to ask you to leave. To say there could be nothing permanent between us. We’re already forever.”

“We thought we were separate satellites, but we aren’t. We’re stars, and though we might burn separately, we’ll always be in one another’s orbit.”

Lucy used the depth of her curtsy to cover for her amazement, and hoped her knees wouldn’t give out and drop her in a heap to the floor. Oléron was a woman! A dark-skinned woman!

the possibility of Oléron being anything other than a white-skinned man had quite simply not occurred to her. What a mortifying realization for someone who prided herself on being keenly observant.

“Oh, it will be, I assure you. It will tie us together legally, and financially, and probably take us the rest of our lives to accomplish.”

“Catherine,” she breathed. “Ask me truly.” Catherine looked up, her face shining with hope and love and joy. “I am asking you to stay with me for the rest of our lives. I am asking you to join me in making this world a better place, insofar as we are able. We cannot stand up in a church and make vows—but we can stand up, publicly, and declare that we are important. Together.” Lucy’s breath caught in a hiccup, as Catherine raised one hand and cupped her cheek. “I love you, Lucy Muchelney. I always will.”