“Alright,” he said, relaxing into his chair.
She licked her lips, leaving her plump lower lip tucked between her teeth before she started again. “Tea is such a part of our daily lives, a part of our culture. Why can’t people simply pay the tax? Is it too much money, or is it more about principle than actual price?”
Thomas placed the book back on the small table and rested both feet on the floor. “I believe it’s about both,” he said. “However, your father always taught me that principle should be our guiding factor in everything. Especially in such issues as this.”
Eliza nodded, her eyes begging him to continue.
“The Tea Act, like the others pressed upon us by the king and Parliament, is another way for us to be controlled and manipulated. If we don’t stand against it, we don’t know where it will end. Robert taught me that we must pursue goodness in all its forms and be courageous enough to stand for the right no matter the cost. He said the pursuit of our righteous desires is worth every sacrifice.”
Eliza sighed and stared at the ground, lacing her fingers. Her mouth brightened in a sweet smile as if a happy memory placed it there. “Yes, I heard him say that many times.” Her eyes met his. “I saw he wrote that in your book.”
Thomas opened to the front of the book and absorbed the treasured words. “Yes, he did.”
Both of them remained quiet. Thomas’s mind consumed with the example of strength and faith that Robert had given him, and from the look on Eliza’s delicate face, her mind was also thus engaged.
His deep voice split the silence. “He was a man unlike any other, Eliza. I can only hope to someday emulate his greatness.”
She stilled and released a quiet sigh as she looke
d at her laced fingers in her lap. “You already do.” She peered at him, a half-smile on her shy face.
Thomas’s heart and stomach danced together in his middle. She could never know what those words meant to him.
His face suddenly heated and he realized his embarrassing error in opening his heart to her in such a way. Though his intentions had been pure, it no doubt made him look as though he was bating her for praise. What a fool I am.
He shifted in his chair and strained to form some kind of response. Instead of speaking, he rubbed his hands together and grabbed the book again.
“Shall we continue?” he said.
“Please.”
Lord, help me to stay focused on the task you would have me do.
All evening Eliza listened, but she didn’t hear a word Thomas said. She asked questions but only to keep him talking—to drone out the radiating pain that lingered within her.
Her damaged heart had cracked even deeper at his obvious rejection and made it impossible to concentrate.
Their evening discussions were what kept her alive through the long winter days and yet those same discussions pulled the life right out of her. His nearness and kindness was too much to bear when she knew he cared nothing for her as a woman—only as his duty, as his responsibility.
There had been a time when she’d seen the desire in his eyes, but it died long ago.
As Thomas talked, Eliza’s brain whirled. There had to be something she could do to get her mind away from the never-ending pain of longing. She nodded and listened, giving an obligatory answer here and there, while her mind circled, searching for the proper balm for her ailing heart.
Suddenly, an answer flashed across her whirring mind.
She sat straight in her chair, her eyebrows bouncing to the top of her head. I can go to the rally myself!
“Eliza?” Thomas said, pausing with a small laugh. “I have a hard time believing my quote from John Locke was that exciting, but you nearly jumped out of your chair. Did you find it that interesting?”
Eliza’s face and neck burned. She placed an easy smile on her lips to mask her nervousness, fearing he could see through her. “Oh yes, well, it was interesting but, could you read it again, please?”
He tilted his brow and grinned from the corner of his mouth. “Of course.”
Does he suspect something?
He read it again, but still she didn’t hear it. Her mind was too busy engineering her masterful plan. She would need men’s clothing and a way to sneak out of the house without being seen . . .
What a marvelous solution to her troubling dilemma.