How did he do it? One minute her world was blackmail and anger and skeletons in dark, shadowed corners, and then Sam Moore walked into the room. It was as though he walked in an almost imperceptible beam of light, which rendered the terrifying ordinary, and the ordinary beautiful.

She didn’t realize she’d held the plans out until he took them from her.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

As he smoothed the plans out on the table, he watched her out of the corner of his eye. Tension was written in every line of her body—her shoulders were so square she could probably hold a pencil between her shoulder blades. She wouldn’t tell him what was wrong if he asked, so he was going to sidle up to the problem instead.

“It’s beautiful,” he said, studying the design of the ground floor. “Unexpected, this elliptical center hall, but … airy, and open, and when combined with the symmetry of the rooms, lovely. You’re very good at this, aren’t you?”

She shrugged. “I have some experience.”

“I don’t know much about architecture and interior design, but I’d imagine it takes more than experience to envision something like this. You’re an artist.”

“I’m not an artist,” Alva said, staring at him as though he’d grown a second head.

“A strange thing to say when I’m holding the proof in my hand. Aren’t you writing a book on the subject, too? That’s what I heard.”

“I am, but it doesn’t make me an artist. I’ve done it a lot, decorating houses and so forth, and I’ve developed opinions on the matter. That’s all.”

“And all I do is tinker around with bits and bobs of metal, but I’m still a scientist.”

“That’s different.”

“Why?”

She made a confused gesture, as if there were too many things she wanted to say at once. “I don’t know, because you’re a certified genius? A rather famous one, at that.”

“There are lots of different kinds of genius, and I’m looking at one kind right here.” He gestured to the plans. “Tell me about the book.”

She gave a defeated sigh. “It’s going to be divided into chapters on general principles of design, with the renovation of Liefdehuis as a sort of case study. We’ll use photographs reproduced throughout the text. Hopefully it will appeal not only to the society women in big cities but to middle-class women as well—the idea is to explain our design philosophy in a way that’s accessible to people living in more limited spaces. That’s been an ongoing struggle, to find the things that hold true no matter what kind of house one is working with.”

“The search for underlying principles,” he murmured. “I know it well. Show me how the plans will be?”