A Lady Under Siege(57)

“Suddenly it’s Sylvanne, Sylvanne, Sylvanne,” Thomas said good-humouredly. “Has she convinced you to regard the perfectly apt word girl as pejorative?”

“She recognizes what’s there for all to see,” Daphne replied. “You said yourself that I’m looking quite the lady.”

“And does Sylvanne herself have anything to add on this subject?”

Sylvanne smiled slyly. “Nothing needs adding,” she told him. “The young lady is so articulate and polished in her language, I fear that by comparison my own voice sounds as waves slapping an empty boat.”

“Hardly,” Thomas replied. “Your voice is the wind that fills the sails.”

Sylvanne made a little show of whispering to Daphne like a girlish conspirator, “I think your father just called me a windbag.”

Daphne giggled, and gleefully scolded him, “Daddy, did you call Sylvanne a windbag?”

“My my, how women like to twist men’s words,” Thomas replied. “No wonder we have such trouble speaking from the heart.”

“Say something from the heart,” Sylvanne urged him. “And I promise this time, we won’t make fun.”

Thomas hesitated. “Yes. Well.” A distant look came to his eyes. Sylvanne and Daphne waited. He put his hand to his chest, and said, “I’ll beg off, if I may, for I’m afraid my heart’s a little tender, just at the moment.” His voice trembled slightly. “My dear Daphne. With your hair up like that, you look so much like your mother.”

“Daddy. I’m sorry,” Daphne said softly.

“Don’t be. I’ll leave you two now to your fun.”

Sylvanne stood quickly and took hold of his wrist to stop him from going. “No, no. It’s really time for her to take a rest. I’ll leave you two.”

Thomas looked down at where her hand touched his skin, and felt a tingle surge through him. Her eyes were two pools of sparkling, radiant light. “Your demeanour is so altered these past days that I can scarce believe you’re the same person, Lady Sylvanne,” he said. “You’ve captivated my impressionable young daughter, and caused this room to ring with girlish laughter for the first time in many a moon. I thank you.”

“She’s good company,” Sylvanne said modestly, letting her hand fall from his wrist. “She brightens my days, as well.”

“I do wonder at this sudden change in your deportment, however,” Thomas continued. “It seems to signal a change of heart, and the abandonment of your husband’s wishes. Or could it be playacting, a ruse, an emotional Trojan horse by which you hope to penetrate my defences?”

Sylvanne didn’t flinch. She met his eyes squarely. “The only person in the world I trust at the moment, my maid Mabel, has advised me to look for trust in others, by granting trust to others. So I’m giving myself up to you—in hope that your actions in bringing me here were for an honourable end, and that I might in some way help you achieve them.”

Thomas studied her. “Nothing would please me more than to return that trust,” he said. “Customarily, in listening to the words of others, I can only guess at their true feelings. But in this case, I expect I’ll discover the truth or falseness of what you say, in my dreams. For I have an ally, a spy in your mind, fair Meghan, your twin.”

“Then I pray this Meghan is not a liar,” Sylvanne said.

“No. She has nothing to gain by that,” said Thomas. “She’s a truth-teller, and a mind-reader, inside you even as we speak.” He looked directly into her eyes again. “Just now I think I see her in there with you. It’s as if your eyes are the windows to not one soul, but two. Can that be true? Or is it because when I dream, her eyes are as beautiful as yours?”

“You frighten me.”

“Don’t be frightened. There’s nothing you can do to change the truth.”

“Pray, let her read my mind, and make her report. Call for the guard, for I’ve grown suddenly weary, and wish to retire to my room.”

Thomas walked her to the door and watched as the guard led her away. He was still tingling from the radiance of her eyes, so powerful he’d put it down to the presence of two souls. He asked himself again, Could it really be that I saw Meghan in those eyes?

“Daddy, will we go riding tomorrow?” His daughter’s voice returned him to the moment.

“First we need a horse, before we make plans about riding one.”