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“B…but she openly threatened you,” Leda said.
Emma’s eyes grew wide. “Do you think she’s the one who is sending in all those threatening letters?”
The thought had occurred to Ariadne before but she had dismissed them, allowing the woman a benefit of the doubt but now even she grew increasingly suspicious. The letters were perhaps nothing more than empty words. “It is possible, yes.”
The rest of the afternoon, Ariadne paced her room as she considered everything that had happened so far. Mrs. Tula was hell bent on throwing them out of here, it seemed. Worse, someone had been following them last night. Ariadne didn’t know what any of this meant but she couldn’t despair.
She went out of her room and walked to the kitchen where Leda was sewing a handkerchief and Emma was cooking porridge. “I’m going out.”
“At this time? It is dark out there,” Emma said.
“I will be at the studio,” Ariadne said. It had been long since she had burned the midnight lamp and worked at the studio throughout the night. She needed that distraction and channeling her attention away from everything that was happening around her. She made her way out of the flat. A few people in the hallway were talking and fell silent as she passed by. Ariadne was used to people gossiping about her family and at this point, she was practically immune, even though she wished at least one of them could have stepped forward to help her.
She walked down the streets that had gone cold and empty as night had fallen. The pockets of darkness made the back of her neck prickle and an involuntary shiver passed down her. The looming threat of being followed and attacked was growing heavier and heavier on her.
There was a sound of footsteps just behind. Ariadne froze, wishing she had some kind of weapon with her to protect herself. She carried a pocket knife in her boots when she went out but she had forgotten it as she left home in her hurry. Fear made her pace and the footsteps seemed to get closer and closer until—
Ariadne turned to face her nameless attacker but instead came face to face with Edward. “Edward,” she gasped. “What are you doing here?”
Edward was panting and he looked as if he had run a great distance. “Are you all right?”
Ariadne’s brows furrowed. Something was wrong, she could feel it in her gut. “Why didn’t you come to see me for the last two days?” she asked. Instead, he grasped her shoulder and pulled her toward him where he hugged her in the middle of the street. Ariadne tried to scurry away from his hold. “Someone might see us,” she insisted. She wasn’t worried about herself. People around here were not too fond of her anyway, but Edward was a man of higher standing.
“Let’s go to the studio,” she said. Edward nodded and then together they walked into the studio where she promptly lit two candles, filling the dark room with a soft golden light. It was colder than Ariadne had anticipated and she began to shiver. Edward took off his coat and placed it upon her shoulders wordlessly and then he pulled her closer by the lapels of the overcoat and they stood there next to each other, sharing their heat.
Ariadne’s heart calmed. She didn’t know what it was about Edward but whenever she was with him, she found a sea of tranquility in her otherwise chaotic life. Neither of them spoke for a while and Ariadne reveled in the silence. But there were some pressing questions to be asked. “Where were you for the last two days?”
“I was caught up in matters of Parliament,” he said. When he spoke he didn’t meet her eyes, and Ariadne could tell he was hiding something. She traced the shadows that danced across his face from the candle’s flame. She wanted to reach inside and bring forth everything that remained unsaid between them.
“Edward it’s too late for you to be here. The last time—” Ariadne began.
“I don’t care,” he said simply. “I needed to see you.”
She was almost breathless at his confession. She could see the urgency in the way he spoke, knew because he had come to seek her out in the guise of a late evening when he knew this neighborhood wasn’t safe for him.
“What is going on?” Ariadne asked. He was not being totally honest about something but why? He looked at her and she could see the conflict in his eyes. He seemed to be fighting against himself. “Is everything all right?”
“Everything is fine. You’re safe now, I promise. No harm will come to you,” he said. It seemed like he knew something she didn’t. But before she could ponder on it, he nudged closer to her, bringing their foreheads together but they didn’t kiss. Ariadne closed her eyes and their shared passion in the garden flooded her mind until her breath hitched. She felt Edward’s finger on her lips, as they slowly traced the outline of her soft lips. “What are you thinking?”
Ariadne finally opened her eyes. His amber eyes were pools of melted gold so up close and in the muted darkness of the room, he almost looked like a tiger ready to pounce. He smelled faintly of brandy and shaving soap. As she inhaled, his musk filled her nose. He was everywhere.
“A lot of things,” she said. She didn’t want to admit yet that she was thinking of the wicked things that he had done to her. What must he think of her if he found out that she wanted him to do that all over again, touch her everywhere until she was aflame?
Edward nodded as if he knew exactly what she was thinking. “What are you doing here at night?” he asked instead.
“With everything weighing on me so much lately, I thought I would perhaps work on another invention tonight.”
“You do this often?” Edward asked.
She nodded. “I like the peace and quiet and working uninterrupted.”
Edward’s lips quirked faintly. “Do I distract you when you’re working?”
“Sometimes,” Ariadne admitted. It was hard to resist the urge to look at him whenever he sat beside her.
“I wouldn’t get any work done with you around, that’s for certain,” he said chuckling, and the air between them lightened once again. Ariadne relaxed. She had missed his easy banter. She had missedhim.
Of course, she still wondered about his absence and what had happened to him, whatever it was seemed significant. But he wasn’t ready to speak of it yet and Ariadne didn’t want to spoil the moment between them.
She relished the peace that the warmth of his arms brought her. And there was something else but she was too scared to go down that path. She was afraid of many things but the foremost of them was the glaring differences in the way society saw them. They could never be together and there was no point in seeing a future with him. She couldn’t even dare to hope.
Edward met her eyes and she saw some unnamed emotion flash over his eyes. His Adam’s apple bobbed. “There is something I must tell you,” he said, his voice urgent.
