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“Marcus,” she complained.
Her skirt showed her trim, silk-clad ankle, and Marcus moved to toss her dress back down. “I’ll never make it to the reading of the banns,” he swore.
“What?” Her brows drew together.
“In this world, you have to declare your inten
t to marry. And there’s this thing called ‘the reading of the banns’ that takes three weeks. If you don’t want to wait, we can get a special license.”
“Did I say I would marry you?” she teased.
“I’ll drag you kicking and screaming to Scotland and marry you over an anvil if I have to,” he warned. He lowered his voice to a whisper as he cupped her cheek in his palm. “I think we should practice that kissing thing from earlier, just to be sure we did it right.”
His lips touched hers, and she sat forward to reach him. Marcus was almost certain he couldn’t do this wrong, but her response to him was a salve to his soul. She murmured against his mouth, and when he drew her bottom lip between his, she gasped and wrapped her arms around his neck, hitching herself higher into his lap.
***
Ronald stood in the foliage and looked everywhere but at Marcus and Cecelia. He kicked at a rock with the toe of his boot and started to walk away. But when he turned, he bumped directly into a body. A small body. One proportionally his size. One that smelled like violets. One that smelled like home. “Millicent,” he gasped. “What are you doing here?”
He hadn’t seen Milly in months, and by the look on her face, she didn’t intend to let him forget it. “Cece sent for me,” Milly admitted. “What are you doing here?”
“I’ve brought a mission for Marcus. What kind of a mission are you on?”
“You know I can’t tell you,” she began.
“You know you will,” he cajoled, stepping closer to her. He reached out to touch her, and she swayed toward him. “Are you well?” he asked. He lowered his hand just before he embarrassed himself and brought the gnome to rest in his arms. “Tell me,” he prompted.
“It has to do with her father.”
“Is he unwell?”
She shook her head. “I can’t tell you.”
“Will it ruin Marcus?” Ronald asked.
Milly put her hands on her hips and glared at him. “You worry about your family, and I’ll worry about mine,” she snapped.
“Milly,” he cajoled. “They just found their way back together.” He pushed the foliage to the side. “Look at them.”
Marcus and Cecelia were locked in a passionate embrace. “Go and get your faerie, will you?” Milly asked. “I need to take mine with me.” She shot him a glance. “In other words, get yours off mine.”
Ronald would have liked nothing more than to have his whatever on hers. But he assumed she meant Marcus and Cecelia. He wouldn’t separate them. Not right now.
“I won’t like what you’re planning to do, will I?” he asked.
“You won’t like it at all,” she said with a heavy sigh.
“There’s no way around it?”
“None.”
“Will she be coming back?”
“I know not the future,” she said softly.
He reached out and took her hand in his, rubbing his thumb along the back of it. “When can I see you again?”
She shook her head. She nodded toward Marcus and Cecelia. “I’ll come back for her later.”
