something from ross’s desk in the library appeared to be making its way towards stephen’s pocket.
Recognizing the situation was no trouble---after all, she could see him, see the item that likely had no business being in his hands, which now looked on the verge of making a swift acquaintance of his pocket---it was all very simple and straightforward, truly.
However, she supposed it was the sort of situation that became unhappily less simple and straightforward when the person doing these things was not some thief in the night, but rather the very man who’d been recently fixed up to become your son-in-law.
Her mouth had turned quite dry and cottony.
How quaint, she thought, oh---how very silly and quaint---that the latter prospect should be so much more troublesome and intimidating than the first.
Indeed, she could easily picture herself confronting the thief in the night---but, it seemed to her that one simply did not have such a conversation with a future member of their family. That would’ve been most unseemly.
Perhaps it was quite lucky that she tended to be very light on her feet, and so far, as of yet---her presence appeared to have gone unnoticed.
So---confronted by this good fortune, and this very small window of time---she definitely panicked, and did the only sensible thing that she could think of---knock over a stack of books on purpose.
She exclaimed as the books fell, pretending to have tripped---though, catching herself with perhaps a little too much elegance on the table they’d toppled from.
And---in the midst of this, she lifted her head and gave the impression of looking around rather wildly, but---in truth, her eyes darted sharply across to Stephen---making sure that her little scene had compelled him to return the object in question, and not to pocket it all the faster.
“ ---Stephen---dear life, dear me---I didn’t know you were hereabouts. Well, now I am surely that embarrassed! ”
She laughed---and found that with all the adrenaline and nervous energy rushing through her, it was a very easy thing to do. In fact---as she knelt to the floor and began to make sense of the books again, she was very much all smiles.
Who cared if her heart was thumping away and her hands weren’t the most steady.
She glanced over at Stephen again, her lips faintly apart as she took a breath---sweeping a long curl away from her brow.
“ Oh no, please don’t trouble yourself. I can manage well enough---expect the only true disaster here is my dignity. ”
Her immediate thought, of course, was to tell Ross---to ask him what should be done.
Her second thought, of course---was that Ross must never be told.
Why did those thoughts so often insist upon coming together?
