Part 8 (2/2)
”Aunt Ilse's boxes,” Timothy said as he looked past her, leaning his hand on the side of the window, which, unlike the others on the lower floors, was not bedecked with greenery. ”She does not believe in being without anything she might need when she comes home.”
”Why does not she leave items here for her next visit?”
”You are too logical, Serenity.” He laughed. ”Aunt Ilse likes to make a grand and glorious entrance wherever she goes. I thought it was because she was a princess, but Grandfather tells me she has been like this since the day she was born.”
”Mayhap she knew she was born to be a princess.” Folding her hands on her knee, she asked, ”What did you want to show me?”
She knew she had spoken unwisely when his eyes glittered like the sun on the snow below. Her fingers curled upon her knees as he reached to draw back his coat. Had he brought her up here to seduce her? She should have guessed what he wanted to ”discuss” with her when he whispered softly to her that he wished for them to be alone.
”This.” On her lap, he placed a twisted piece of metal with a wooden k.n.o.b on one end.
”What is it?” she asked, shaken. By her fearful antic.i.p.ation of his seduction or by her remorse that he was being a gentleman even while she had the most unladylike thoughts of him kissing her?
”Something that I hope will help Theodora read her books.” He knelt beside her. ”Hold out your hand. It is larger than hers, but I made this somewhat adjustable, because I did not want to get her hopes up needlessly.” He smiled up at her. ”Or yours before I had some idea it might work.”
He latched the metal to her hand with short pieces of leather. The metal device was about as long as her forearm. Standing, he went to a shelf and took down a book. He opened it and set it on her lap. When the book started to close, she put out her hand to hold it in place.
”All right,” he said, an intense expression on his face. ”Try it. You cannot use your other hand.”
”How?”
He reached over and guided her arm so that her elbow still held one side of the book open while the wooden k.n.o.b reached under the next page. ”Now draw it back.”
She tried, but the page continued to slip off. Even twisting her arm at a nearly impossible angle did not help. ”Mayhap, with some practice, Theodora can manage it.”
”If you cannot, she will not be able to either.” He tilted her arm so he could examine the page-turner. ”What it needs is something to grip the pages, almost like another hand.”
”Or fingers.”
”Exactly.” Standing, he took the book and set it back on the shelf.
She ran her finger along the metal shaft. ”But I think you have the right idea. With a few changes, this will be wonderful. You are quite clever, Timothy.”
”If I were truly clever, I would have figured out a way to make it work the first time.” He chuckled as she struggled with the straps. ”And I would have made it easier to take off and put on. Let me help.” He undid the leather straps. ”That is part of my next challenge. I need to figure out a way that she can take it off and put it on without a.s.sistance, but I am going to focus on helping her turn the pages first. I can worry about the other things later.”
”She is going to be so excited when you make it work.”
”If I do.”
”When. Look how close it comes to working now.”
”Close,” he said with a sigh, ”is not good enough.”
”But it was only your first try.”
He held up both hands, his fingers spread wide. ”That is actually my tenth try. It seems I finally got the metal part of it right. Now for the gripping part.”
”She will be so thankful when you have this all set that it will not matter how many tries it took.”
”She has you to thank, Serenity. If you had not chided me, I would not have guessed that Theodora was not perfectly happy in her room.”
Serenity took the page-turner and examined the polished wooden k.n.o.b. ”She may be, but that is because she does not know any better.”
”I would ask you if you always try to save the world, but I know that is something you cannot answer.”
”Mayhap I just have picked up that habit since I woke after the accident.”
His brows rose. ”You certainly saved me from ruining Grandfather's celebration.”
Serenity put the piece of metal on the window seat beside her. Speaking of the lies that she had helped make partly true unsettled her more with each pa.s.sing day. Her hopes that her memories would come back to her as quickly as the pain vanished had been for naught. Every day there were tantalizing flashes of things she could not quite recall, but nothing came clear.
Not looking at Timothy, she asked, ”Was this your room when you were a child?”
”Yes, before I grew old enough to get rooms on the lower floor. Felix was here often, but when he was not, this was my private lair high up near the attics.”
”You did not need to worry about suffering from ennui here. There are so many wonderful toys.”
He wagged his finger at her as Mrs. Gray had at him. ”I know what you are thinking. You are wondering why some of these toys are not downstairs with Theodora.”
”Exactly.”
”Theodora's mother, my cousin Christina, forbade it. She was worried that-”
”It seems to me that if she was so worried about her child that she has consigned her to sit so she will not hurt herself, she would not leave Theodora here while she winters in Italy and would not come to see her daughter only occasionally.”
He sighed. ”Don't judge Christina that hard. I own that she is not the best of mothers. Partly it has been because she could not forgive herself for not giving birth to a perfect child. Partly it has been because her husband could not forgive her for that either. And lastly, it is partly because she is more interested in her Italian paramour than anything or anyone else.”
”And he does not know about Christina's child.”
”Now you understand.”
Serenity shook her head. ”I don't understand an iota of it. Theodora is an intelligent child.” She touched the metal device again. ”While you have been putting this together for the past two days, I have been giving Theodora a look-in each afternoon. She has a wit that makes me laugh, and she has a hunger to see more of the world than what she can through that one window.”
”Christina has forbidden-”
”That is absurd! How can she be making such commands when she is not here to see what her child needs? If I spoke with your grandfather, he might listen.”
”Don't be so certain of that.”
”I shall not be.” She smiled. ”That is why I shall have all my arguments ready for him to listen to.”
He laughed and shook his head. ”I see you are going to continue to keep things from becoming serene around here.”
”You are the one who gave me that name, not me.”
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