“Yes, Sebastian?”
“I think you’ve completely lost your mind.” He would not mince words.
“Do you?”
“Sophie, what are you doing?” Genuine concern showed across his face, and suddenly she knew what he was talking about.
“I’m not a child.”
“Does your father even know?”
“Of course not.”
“So you aren’t a child, yet you hide your writings.”
“He wouldn’t understand.”
“Half of France will not bloody well understand.” He cursed his English side and the words he had picked up from there.
Sophie saw other couples out enjoying the evening air during intermission and she turned to Sebastian. “I won’t be silenced.”
He felt himself drowning in her hazel eyes. “This is dangerous. Do you know there is an inspector who is searching for you?”
Sophie looked at him and nodded. “Yes, I know.”
“And yet still you write.”
She jerked her chin up at him. “Yes.”
“I thought to warn you, to keep you safe, but you seem quite intent on ruining yourself.” He looked at her, willing her to see the great folly of this path she was on.
“Ruining myself? Why? Because I write the truth? Because I want others to know the truth?”
“You love to hide behind your books and words,” Sebastian told her. “But these words are dangerous. And France is in a dangerous time.”
Sophie turned from him. “I can’t refrain. I wish this door hadn’t been opened. Ever since Madame Necker’s salon, all I do is read and realize how different things are from what I thought they were.” She almost pleaded with him.
“I’m sorry,” Sebastian said sincerely.
“No. I’m glad. I would rather know than be ignorant.”
“And you must write?” he asked.
“Yes. Don’t you see? I was enlightened, and now I may enlighten others.”
“At risk to yourself, Sophie.” He almost whispered the words.
“They won’t find me, Bash. My maid’s nephew delivers to the printer and he thinks it’s a male cousin who writes the pamphlets,” she said with certainty.
Sebastian shook his head. She was so naïve for all her learning. “Sophie.” He absently touched her face, even as he felt himself in turmoil. “They’ll find you. It’s what they do.”
She tried to stop the wave of desire that threaded through her as he touched her skin. She shook her head. “I will be safe.”
Sebastian felt sick to his stomach. Sophie was throwing herself into the fire and he couldn’t save her. He watched her walk back inside the theater and couldn’t stop the growing sense of unease that filled him.
Chapter 17
The inspector had made several inquiries and had narrowed down his search to a printer named Monsieur Blanche who was known to be sympathetic to the people. He had watched the printer for a week and had seen one young boy enter the premises, which seemed suspicious. A child would enter a printer’s shop only if it was on an errand for someone else. Perhaps this someone else wished to remain anonymous and so sent the boy instead. He had been told by several street vendors that a young maid named Marie visited the shop periodically.