Risk of Ruin by Tracy Cooper-Posey

Author:Tracy Cooper-Posey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Victorian Era Historical Romance
Publisher: Stories Rule Press
Published: 2019-07-12T16:00:00+00:00

THERE WERE FEW LIGHTS BURNING in the house, when Annalies stepped into the narrow front hall, even though it was not ridiculously late, not for this household.

She put her key and reticule, gloves and hat on the stand by the door, and carried her portfolio and notebook up the stairs, to her studio. There were no lights on in the studio, and only a single pilot light along the corridor. The house was silent.

She tried the brown room first and was only a little surprised to find Tobias was there. He spent more and more time in this room, tending to affairs she had grown less interested in with each passing week.

“There you are,” she said as she shut the door. “I need to talk to you, Tobias.”

The lamp on the table was turned down so low only outlines of the furniture were visible. Tobias had pulled the wing chair over to the window and sat peering at the moon, which was a large yellow crescent hanging low in the sky. He stirred as she spoke.

“There you are.” He sounded tired. “You ran away again, today,” he added.

“I did not. I left word with Mrs. Thistlethwaite that I was taking a pair of paintings to Farleigh. Did she not tell you?”

“She did. My assertion remains.”

Annalies pulled the other wing chair over so she could sit and see his face. “Is that why you are speaking directly to me, now?”

He sighed. “We have not been kind to each other, lately, have we?”

Annalies considered it. “You have not been kind to me,” she amended. “I have, in my turn, been preoccupied with my work, which you cannot hold against me. It is all which stands between us and ruin.”

He sighed again.

“Tobias, there is something I must say—”

“No, let me speak first,” he said quickly. “Please.”

Annalies hesitated. What did it matter if she must wait to announce she was leaving? There was a skerrick of truth in his assertion that she had been unkind, after all. Ignoring everyone and everything while she painted could be cruel, even if it was unintentional.

“Go ahead,” she told Tobias, trying to sound gracious and reasonable.

He didn’t move. He didn’t sit up or stir himself. He remained slumped against the corner of the chair, his face a pale oval in the moonlight, his eyes two dark disks, the brows black slashes over them.

“I know you are unhappy, Lisa,” Tobias began.

She grimaced at the name. It was only now she realized how much she disliked it. She stayed silent, for it would be dishonest to protest that he was wrong.

“I have been distracted lately,” he continued. “Or I may have noticed and done something about it, long before now.”

Her heart thudded. Why did she feel as though doom was descending upon her? Was it something about his voice, or the defeated way he was sitting in the chair?

“I’m not sure you have ever noticed, Annalies, but I do love you.”

Her heart jumped. “Tobias—”

“No, please let me finish. I love you, far more than you realize.

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