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Mr Ball frowned. “How did you two meet? I thought you didn’t go anywhere, and you hail from Gloucestershire?”
Marcus mentally cursed. “I came by here late last year. I was only here for a while but fell hard. I desperately wanted to see more of her but had to return home. I have been back a couple of times since. We have been corresponding, but the distance is too great. We knew, right from the very first moment, that it was meant to be. However, to be able to see her as I want to I have to come here under the guise as one of her guests. You know, so the locals don’t get suspicious and think she is running a house of ill-repute. We hope to be married by the end of the year.”
It felt strange to him to discuss marriage, but there it was. He couldn’t take it back, especially given there was an air of satisfaction in his declaration. Marriage was an institution that other people entered into; not someone like him. Still, the words rolled off his tongue, and for once it didn’t make him want to squirm.
“I can keep a secret,” Mr Ball declared. “No wonder you were so protective when Lloyd began to pester.”
“Nobody pesters my fiancé,” Marcus declared possessively, pressing a kiss onto Jessica’s startled lips.
He grinned at the stunned look in her eyes and wondered if he should tease her. In the end, Mr Ball decided he had seen enough and took his leave.
Marcus pressed a finger to Jessica’s lips to prevent the questions he could see hovering in her eyes. The silence remained until they heard the quiet click of the front door behind Ball.
“I thought he had already gone,” she murmured with a shiver.
“Me too,” Marcus replied. He wondered if the man had left but then had doubled back to try to catch them unawares. He had caught them, but not doing anything suspicious that was likely to affect the lodgers’ activities.
“Do you mind telling me what is going on?” She asked quietly. “I am starting to think that I am missing something here.”
“Wait a minute,” Marcus murmured. Minutes later, once he had checked to make sure that Mr Ball had left the house, he returned to Jess.
She couldn’t even begin to put a name to the myriad emotions swirling deep inside her. First and foremost was a quiet sense of deflation she had never felt before. The performance they had just put on for Mr Ball’s benefit had stolen the joy she had felt at being held in Marcus’ arms. Not least because it made her want things she wasn’t sure she could have.
To think of being Marcus’ wife was nothing short of a fairy-tale.
Was it possible? Did he mean it? Could she dare to hope?
“You do know that news is likely to be spread around the village, don’t you?” she said pointedly.
“I don’t think he will mention it to anybody other than his colleagues,” Marcus soothed.
“Why did you tell him we are engaged?”
“To avoid ruining your name,” Marcus replied firmly. “He has just caught us in a passionate clinch. Not one of the men in this house is married, as far as we know, and you are an unchaperoned female. When I do leave, if the men think you and I are betrothed they are less likely to pester you. Not only that, but they can reinforce to Lloyd that you are no longer on the market. For the time being at least, it should provide you with the ability to be at home without being pestered by anybody.”
Before she could protest further, Marcus yawned widely and winked at her before he made his way to the door.
“I will see you later.”
Jess stood perfectly still and studied the closed door for a moment while she thought about that. Alright, so he had protected her from the rather amorous advances of the lecherously persistent magistrate. But none of the guests in the house had ever given her any indication to worry; or shown her the slightest bit of interest as a landlady, or as a person. Well, nobody but Marcus.
“It is all a mystery,” she whispered.
Just thinking about the strange theft of the spare key, the unusual the guests, the surprising relationship with Marcus, and the rather persistent attentions of the magistrate, was all starting to wear on her.
Life was quiet before Marcus turned up, but then it had been boring as well.
She swiftly shut that thought out and turned her attention to what she needed to do today. It was then that she remembered she had yet to go into town for some provisions.
“Best get to it then,” she murmured aloud and went to find her shawl.
Marcus watched her leave from his position in one of the upstairs rooms. He was in two minds whether to go with her to make sure she got there safely. But, the need to search the rooms while he had the place to himself was as essential because the identity of the gang.
“Finally.”
Marcus whirled around to find Ben grinning at him from the doorway.
“I thought you were off to Retterton,” Marcus drawled.
