“She is certainly better at silly songs,” Verity said.
“Papa is the best,” she argued, sniffling some more. “Who else can think of a goose and a spruce and the feet of a man named Pete?”
And more to the point, who else could be so handsome, so charming, so silly, and so wonderful, all at once? She swore that with each day that passed, as she watched the man he was, the father he was, the husband he was, she loved him more.
“Mama needs a handkerchief,” Verity decreed.
“I keep no less than five tucked about my person at all times,” Felix said, extracting one with a flourish and offering it to Johanna. “One never knows when Mama will have need of one.”
Smiling, she accepted it and used it to dab gingerly at her tears. It seemed happy tears were becoming a habit.
“I am just so very content,” she said, rather tremulously.
“If you are any more content, I shall have to buy a handkerchief factory,” Felix teased, but his eyes were glistening into hers.
The Pearl Theater had seen its opening night earlier that evening and had boasted a sold-out crowd. She had presided over the triumph from a private box with Felix and Verity. Johanna could not have been more pleased or proud. The play she had chosen was one of her favorite Shakespearean works,Twelfth Night.
“I scarcely wept at all today,” she defended herself.
“Twice at breakfast,” Verity said.
“Once on the way to the theater,” Felix added. “Again when the curtain fell. Just now. I dare say that was my last handkerchief of the day. No more happy tears, darling, or I will need to replenish my stock.”
“Perhaps you could use the sleeve of Papa’s coat,” Verity suggested cheekily.
“Volunteer your own sleeves, poppet,” he said with mock outrage.
Johanna smiled, looking fondly from father to daughter. “Happy tears are a good thing.”
Felix drew her into his side, and Johanna put her arm around Verity’s little shoulders, drawing her into her side in turn.
“Happy tears are the best,” he told her.
“I think cocoa biscuits are the best,” Verity offered.
Johanna just laughed, heart content as she sat there with her family. “I think the two ofyouare the best.”
“If you insist,” Felix and Verity said in unison.
Her smile grew, and the prickle of happy tears returned.
She sniffled. “I do.”
It was indeed a brave new world.Theirbrave new world.
The End
