Embrace the Night

Page 76



more comfortable without it."

"I was thinking of your comfort."
"Your face doesn't distress me."

With a sigh of resignation, he removed his cloak and handed it to her. He knew how hideous he must look, the skin on his face and arms discolored and puckered by the heat of the sun, yet her smile faltered hardly at all as she looked at him.

Sara carried his cloak into her bedroom. For a moment, she pressed her face to the finely woven wool, breathing in his scent, and then she placed it carefully on the bed, her hands running over the material, pretending it was Gabriel her hand caressed and not his cloak.

When she returned to the parlor, he was sitting on the far end of the sofa, away from the candles that flickered on the table.

"Would you like something to eat?" Sara asked, gesturing toward the bowl of fruit and cheese. "Some wine?"

"A glass of wine," he said.

She filled two glasses, then sat down beside him.

"You were wonderful tonight," Gabriel remarked. "I have never seen anyone dance with such intensity, such joy."

"It was for you," Sara confessed quietly. "I knew you were out there, watching me, and I wanted to make you proud."

"You've done well, Sara Jayne. You are a ballerina without equal, just as you always dreamed." "I owe it all to you, and I thank you for it with all my heart."

"No, cara. It was always there, within you. So, tell me, where do you go from here?" "There's talk that the company will go on tour in the fall."

Gabriel nodded. "All the world should see you dance, cara," he said, and then frowned. "What's wrong?"

"I love dancing," Sara said, "but it isn't enough."
"You have the world at your feet. What more do you want?" "I want you at my side."

As always, he retreated from her at the mention of anything personal between them.

Drawing on her courage, she put her goblet aside and then, taking his untouched glass from his hand and placing it on the table, she slid across the sofa and placed her hand on his shoulder.