pointed to the cathedral outside. “We’re coming to the Lassberg city limits now. That’s the Bonner Cathedral.”
She followed the line of his hand. “It looks like something from Hans Christian Andersen. Everything here does. I keep thinking that.”
He’d always taken great pride in the beauty of his country, and it pleased him no end to see the admiration in her eyes, despite what she’d said earlier. It had been a long time since he’d seen someone look at his land with the kind of awe he thought it deserved.
The fact that she did warmed his heart and his feelings toward her.
“No wonder so many fairy tales were written around here,” she said wistfully, looking, for a moment, with such longing that he wondered what was in her heart. She answered the unasked question. “This looks just like the kind of land where people could live happily ever after.”
He gave a brief nod. “Yes. Some people, I suppose.” Foolish, romantic people.
She laughed and stretched her arms out over her head for a moment, saying, “I hope more than just some.”
Expectation shone in her eyes. He spoke before he thought. “I’m quite certain you would, if you stayed,” he reassured her, then stopped, startled by his own feelings. Why had he said that? How silly to be carried away by her ebullience that way.
She met his eyes, and for just an instant they shared some undefinable exchange.
“That is, I believe you’ll like it here,” he said, trying to regain his footing. He had to remain detached, had to command respect. It had been drilled into him since birth. So why did he slip now? It had to be exhaustion because he couldn’t possibly feel as at ease with this woman as it seemed. “While you’re here. Most of our few tourists enjoy their visit.”
“I think I will,” she agreed, then yawned. “Sorry. Anyway, I already am. Enjoying your country, I mean. And I caught that ‘few tourists’ crack.”
He couldn’t help but smile back. Intelligent girl. He’d known her for not more than an hour, and she’d already raised just about every emotion in him. He could not remember ever having met someone so simultaneously exasperating and fascinating.
If she was staying longer, he might want to get to know her better. Just to figure out what it was about her that had him so…piqued.
Thank goodness she wasn’t staying.
“You know what’s interesting?” Annie said, stopping his wandering thoughts. “You strike me as a very solitary person. It surprises me that you actually want more tourism in your country.”
She’d pegged him. “My personal desires are not always commensurate with the needs of my country. When it comes to a choice between their needs versus my own, I have to honor my country over myself.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “Wow, you’re really patriotic.”
“I have to be. It’s my job.”
Annie clicked her tongue. “I know plenty of civil servants who don’t give a darn about anything but their paychecks.”
“Their work must not be very fulfilling then.”
“Is yours?” she asked, slicing right into the heart of the matter.
He considered her for a moment, then said, “I don’t think I know you well enough to answer that question.”
She looked a little bemused, but accepted his answer. “Okay. I don’t want to pry.” She didn’t leave it at that, though. He’d known her only an hour or so, but he already knew her well enough to know that it would have gone against her character to leave it at that. “But if I were to guess,” she went on, “I’d say it wasn’t.”
He looked at her. “Really.”
“I mean, if it was, you’d probably be glad to say so. People usually refuse to share their negative feelings but not their positive ones.”
He tried to remain impassive. “Interesting observation.”
She yawned again. “Not that I know you well enough to tell, of course.”
“No,” he said evenly. “You don’t.” Yet somehow he felt she did, or could very easily.
She splayed her arms. “Feel free to correct me on anything I get wrong here.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You sound like a journalist.”
“Or maybe I’m psychic.” She smiled, joking. “Does that frighten you?”
He waited, then answered honestly though with a slight smile. “More than you can imagine.”
She must have dozed for just a minute without realizing it because Annie suddenly found herself leaning against the window with Hans reading a newspaper in front of her. How long had she been out?
Thank goodness he wasn’t looking at her, because as she came around she had lingering daydream images of herself and Hans in unspeakable—but unforgettable—entanglements together. Yet the lingering feeling she had from the dreams was not of sexual fulfillment, but of emotional fulfillment. For just those brief few minutes that she had dreamed, Hans had been the answer to every ache and pain of loneliness that she’d ever felt.
Which was just how illogical dreams were, really, because while the man in front of her was the stuff of sexual dreams, he didn’t seem to have a single impulse for fun. And though he’d been kind to offer to help her, he wasn’t exactly a warm man.
But something in her said that he could be. That he needed someone to cover him and warm him and show him how to enjoy life and not just be all business all the time.
“Then again, you probably have a wife for that, don’t you?” she said under her breath.
He lowered the newspaper and looked at her in a way that made her feel she’d made a terrible mistake.
She straightened in her seat and resisted the urge to clap a hand over her mouth. Had he really heard that? What was he, bionic?
“I’m sorry, what did you say?” he asked.
She stumbled over her response. “I—I—I was, um, saying that I suppose your wife,” she searched frantically for something to say, “takes care of the children while you’re away.” It was a terrible improvisation, but it was too late to stop. “You did say you have children?”
He gave her a long look, then shook his head. “I didn’t, no.”
“Oh, my mistake then.” The train began to slow as it entered the outskirts of Lassberg. She took the opportunity to begin gathering her things.
“I do, though.”
“Do…?”
“Have children. But my wife died a few years ago.”
She looked up, surprised. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
He gave a small,
