“And it is a shame,” he said, sighing and rolling onto his side, the sheet tucking and pulling around his thighs as he moved. “A damned shame.”
She reached out and traced the line of his jaw, the shape of his bottom lip. “I could come back.”
“You could,” he agreed, catching her hand and pressing a kiss into her palm. “And you should. But if you are going to do that, I must get up, after all, and see to business, as I will be just as likely to want to sprawl tomorrow.”
“It is the way of things,” she agreed with a shrug and a smirk. “At least I will not be alone.”
“You’ve never been alone,” he said, so seriously that she had to turn away from him, flinging her legs over the side of his bed and searching for her discarded clothing.
He did not comment on it. He simply went to his side of the room and began to dress as well, his eyes lingering on her as she layered piece after piece back onto her body.
“Oh, my hair,” she said ruefully, reaching up to touch it. “Where did that ribbon get to?”
“This?” he asked, dangling said ribbon until she came close enough to swipe for it, at which point, he claimed a final kiss.
A soft kiss, lingering and sweet.
“Tonight,” he said, as she turned to leave. “You’ll come back?”
“I’ll come back,” she agreed. “Tonight.”
She huddled her coat around her body and set off for the Rest at a clip, her hair escaping the sloppy tie she’d made at the nape of her neck as she went.
She did not linger in her thoughts. She did not revel in them. She did not conjure up recent memories.
There would be time for that later.
She slipped in through the garden-side doors and took the long way around to her room, just in case the others were milling about.
And for the second time this week, she entered her private sanctum to find someone else lingering within it, waiting for her.
“Ruby,” she said, frowning and clipping the door shut behind her. “Did you get lost again?”
Ruby grinned at her, fully dressed and reclining on Libba’s still-made bed, her pointy, black boots swaying back and forth. She was dwarfed by the length of the mattress, like a petite imp in red crinoline, awaiting her newest victim.
“Get your shoes off my coverlet,” Libba snapped, and then she sighed, crossing the room to collapse on her vanity stool.
“You’re earlier than I thought you would be,” Ruby said, tossing aside theMinerva Pressnonsense she’d been reading. “I was ready to stay for at least another two hours. I made you a tincture.”
“‘A tincture’?” Libba asked, bleary and impatient.
“A tea,” said Ruby, raising her dark, arched brows. “To prevent any little surprises?”
Libba immediately flushed, a cool crack thrumming through her ribs. “Oh.”
“I am not the Marvelous Human Abacus,” Ruby said with a smirk. “But I can do the math.”
“I do have my own…surpriseprevention methods, you know,” Libba said, watching Ruby produce the little, stopperedvial of dried herbs from her skirt and set it on the bedside table. “But thank you.”
“Mm,” said Ruby, non-committedly, her eyes traveling over Libba’s wrinkled clothes and frizzy hair. “How was it? Are you in love?”
Libba glared at her and then sighed. “Yes. Probably.”
“That’s good, then,” said Ruby. “So you aren’t going back to London? In the spring? You will stay?”
Libba nodded, her shoulders slumping a little. “I was always going to stay.”
“Yes,” said Ruby, her catty smirk flickering. “Me too, I think. Willa knew what she was about, requiring us to stay for a full year. She knew once we remembered what it is like here, together, we’d never want to leave again.”
