“Sarah!” David Vance burst through the kitchen door, his face flushed and his eyes shining with an almost delirious excitement. He looked less like the usually composed business man and more like a man who had just won the lottery.
Sarah, stirring a pot of soup on the hob, turned, startled. “David! What is it? You look like you’ve seen a ghost—or perhaps a very rich one?” she joked, noting his giddy state.
David gestured to two servants who were helping Sarah, to leave the kitchen for their privacy. After they had left, he practically leaped across the small distance separating them. “Better, Sarah! So much better! Austin Sinclair... Austin Sinclair proposed to Amelia!”
The spoon clattered against the ceramic bowl as Sarah froze. “Austin Sinclair?” she repeated, the name of the famed
