“I am not afraid to meet your father.”
“I am not ready.”
Tobias bit his lip. One thing at a time. He had promised.
“Very well,” he said, “Mondays it is. Together, we shall make new, happier memories for this day.”
Relief washed over Sophia’s entire being. “That would be welcome…Tobias.”
She blushed—not the mortified flush of embarrassment she had worn so often before, but the warm tinge of a woman touched unexpectedly by happiness and love.
The glow of it enveloped Tobias. Everything tingled and buzzed. He wanted to jump up and dance a jig, fling the door open, and shout to the world that he was the luckiest man alive.
Instead, he reached into his coat pocket and drew out a small book. “I have brought this volume of poetry by an outstanding poet of our time.” He passed the book to Sophia. “I was hoping she might sign it for me.”
Sophia sat up a little straighter and beckoned to Katie to bring her writing tray. “To whom shall I address it?” she asked with mock curiosity.
“I shall leave that for you to decide,” Tobias answered.
Sophia smiled broadly. She took up her quill at once and, having inked it, wrote with a careful hand while speaking the words aloud. “To dear Tobias.” She paused, turned a charming shade of pink, and continued, “…my beloved.”Scribble, scribble.“The author of my happiness.”
She signed it with a flourish, blotted it with care, then passed the book back to Tobias, their fingers brushing and lingering for a long moment.
Tobias cleared his throat. “Actually, there is a passage you wrote…” He paged through the book to find it. “Ah, here it is. I was hoping you could elucidate your choice of metaphor in this stanza.”
“Let me see,” said Sophia, reaching for the small volume once more.
Instead, Tobias closed the book with his finger as place-keeper, took hold of the armrest of his chair, and turned it about so that he was no longer facing Sophia, but almost side by side with her. He opened to the page and leaned in so that they might read the contents together.
Sophia tilted her head down, her hair falling forward and obscuring her face. Tenderly, Tobias caught her curls with his fingertips and drew them back, his touch tracing a line of electric pleasure across her cheek. The heat rushed to her exposed neck. Her scent permeated his giddy mind.
She leaned her cheek against the back of his fingers and closed her eyes. One slow breath and she had opened her lips to his hand. Her warm, moist breath roused his desire to a furnace. Tobias could be cautious no more. In a moment, his mouth was upon hers, his hands seeking her waist, pulling her in, closing the space between them. He felt her body stiffen, then relax, as she answered his yearning with her own.
The ink tray hit the floor with a thud and clatter. They jumped back in shock. Katie sprang up to clear the mess.
Katie. Tobias had quite forgotten about her.
“Oh, dear,” said Sophia, clearly trying to regain her composure, “we have made quite a mess. I’m sorry, Katie.”
Katie grinned. “That’s all right, miss. I’ll have it cleaned up in no time.” She looked away as her grin widened. “I’ll have to fetch some warm water and a cloth to remove the ink from the carpet. I will be away a few minutes—if that’s all right with you, miss?”
A coy smile told him it was perfectly all right with Sophia. As the door closed behind the still-smiling maid, Tobias scooped his beloved up in his arms once more. Until a firm knock should draw them reluctantly apart, he would show her that it was more than all right with him too.
Chapter Nine
It was Tuesday.Sophia had watched the snow fall all day Monday and cursed it. She had had the entire weekend to ponder Tobias’s words. His touch. And now, his absence.
Why had she told him to return only on Mondays? Father was away for weeks yet. Every day was available to them. And, now that she had begun to come to terms with her past, she wanted her present to be filled with Tobias. She did not know how long this bond they had would last. She would grasp whatever she could with both hands. Sophia felt a recklessness return. As if she were once again a girl with her whole life ahead of her. For as long as possible, she wanted Tobias to be a part of it.
Then it had snowed. All. Day. Long.
Typically, she would have resigned herself to a week of waiting, longsuffering being one of the few qualities her narrow world had endorsed. But not today. This morning, when the fresh snow glittered under a clear blue sky, she had written to Tobias.
He would come. She knew he would. Nothing could possibly…
THUD!
Sophia whipped her head around. A splatter of snow clung to the window pane.
