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He blinked and glanced over at her with a slight smile. “I should take my leave now,” he said as he stood.
“Please stay,” she whispered. “I don’t have another client until four.”
Nicholas stared down at Sophie, unable to move. He knew the right thing would be to leave now before they started discussing things far too intimate. But her gray eyes were clouded with tears, and he found himself returning to his seat.
“So why were you angry when you read Jennette’s note?” he asked softly. While he had no desire to speak of the woman he once loved, he wanted Sophie to talk with him again.
“I find writing in Italian much harder than speaking the language. So I struggled just to write you a good-bye note in Italian. When I had finished it, I found the other note in English.” She picked at an imaginary thread on her skirt. “Of course, that is also when I discovered who you were and threw my note into the fireplace.”
“Ah, yes. That was such bloody bad luck on your part.” He smiled over at the astonishment on her face. “Next time you should get to know your lover a little better before taking him to bed.”
“Perhaps you should leave now,” she said stiffly.
“Tell me,” he said, ignoring her request, “how did you meet the other spinsters?”
A smile lifted her full lips upward. “Avis came here seven years ago. She wanted to know why a man kissed her. At the time, I thought it was an odd question. But as I read her, I realized she and Selby were meant to be together.”
Nicholas frowned. “But they didn’t marry until almost two years ago.”
“The timing wasn’t right for them then.”
“So who kissed her?”
She arched a brow at him as she smirked. “Don’t you know?”
“Well, it wasn’t me.”
Sophie laughed. “Of course not! It was Selby. He won the bet and melted the Ice Maiden.”
“I’d heard no one won that wager.”
“Selby is an honorable man,” Sophie whispered.
Nicholas wondered if Selby would agree. By not telling anyone about kissing her, he missed out on five years with Avis. “Why wasn’t the timing right for them seven years ago?”
She tilted her head. “They were not ready yet. Had they married then, they never would have been as happy as they are now. They both needed to mature.”
What if he and Sophie were meant to be together but it wasn’t their time? Could that be the reason she didn’t see anyone for him?
Sophie rose and left to order tea as he considered her words. He just didn’t believe they were not meant to be with each other. Sitting in this room with her felt right.
She was wrong about them.
And he would prove it to her.
“The tea will be here shortly,” she said, entering the room again.
“Thank you.”
He picked up the book on the table. Seeing the bookmark, he smiled. “You have not read Pride and Prejudice?”
Her cheeks reddened. “I am reading it again.”
“Oh? And how many times have you read it?”
“Four.”
“Four times! It was a good book but not worthy of reading four times.” Nicholas almost laughed at the look of outrage on her face.
