Toward the end of her stay in Bristol, one wet afternoon, when there was nothing better to do, Meg was sitting in the theater balcony in semi-darkness, half-watching the company below practice on the stage. The door to the box opened with a creak and she recognized Alex’s rangy form in the gloom as he came to take the seat beside her.
“Have I missed anything?” He whispered with a smile.
“Not that we won’t hear another seventeen times,” Meg said dryly as the actor-manager halted the leading lady in mid-speech, exhorting her to start from the top once more with feeling.
They sat together quietly for a while, aware they were alone and unobserved for the first time, the tension building between them until Meg felt Alex take her hand in his. That first touch, simple as it was, made her shive
