The Address(84)

Sara had to wait for thirty minutes until the crowd around him dissipated enough for her to reach him, and he held in his hands dozens of business cards. “I believe our day at work tomorrow will be very different than the ones previous. All thanks to you and your brilliant idea.”

The evening was warm and they walked back to the Dakota together, chattering on about the reactions and the other speakers. “You were terrific, Theo.”

“I love you.”

Sara stopped. “No. We said that wouldn’t be proper. Mrs. Camden will be back, eventually.”

“I know. That can’t be helped. But I do love you, and it has to be said out loud every so often or I’ll go mad.”

“I love you, too, Theo.”

“You won’t leave me, will you? I can’t let you go, now that I finally have you back.”

“Of course not.”

Theo needed her, and she needed him. If she’d learned anything at all the past year, it was to seize the small moments and enjoy them to the fullest. If that meant being in love with a married man, so be it. Theo was hers.





CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX



New York City, September 1885


Theo swore under his breath. “I’ve forgotten the elevation plans.”

Sara rummaged through the leather satchel full of notes and drawings. “Are you sure? I know I put them in here last night.”

They were on their way to a meeting with what was their biggest client to date, who wanted to create a handsome office building on Sixth Avenue. In the month since Theo’s speech to the West End Association, they’d been inundated with prospective clients and he’d even hired three draftsmen to keep up with the demand.

Theo shook his head. “I took them out this morning at breakfast, to check on the measurements. I left them there. I’m sure of it.”

She hated to see him so agitated, but then again, she loved seeing his real self, not the mask that he showed to everyone else. They had fallen back into bed with each other the evening of his speech, but with his family still away, it felt natural, an extension of their work life. Sara was his partner in all respects, and for now she preferred to ignore the fact that he had a wife and children upstate.

She leaned forward. “Let me out here. I’ll walk back and catch a hansom cab and meet you at the site.”

He gave her a tight smile. “Are you sure?”

“Of course. It’s a lovely morning and we’ve only just set out. I’ll be right behind you.”

“Have I told you how crucial you are to my success?”

“Every day.”

He called for the driver to stop. She stepped down and started north on Eighth Avenue, thinking through the elevations in her head. The pressed-brick building, trimmed in terra-cotta, utilized a new type of steel column so it could soar tall on a proportionally narrow lot.

But without the elevations, the grandeur of the place would be impossible to convey to the client. She hurried into the Dakota and up to Theo’s apartment, where Mrs. Haines was exiting the front door.

The woman formed a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. Their touching reunion after Sara’s release had been tempered by Sara’s close alliance with Theo. Even though Sara and Theo were as circumspect as possible, the servants talked. They always did.

But Sara’s stint in a madhouse and the resulting notoriety had offered up a freedom that she’d never imagined. It no longer mattered what other people said or thought. Her pain and suffering absolved her from gossip, or perhaps it was more that she was inured to it at this point. Which meant she could do as she liked, and at the moment, she liked being partners with Theo, in more ways than one.

Yet Sara hated to think that she was causing any problems for the woman, who certainly had enough on her hands. “Mrs. Haines, is there something I can help you with?”

“No, just overseeing a delivery to the children’s room. It’s been taken care of.”

“I see.”

She didn’t, though. The children’s room had been closed up since Mrs. Camden and the children had left. Sara had popped her head in once when she’d awoken early to climb the back stairs to her own room. The room had an air of neglect about it, as if the only occupants had ever been the dolls lined up on the neatly made beds. Her heart tugged, very slightly, at the thought of the children having to suffer the fright of their mother’s illness, but she had pushed it aside, too caught up in the charismatic pull of Theo. They had ventured beyond the rubric and the expectations of society.

Mrs. Haines disappeared without another word. Sara found the drawings on Theo’s drafting desk in the library and placed them in a rucksack. There was no time to waste, but a loud bang pulled her down the hall to the bedchambers. One of the porters, a new one, she couldn’t remember his name, stood in the middle of the children’s room, unwrapping a large piece of furniture that had been bound in burlap for protection.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to disturb you.” The young man smiled at her.

“Not at all. Is this the delivery Mrs. Haines mentioned?” She didn’t want him to think she didn’t know what was going on. Even if she didn’t.

“Yes, ma’am. A crib.”

Her heart leaped to her throat. A crib for a baby.

Could Mrs. Camden have had another child and Theo hadn’t told her? Would he have kept that information from her, knowing it would drive a wedge between them?