The Gentleman and the Lamplighter (8 page)

Giles moved closer. “No, I think we are on the same path. The one person I loved …”

“The one who died.”

“Oliver Woolver.” Giles said the words too carefully, as if he weren’t used to saying the name out loud. “He and I had so much in common. We’d known each other for years.” He stopped speaking for a minute, perhaps gathering his thoughts.

John said, “Same school, I remember.”

“Yes, and we both liked natural history—although he was far more interested in it. We read the same books, knew the same people. And … and the truth is that even when we most cared for each other, the times we, ah, might have been like this …”

“Naked after making love?”

Truly, Giles had a lovely blush. “Even during those times we allowed ourselves physical comfort, we weren’t contented. I don’t think happiness was possible for him, but, well … my point is, I want to be joyful, and you know how.”

“Hearing you say that, I feel like some kind of hero from one of our plays. A person who can teach someone else joy? Now that’s a gift. But I keep running up against the plain fact that a lamplighter and a gentleman—that’s not a natural match for friendship. It won’t be as if I could ever go about with you to your clubs and whatnot.”

“No,” Giles agreed. “But a gentleman and a playwright—those two could be seen in public together and no one would complain.”

“Do you really think so?”

“Yes. Really. And if they did speak of our odd friendship, they wouldn’t do it in front of us. We shall be too important and influential—especially you, Mr. Banks.”

“In what world are you living?”

“The one you’re in, of course.”

John liked the sound of that.

Want to know more about the Victorians? Check out Lee Jackson’s amazing site
www.victorianlondon.org
. I also used information gleaned from H.V. Morton’s 1939 book,
Ghosts of London,
about vanishing professions in Victorian London.

Summer Devon is the alter ego of Kate Rothwell, who also writes under her own name. Summer writes romances of all sorts, including historical m/m books with Bonnie Dee.

Photograph courtesy of Studio 16