only she could throw herself into his arms again and stop time. Because she didn’t want to re-enter her world, where young women were consumed with fancy clothes and pretty jewels and fashionable hair styles. Where she would be swept into an endless routine of dinner parties, balls, and operas. Where people were constantly scrutinizing and gossiping and trying to make themselves feel better by putting others down.
She hadn’t known she was locked into that kind of dizzying lifestyle until she’d broken away from it, until she’d experienced a simpler existence with Tom at Race Point. Now, she was about to be thrust into it all over again.
“I know she’s your friend,” Tom said, backing down a step and putting distance between them. “But you need to wait.” His coat stretched across his strong shoulders and hugged his biceps. Yes, she admired his physical strength, but she’d learned that he had an inner strength as well, one that gave her courage to do hard things. He pushed her to be stronger, to be better, to do more than she’d ever thought herself capable. He wasn’t afraid to challenge or confront her. He saw her weaknesses and didn’t excuse them. He’d seen her at her worst and had cared for her anyway.
“Tom,” she whispered, not caring that her voice—and likely her face—contained all her longing.
His jaw clamped more firmly, and he stepped down another stair. His actions told her all she needed to know. He was sticking by his decision to relinquish her and their marriage. There was nothing she could do or say to sway him.
She sighed and resumed her walk up the steps, albeit much slower this time. “Okay. I won’t share anything with Theresa.”
Chapter 18
Tom stood outside room B3. He’d investigated the bed chamber before allowing Victoria to enter. He’d made sure the room was empty, that the windows were properly locked, and that no one lurked on the balcony that wrapped around the second story of the hotel.
He hadn’t liked the balcony, in spite of the fact that the door accessing it was at the end of the hallway. Even with only one entrance and exit onto the balcony, it would be all too easy for a perpetrator to climb onto it and attempt to break into Victoria’s room.
Victoria’s soft footsteps in the room told him that she was leaving the mirror, where she’d finished fastening the row of tiny buttons running up the front of the bodice. And now she was going back to the bed to retrieve her hat.
From the timing of her dressing routine, he guessed she hadn’t put on a corset, although one had been among the articles of clothing her mother had sent with Theresa. Of course, she hadn’t had any help to put it on. But he wanted to think she’d learned her lesson about wearing the useless thing. Tom almost smiled at the memory of cutting the laces on the one she’d been wearing when they’d first arrived at Race Point.
A squeak of floorboards drew his attention to Theresa’s room across the hallway. After delivering the dresses to Victoria, Theresa had retreated with the flimsy reason that she needed to fix her hair.
He’d seen through Theresa’s excuse. Her hair was already styled well enough. The truth was, she hadn’t wanted to be with Victoria. The hurt in Victoria’s eyes at Theresa’s coldness was obvious, and Victoria’s eagerness to repair her strained relationship with Theresa had also been obvious.
Tom had seen the tight pain on Theresa’s face when Nathaniel had knelt in front of Victoria and slipped the engagement ring on her finger. Strangely, Tom had empathized with her pain. His lungs had burned with the need to tell Victoria to take it off. Even now, the simple wedding band she’d returned seared him every time he touched it in his pocket.
Theresa wasn’t as proficient as he was at concealing emotions, but she’d managed to hide her pain before Victoria turned around. However, his glimpse of Theresa’s anguish had told him she was still in love with Nathaniel. And Nathaniel was still unaware of Theresa’s feelings and had eyes only for Victoria. Had Theresa hoped by having this short trip with Nathaniel, she could win his affection? Had she been working the whole month Victoria was gone to make Nathaniel notice her?
Tom’s spine turned into a steel beam. Was Theresa the one sabotaging Victoria’s wedding plans? His pulse picked up speed at the possibility, and he stared at her door, wishing