Beyond All Dreams by Elizabeth Camden Page A

was like a brother to her. Even the thought of kissing him made her fight back laughter.
    Eliza prodded the portly gentleman beside her to step closer. “Have you met my husband? Walter works at the Postal Department, and someday I expect he’ll be the postmaster general. Walter, these are my two old friends from school, Anna O’Brien and Neville Bernhard. Except we always called him Romeo. It was the funniest thing. He used to let me peek at his paper during math tests. Do you remember?”
    Neville’s infatuation with Eliza began when Anna had been absent from school for a month to have the operation on her throat. That left a vacant seat beside Neville, which was eagerly filled by Eliza Sharpe, who was extremely kind to him. Neville, being neither stupid nor blind, knew Eliza’s sudden need for his friendship was entirely dependent on the help he gave her in mathematics, but he didn’t mind. Without Anna, he was friendless, and there was no worse torment for a fourteen-year-old boy than to be alone amid a throng of meanspirited schoolmates.
    When Anna returned to school, she had to admit to a smidgeon of jealousy over the attention Neville lavished on Eliza. It came crashing to an end the afternoon their teacher caught Neville tilting his test paper so that Eliza could see it. Mr. McLaren lurched across the room to snatch Neville’s test. “For pity’s sake, Romeo, don’t sell your self-respect over this girl. Move to the other side of the room immediately.”
    Mortified at being caught cheating, Neville scooted to an empty chair well away from Eliza’s wandering eyes.
    Mr. McLaren wasn’t finished with his humiliation. “Now, let’s see if she stabs herself in the heart after Romeo is torn from her side.” The rest of the class giggled behind their hands while Neville twitched in misery.
    The teacher walked over to Neville and returned his test, then swiveled to pierce Eliza with his gaze across the classroom. “No attempted suicide from the lovely Miss Sharpe? What a surprise. So you see, Romeo, she’s really not worth your trouble. Finish the test and don’t let me catch you cheating again.”
    Neville would have liked nothing better than to have the entire incident scrubbed from his memory, but Eliza enjoyed recounting that day for her husband.
    â€œEveryone called us Romeo and Juliet after that,” Eliza said. “It was the funniest thing! Of course, I always thought of Neville as ‘Blinky-Blinky.’”
    Neville blanched, and even the future postmaster general looked embarrassed at his wife’s remark.
    Anna painted on a tight smile. “It’s always such a treat to see you again, Eliza. Just when I think there are no more arrows in your quiver, you always manage to find one.”
    â€œCome along now,” her husband said, leading his wife to the other side of the pub.
    Neville’s twitching had gotten worse, his condition always aggravated when under stress. He set his spoon down, leaving the remainder of the spicy chowder in the bowl. They both knew it would be a sloppy and embarrassing mess if he tried to eat with his twitching this severe. Neville had been to countless physicians over the years, but no one could figure out how to calm the spasms that made his life miserable.
    Both she and Neville came to terms with their weaknesseslong ago. Neville would forever twitch with involuntary spasms, and she’d never feel comfortable among the beautiful people like Eliza Sharpe. But that was okay with her, because she’d built a good life for herself at the library, where she didn’t need to depend on anyone for companionship or financial support. And if her world was a little lonely . . . well, loneliness never killed anybody. There was a time when she had hoped for marriage and a family, but that was beginning to fade as she grew older. Besides, if she remained single she could continue