Ana was coming back. She paused on the threshold, holding a tray of cups, coffeepot, cream and sugar. She smiled and arched an eyebrow. “You two all done? Safe for me to come back in now?”
Drake looked at her. She was thin and fragile, but she had never been more beautiful. Beautiful and brave and loving. At the idea of living without her his chest tightened. He felt as though he could not breathe.
Ana was his life, without her there was nothing. How could he ever bear to lose her?
Chapter 2
“O! call back yesterday, bid time return.”
Tom was gone before ten o’clock. He could tell that Ana, who had been putting on her best front just for him, was exhausted.
Ana went off to bed as soon as Tom had left. Drake followed, half an hour later. She was already asleep. He lay down beside her without undressing, convinced that would be a waste of time. His mind was too active for any form of rest.
He closed his eyes. He imagined Ana, as she had been when they’d first met.
He always told people that he had loved her before he even saw her. The occasion of their first meeting was an end-of-term examination. Drake, as Doctor Bonvissuto’s star pupil in musical composition, had been taking a test alone, in a small room next to Bonvissuto’s austere office.