Page 82 of Dare to Love a Duke
“Ja,theEltern,they worry,” Tom said. “And you worry, too,ja?”
The couple nodded.
Tom closed his eyes and placed his fingertips at his temples. “I look... I gaze into tomorrow... it is cloudy... but I see... yes!”
“What do you see?” Susie cried.
Opening his eyes, Tom said, “There will be obstacles,nein?It will not be easy, but,” he added when her shoulders fell, “ultimately, you will triumph.”
Smiles wreathed their faces and their backs straightened.
“And Bill will soon open his own shop?” she asked.
“Within the year,” Tom said with a confident nod.
Tears shined in the girl’s eyes, and Bill exhaled as though someone had removed a crushing weight. When the lad fumbled in his pocket for a coin, Tom waved it away.
“Freunde,I cannot take your money. Save it today, for soon, you will spend it on yourKinder.”
Lucia pressed her fingertips to her mouth, her own eyes glossy with tears as the couple got to their feet.
“Thank you, thank you,” they said with bows and curtsys before hurrying away with light steps.
A moment later, the fortune-teller returned, and Tom ceded her tent back to her.
Lucia took Tom’s arm, giving his forearm a squeeze. Happiness swelled within him at her touch, and the look of warm admiration in her gaze made him buoyant.
“A man of many talents,” she said.
“Telling people what they want to hear isn’t much of a skill.” His voice was gruff.
Gently, she said, “You gave them hope for the future.”
He led her toward the ribbon vendor’s booth so they could retrieve their purchases before leaving. The shadows lengthened, the day cooled. Time could not be held at bay. Much as he wanted to linger here with her, it was time to return home. He needed to prepare for the next day.
Two worlds pulled at him, and he feared they’d tear him apart.
“That’s all anyone wants,” he said. “Hope.”
“That’s what hope is,” she said, picking her way around a juggler. “For a brief while, we believe that tomorrow will be better than today. When we receive hope, we’re given something precious.” She stopped and looked up at him, her gaze full of emotion, and his pulse rushed in response. “Yougave them that—and they won’t squander it.”
As they continued on to the booth, he turned her words over in his mind. She had risen and fallen and risen again, refusing to surrender to the vicissitudes of life, and he drew strength from her words.
Tomorrow, the solid foundations of his world would crack apart. He’d tear asunder a long-held alliance—and face the dire consequences. He’d no idea what was to come, and a measure of fear worked its chill way through him to contemplate that unknown future.
No matter what came, he’d have this day to return to, again and again, giving him a precious moment of happiness. Because he knew that like all things, happiness was fleeting.
Chapter 19
Lucia openly studied Tom while he sat across from her, watching the landscape wind by. His brow was lowered in thought, and he lightly tapped his fingers against the squabs in time with the rock of the vehicle.
He had to be thinking about tomorrow, and its implications. He was a man who felt deeply. It could not be painless, this shift away from the rigid principles of his father, and the expectation that he’d continue on in the same manner. There would be consequences to taking a stand—consequences that affected more than just himself.
There was darkness in him now, in the quiet after the controlled bedlam of the fair, when he could muse on what lay ahead.
In the past, she’d barely known her chosen lovers—on purpose. They had shared pleasure and little else. It had been a clean and simple economy.
Yet she’d seen the depth of Tom’s heart. The kindness he’d shown the young couple at the fair had been extraordinary. He’d nothing to gain from his compassion. It hadn’t been performative. It was done for its own sake, and she’d seen enough of the world to know acts of true humanity were rare, indeed.
