A Lady Under Siege(80)
“What care you about my attributes? It seems you already love another,” Sylvanne said mockingly.
“But she’s inside you, that’s the otherworldly truth of it. If I love her, perhaps it means I love you too.” He fell silent for a moment. “I only speak of this because you brought it up.”
“A Lady acts rightly who seeks to understand the workings of a man’s mind, especially one who appears to woo her, yet speaks so lovingly of another.”
“Yes, yes. I suppose,” he said irritably. Something was eating at him—a feeling like a loss of status, or stature—as if yielding to Meghan’s wish that he be gentle and kindly had served to make him appear weak in Sylvanne’s eyes. He was not used to being mocked and teased. He rose from the blanket and stood over her. “Don’t spoil the moment. My intentions in bringing you here were pure, and it seems they sully. Let us untether our horses and depart this place.”
“No, please,” Sylvanne responded. She too rose, and stood beside him, unnaturally close. “It truly is magical here, perhaps the loveliest place I’ve seen in my life. I’m sorry if I offended you by speaking my mind. Under this open sky I felt we were equals, in a way men and women seldom are.”
“Equals? Is that what you aspire to be?”
“It’s what I felt, for a moment, that’s all.”
Her face was a mirror reflecting the beauty that surrounded them. He felt an urge to kiss her, and pulled her to him. She didn’t resist. Her lips were soft and yielding for a moment, then suddenly she pulled herself away, for what had come unbidden to her mind was the equine face of her late husband.
“Are you testing me?” Thomas asked her. “If so, you can see there is no compulsion. No coercion. Nothing will be done without your consent.”
“You urge me to trust you, and I do,” she replied. “But if I were you, I should still be on guard, and take care when it comes to trusting me. You don’t know what thoughts and ideas still invade my mind.”
“Then you must tell me.”
“I still feel loyalty to my husband, and yet I can’t bring myself to do you the harm he wished. I begin to think God has put me here for some other reason.”
“Were you happy with your husband?”
“Yes. Sometimes.”
“Do you think you could be that happy again?”
“Yes.”
“Then perhaps that’s what God wants for you.”
40
“How do you like my new look?” Derek called over the fence. He had cleaned himself up. It was the first time Meghan had seen him in a shirt with a collar. His face was free of stubble, and his hair still damp, combed back off his forehead. “I don’t know how Thomas combs his hair,” he said.
“He lets if fall forward, in bangs. Actually I like this better.”
“Me too. Hey, would you like a cup of coffee? I’m inviting you over, like neighbours used to do before people had iPhones but no time.”
IN HIS LIVING ROOM he said, “You’ll notice I cleaned up around here.”
“You straightened it,” she corrected him. “It’s tidier, but I wouldn’t say cleaner.”
“What I really need is a maid. A servant. I’d love to just snap my fingers and say, ‘Get us some drinks, would you?’ ‘Make it so,’ like Jean-Luc Picard.”
She followed him into the kitchen. “I have some bad news,” she said. “Betsy has decided to run a temperature, so I had to keep her home from school. So yet again I can’t stay long.”
“Depends how you define long. She should be fine for a couple of hours. A lot can be accomplished in a couple of hours.”
“By her or us?”
“By her, of course. We’re just going to fritter it away, getting to know each other.”
While he made coffee she vented about her daughter. “She lost her iPad, and her dad immediately bought her a new one, over my objections. He’s trying to buy her approval, I suppose—we’re not even legally separated and already he’s the classic Disney Dad. Every time he shows up he’s got some expensive new bauble under his arm. She’s in bed with her iPad as we speak. I had to sneak away. I suspect she’s actually a bit jealous of us. She wants you all to herself.”
“I could come over and keep vigil at her bedside.”