‘Have faith.In me and in yourself.’She cupped her palm against his cheek.‘You will never forgive yourself if you baulk and don’t go.’
She was right.Annoyingly, she was always right.
Before he could help her with her petticoats, she balanced against his shoulder to step into her skirts.‘I can manage my blouse,’ she waved him off.‘Do you have everything?’
‘I think so.My trunk is downstairs.My tickets…’ He opened the wallet.Closed it again.‘They’re in here, with my travel papers.The itinerary.A book.’He held it aloft, then slipped it into his satchel.
‘Youhaveforgotten something.’
Johannes fixed his top button.‘My drawing folder!’He lunged across the room to grab it.
‘Something else,’ she said, as she shrugged on her cape.
‘My watch!’He plucked it from the side table, turned the winder a few spins, and tucked it into his coat.He’d reset the time on his way across town.
‘Somethingelse,’ she insisted.
He slapped his chest, patted his pockets, opened his satchel—no, he’d checked everything.‘What else have I forgotten?’
‘Me.’
It was only one word, but it carried a wealth of emotion.It quaked with fear and excitement, with worry and joy.When Johannes looked up, she was sitting on the edge of the bed, clutching a small white envelope in her hands.
‘If you don’t mind my joining you.Father suggested that a trip might be good for my studies.Elise arranged my steamer ticket, but if you’d rather I didn’t… if you’d rather have time apart… After all, it was my idea to take our courtship slowly.But I would very much like to see all those places.I would love to share all of those first times with you.’
‘You want to join me in Rome?And Venice?In Venice, I am going to talk about Ruskin.A lot.’
‘You are going to be intolerable.’
‘And there are many, many stairs.’
‘Could you bear to go slow for me?’
He did not even need a breath to consider, nor did he need the clock chiming the quarter hour to remind him of how little time they had left.‘I will move like a snail across Italy if it means I get to have you beside me.But right now’—he scooped her up into his arms, and her shriek turned to laughter—‘we really must run.’
