“Johanna Bonger!” Theo flew through the gold-lettered glass door, more robust than the last time I’d seen him, more color in his cheeks. He didn’t look like a man wasting away from absinth or night-long carousing. He must have reformed since Dries had reported on him.

He lifted the smart derby hat he wore with his Chesterfield overcoat, a rather dashing gentleman. “I didn’t realize you were coming to Paris. Have you just arrived? Dries should have told me you were coming.” When he moved to the side so as not to block the door, the painting of the graceful dancers caught my eye again, and he noticed. “Would you like to see more? Edgar is a friend of mine. We also have some of his sculptures.”

Now that the large painting wasn’t frustrating my efforts, I could appreciate the art. “His dancers make me think of fairies. One expects them to float off the canvas.”

Theo gestured toward the door. “May I show you inside?”

I wasn’t ready to be introduced to the people he worked with. I didn’t want false assumptions to be made. “I am on my way to Le Palais Garnier.” I wasn’t lying. I’d hoped to go there next. “I wish to see the city’s famous opera house that Napoleon III built.”

“Le Palais is not much farther. Might I escort you?” He offered his arm, easily and smoothly, with the confidence of a man who was on his street, in his city, in his element.

I hadn’t meant to spend quite that much time with him, but I could not refuse without being unnecessarily rude. “Thank you. Mama would approve an escort. The newspapers have been nothing short of hysterical for months and months about Jack the Ripper.”

“Does she realize you’re in Paris, not London?” Theo walked on my left and sheltered me from the wind, a small kindness I couldn’t help but appreciate.

“She thinks the killer could travel here just as easily as I have.” She made me promise that I would write her daily.

“How long are you staying?”

Theo’s voice was no longer that of a stranger, but intimately familiar. I had been reading his letters in my head in his voice all this time, I realized. “Two more weeks.”

His eyes sparked. I had the impression he was holding himself back from bursting forward like carriage horses when they hear the starting click of a tongue. “Would you allow me the honor of showing you the city?”

I’d had no plans for the two of us beyond this “chance” encounter, but… Dries was always at the office, and I found little common ground with his reserved wife, Annie. “You must have a lot of work.”

“For you, I will clear my schedule.”