Free The Silver Touch by Rosalind Laker

came now.
    ‘I need to talk to you at some length without being overheard,’ he said at once.
    She knew they were being observed through the open door of the drawing-room and drew away her hand which he had caught tightly in his to emphasize the importance of the request. ‘The chance will come. Not today, I fear, but somehow I’ll arrange it.’
    It came about the following morning. When her father was out, she went down to his office and sent for John. He answered the summons with some misgivings, wondering if further trouble awaited him, and his whole face lit up at the unexpected sight of her.
    ‘This is a pleasant surprise!’
    ‘We have our chance to talk now.’ Her ravishing smile gave nothing away of the turmoil of anxiety within her. She could guess what he planned to say and needed to gain the advantage while there was still a chance. ‘I should like to speak first.’
    ‘Say whatever you wish,’ he encouraged, resting his weight on the edge of the desk.
    She did not sit herself. Instead she stood a little distance from him, the linking and unlinking of her tapering fingers the only sign of some stress. ‘You have fourteen months of your apprenticeship left,’ she began, her voice firm. ‘I should like to suggest that once you have been granted the Freedom we start to know and love each other all over again. The restrictions imposed on your Sunday visits have put unnatural fetters on our relationship. I would go so far as to say I feel we have lost each other along the way.’
    His expression of relief confirmed her deepest fears. ‘I see what you have said as yet another example of how well we have always understood each other. Remember how often we have thought alike on many matters.’
    ‘Then you agree to my idea of making a fresh start?’ She gave him no chance to reply, hurrying on with what she had to say. ‘Once you are a master craftsman in your own right, my father will no longer control your life, even though you’ll still be in his employ. Everything will be quite different for us.’ As he opened his mouth to speak, she put a hand forward. ‘Let me say just one thing more. I’m asking you to release me from all understandings of the past, just as I’m willing to release you. Only in that way can we begin again.’
    He shook his head in wonderment that she should show such wisdom and yet it confirmed once again what an exceptional person she was in every way. ‘I agree to all you have said.’ His face was etched deep with the seriousness of his mood. ‘Much has happened to me in the past weeks. I have to tell you that at the present time I can’t see that anything can ever be between us as it was before.’
    It was all she could do not to cry out in anguish. Somehow she kept her expression under control. ‘That will sort itself out one way or another.’ Inwardly she was sick with dread that she might have made a terrible mistake in releasing him, but to have held him to old ties would have strangled whatever feeling he still had for her. Now, at least, she had a fighting chance. ‘There shall be no looking back for either of us and the future will be allowed to take care of itself. Is that agreed?’
    ‘Agreed.’ The sensation of being liberated swept through him, bringing a wave of warmth and admiration for her. She saw it in his face and knew then that she had made the right move.
    Their subsequent meetings were always pleasant for him, for they met as good friends. No longer troubled by his conscience towards her, the Harwood dinners lost their strain and he was back to lively participation in the conversation. In the workshop he was soon back again at his own work-bench and engaged daily in the intricate work he enjoyed.
    Everything would have been agreeable for him if the loss of Hester had not persecuted him every hour of the day and night. It seemed as if there was a grinding emptiness in his existence, the pain getting worse daily instead of better. She was never out