Free A Dream of Desire by Nina Rowan

him. Perhaps this was her penance—longing for nothing to have changed when it was so painfully obvious that everything had.
    Mustering her courage, she pasted a bland smile on her face and entered the room with the painted box. “Here we are. My new pet.”
    James looked at the box with bewilderment. “You keep it in there?”
    “Yes.” Talia exchanged a smile with her aunt as she set the box on the low table in front of the sofa and opened it.
    A platform extended from the box, bearing a miniature platform and hoop. A mechanical cat dressed in a harlequin costume crouched to the side, its glass-blue gaze on the hoop. Talia twisted the key at the back of the box. A tinny music began, and the cat coiled back on its haunches before leaping forward in a two-step dance, then vaulting through the hoop.
    James laughed, clapping his hands together in appreciation. “What an extraordinary machine. Where did you get it?”
    “Sebastian’s wife, Clara, has an uncle who owns the Museum of Automata and workshop,” Talia explained. “She had him make this as a birthday gift for me.”
    “It’s a fascinating place, James; you really ought to visit,” Sally remarked. “Talia, you must introduce him to Mr. Blake. He’s a very dear man, if a bit long-winded at times. He made me a clock with little horses spinning around in a carousel. Extraordinary.”
    The door opened to admit a maid with a tray of fresh cakes and tea, and Talia moved forward to pour. From the corner of her eye, she watched James turn the key to rewind the automaton. He chuckled as the cat performed its antics. The rumbling sound echoed through Talia’s blood. His laugh had always brought her such pleasure.
    She handed a cup of tea to her aunt as James settled into a chair. She added two sugars to another cup before handing it to him. Their fingers brushed as he took the cup, the light touch sending another shiver coursing through her arm.
    “So, James, you’re publishing your journals, are you?” Sally asked.
    “Yes, I’m in the process of rewriting them all now,” he replied, lifting the cup to take a sip of tea.
    Talia gazed at his hands, tanned from the sun and dusted with dark hair. The cuff of his sleeve inched up to display the corded muscles of his forearm. Despite the size of his hands and his calloused fingers, James held the china cup with care, as if it were a bird nestled in his palms.
    Talia wondered if he would hold a woman the same way. If he would slide those large, rough hands gently over her bare skin, intent on her pleasure as much as his own…
    “Don’t you think, Talia?” Sally asked.
    “Er…I beg your pardon?”
    “We’re hoping Darius will also return for a visit in the fall,” Sally said. “After the season is over. Sebastian has already invited us to his new home near Brighton.”
    “Yes, yes. I hope so.” Talia could hardly remember the last time she and her brothers had all been together.
    “My lady, a…visitor to see you?” Soames stepped into the room, giving Talia a nod.
    “A visitor? But I’m not expecting anyone.” Talia set down her cup and stood. “If you’ll excuse me for a moment, James, Aunt Sally?”
    “I told her to go round the back, but she insisted you would see her,” Soames murmured as she passed him in the doorway.
    Talia hurried to the foyer, where the door was wide open. Alice Colston stood on the front step, huddled in her coat with a dark blue bonnet framing her pretty face. Talia’s heart bumped against her ribs.
    “Alice, what’s wrong?” She hurried to grasp the other woman’s hands, noticing as she drew closer that Alice’s eyes were puffy and shot through with blood. “Is it Peter?”
    Alice nodded. “My father told me not to disturb you, but I’m so worried about him.”
    “Talia?” Aunt Sally peered at them from the drawing room doorway. “Won’t you invite your guest in?”
    “Oh, no, I…” Alice shook her head and stepped back toward the door. “I’m