nodded and scurried away, and Max went after his wife.
She led him back to the main offices and up the stairs to throw open the door and march in. Max followed, unhurried.
“And here is a place you must remember well,” said Bianca as he entered. “I believe you had some questions about contracts for my father?”
Samuel Tate came around his desk, his eyes sharp and interested. “Well now, I didn’t think to see either of you at the factory today. It was your wedding yesterday! Take a day free, man, to recover your strength.”
“Yes,” said Bianca warmly. She gave Max a smile he’d never seen before, one which made his heart stutter in surprise. Her eyes sparkled and her lips curved in true pleasure. “Do, Mr. St. James. This is all so very new and taxing to you! You must want a week’s respite at the very least.”
Max smiled back at her, letting the full force of his appreciation show. “New and fascinating, my dear. I find myself entranced, and utterly lost in my study.”
Tate laughed. “I knew it! I told you,” he said triumphantly to his daughter, whose face had turned pink. “I knew it would work out for the best. Wasn’t I right?”
She ignored him. Max could only guess what was in her mind as she made a graceful little curtsy. “If you are so happily occupied, sir, I shall leave you here and return to my work.”
“Of course.” He bowed, catching her hand when she tried to brush past him, and raising it to his lips. “I would never dream of interrupting your work, knowing how important it is to you and to Perusia.” Her mouth flattened. Max released her hand. “Until later, my dear.”
With a twitch of her skirts and a glare of pure aggravation, she swept out of the room.
Grinning broadly, Tate closed the door behind her. “Well! Seems a promising beginning, aye?”
All yesterday the man had alternated between fretting, apologizing, and fulminating about his daughter’s temper and obstinate will. Max wasn’t sure if Tate regretted his actions at the church, or merely wanted Max’s assurance that all was well. It had not escaped him that his wife had not spoken one word to her father either yesterday, at the wedding breakfast, or just now, when she’d kept her back to him the entire time she was in his office.
But she’d come into the office, and apparently that was enough reconciliation for Tate. Today the storm had passed, in his mind, and he was ready to resume course.
Max had a feeling Bianca took after her father in that. The first time he’d been invited to Perusia, for that dinner a few months ago, he’d noticed that Catherine Tate would listen politely to anyone prattle on for as long as they could talk. Not Bianca; she’d whittled a long-winded philosophical argument down to its essence, and left the two philosophers blinking at her in bewilderment. She had a sharp, quick wit, with no patience for idle chatter. She walked briskly, spoke boldly, and was delightfully easy to rouse to a passion.
Max admired her confidence—and envied it. He, however, had learned that there was a time for that boldness, and a time to hold his tongue and listen. Time to erupt in fury and time to swallow his pride, even to grovel. Time to act, and time to watch, and wait, and learn, until precisely the right moment arrived to seize what he wanted.
So he smiled at Tate’s hopeful query. “It was all very sudden for both of us. Of course it will take time to become acquainted, as husband and wife.” He paused. “But I do believe it is a most auspicious beginning.”
When the bell rang at six o’clock that evening, Max was waiting at the main gate. He had spent the day in the offices, as Bianca had told him to do, but now was time to devote some attention to his wife.
After several minutes she emerged from the far workshop. Her head was bent, the flat straw hat hiding her face as she tugged on her gloves. Her head came up. He saw the flash of her wide smile as she lifted one hand in greeting to the woman who had called to her.
Max’s gaze lingered on that smile. He’d only seen it a few times, true and carefree instead of tight and grim. But it transformed Bianca’s face, brightening her eyes to blue and accentuating her lush mouth.
All day long he had kept