As she spoke her words to life, the rapt focus of a crowd of strangers was but a distant echo of her beloved’s attention. For Sophia, it was a private conversation. For the hour that followed, she read her treasured works to an audience of one.
It was his face that stayed in her mind when Katie put her to bed that night. His applause that curled her toes with pleasure. And—she hugged herself with the thought—his lips she would seek when Monday brought him back again to her waiting arms.
Chapter Nineteen
Tobias put downthe small pile of books he had rescued from the musty, old library. He and his uncle had just had tea and were ready to resume their task of reading and cataloging Newcliffe Hall’s vast collection.
“Move that to the sideboard. There’s a good fellow.” Uncle Edmund gestured at the tray that held their empty cups and sandwich platter. “Let’s not risk getting crumbs on our work.”
Tobias did as he’d been instructed, then returned to the large desk they shared, sitting down opposite his uncle.
It had been two days since the poetry reading. Miss Sangford and her threats were a thing of the past. She had mercifully moved on. There had been no further communication from her. Some delicate inquiry told Tobias that the Sangfords had abruptly left for Steeples rather sooner than expected, a sure sign that their nemesis had fled with her tail between her legs. Sophia was safe. Their secret was safe. It was time to make a clean breast of things with his uncle. He had made a vow to do so, and he considered himself a man of his word. They must have honesty between them. Even if his uncle was disappointed in him. Even if it cost him his living, here among the books and the quiet conversation with a man he respected.
He had accepted the consequences when he had chosen to protect Sophia and their future together. But there was onerepercussion that made this confession more difficult—it would hurt Uncle Edmund.
Across the desk sat a man who had been good to him. A singularly decent man. His only confidant beyond Sophia. Did he really have to break his heart? Would their friendship be able to recover from his deception?
There was only one way to find out.
“Uncle…” he began tentatively.
Uncle Edmund was checking the titles of the books Tobias had brought. “Are these the last volumes in the series? I have read two, and you, I believe, have managed three. I recollect there being ten volumes in this author’s collection. But you have only brought a further three. What has become of the other two?”
“Perhaps your father never acquired the full set?” Tobias answered, momentarily put off his stride.
“More likely, he lit his pipe with the pages,” his uncle muttered. “Very well, I suppose I shall have to write to my book agent and see if the missing volumes can be procured. There is something very unsettling about an incomplete collection.”
“Er…before you do that, Uncle, there is something I need to talk to you about.”
“Can it wait? We can talk over dinner.”
“I really need to unburden myself to you. The longer I wait, the more difficult it becomes.”
Uncle Edmund sat back, tapping his fingers lightly on the desk’s mahogany surface. “Is this about Miss Grant again?”
“No. Well, yes, in a way.”
“Well, which is it? Because honestly, Tobias, your mind has not been on your work of late. I count on you, you know. This library is too demanding a task for one man alone.”
“You are right, of course.” Tobias lowered his head. “I had hoped matters between myself and Miss Grant wouldhave moved along rather more definitively. Yet an engagement remains elusive.” He lifted his gaze quickly. “That is no excuse, mind you. I merely mean to indicate that my distractions should not interfere indefinitely.”
“Hmm. And yet, here we are, conversing about Miss Grant once again when we should be applying ourselves to the books before us.”
Tobias squirmed in his chair. “Sorry, Uncle. It’s just that something has happened that forced my hand. It has meant I have had to keep a secret from you. And that does not sit well with me.”
His uncle frowned. “You have not eloped, have you? I would be hard-pressed to approve of such behavior.”
“No, Uncle, that is not our intention at all!”
“Good. Young people often have an exaggerated sense of the romantic. If it is not balanced with a solid dose of common sense, it rarely ends well.”
“I will not apologize for loving Sophia as fully as I do,” Tobias said rather more heatedly than he had intended to.
“Nor have I asked you to. Provided your sense of reason is not left in the wake of your other, more corporeal, senses.”
Tobias subsided. His uncle was not asking anything more than his own parents would. For him to be a gentleman. To have integrity.Ah, yes, about that…
“I have used reason as far as circumstances allowed,” he explained. “But it has not been enough to spare me a decision I deeply regretted having to make.”
