Evans looked at her, his blue eyes warm. "I've been physically weak since childhood," he confided. It was a strange thing to tell a lady he had just met, but he seemed to sense a kindred spirit. "My lungs were not strong. So it was hard for me to go outside and play with the other boys. Since then… reading has become my hobby. My life, really."
Ines felt a wave of sympathy. She knew that life. She knew the four walls of a sickroom. She knew the longing to be part of the world, and the comfort of finding a world inside a book instead.
"So… you were like that too," she whispered.
She took a step closer to him, lowering her voice.
"I also wasn't in good health when I was young," she admitted. "I have a heart condition. I spent years watching my brother play from the window. So… I started enjoying reading novels. They were my friends."
