I nearly feigned a headache, but then thought of Dries. What if my brother had sent me a private message? Possibly concerning Annie, an aloof, boring, blonde English-type girl he had become secretly engaged to last May.

Intrigue at last. I sprang from my seat.

Theo ambled along the water in mysterious silence, then suddenly stopped and turned to me but still wouldn’t say a word.

“Is Dries reconsidering his engagement?” I finally asked.

“Jo.” Theo gave a little nod, not in response to my question but as if he’d just made a decision, as if he was committing himself to something. “You surely know how I feel about you. You must know that I want nothing more than to spend the rest of my life with you and put all my happiness into your hands.”

I wasn’t sure I’d understood him correctly, but I feared that I had, so I didn’t ask him to repeat himself.

I could not have been more surprised if the ducks on the canal lined up on the water in the shape of a tulip and began singing the Dutch national anthem.

For a moment, I even considered that Dries had put Theo up to a prank, but the raw emotion in Theo’s eyes and his earnest expression suggested my answer meant everything to him.

I hid my hands in the folds of my dress. “I don’t understand.”

“Would you do me the honor of becoming my wife, Johanna Bonger?” He waited with a solemn, reverent smile, his earlier nervousness gone, as if he could relax at last.

Would I…

“Why?” flew from my lips before I could hold back the startled response. “We’ve met twice in the past two years. You barely know me.”

“Are you no longer free? Dries never mentioned anyone else. I ask him about you often. I hoped…”

“I am free.”

“If your heart is not already engaged…”

“My heart is very much engaged.”

Theo broke into a fast walk, then pivoted, shifting from one foot to the other rapidly as though he might jump into the canal.

I eased toward the house. “We should return to Mama.”

Desolation shaded his face past ashen. Even the sky turned gray behind him, casting a dull gloom over the water. “Is there nothing I can say to convince you to consider my proposal?”

“I know well the suffering unrequited love can cause, but I cannot gift you the answer you wish for, Theo.”

“At the Rijksmuseum with your brother, the three of us together. Do you remember what fun we had?” His entire body begged, from his eyebrows to his fingertips. “You were so full of inquiry and intelligence. You asked me question after question. I would be happy forever if I had a partner in life such as you.”

I could not form a response beyond a desperate “Theo, I cannot.”