“We’ll get this all cleared up in a second, and my guest willget upfor right now.”That’s David.I didn’t know he was coming up to the house today.
David stops by for tea every now and then, sometimes for business for the trust or the times he helped me with immigration things and sometimes just to chat.He never really believed his family stories until I showed up, when it became a lot harder to doubt them, and he had so many questions about his ancestors and my experience.We’ve really bonded over him being the only one I can talk to about my trip.He’s even brought his older brother, the man who inherited the dukedom that Lydia married into.But he always calls first.
“Can I help—” I stop where I am, waves of shock rooting me to the floor.I hear my tote drop, but faintly, like it’s happening in the distance.
Because Leo is standing in front of me, in full Victorian suit, sitting on my chaise with his arm thrown over the back, his ankle resting on his knee.
My hands cover my mouth to press in the scream welling up in me.It’s a mix of joy, and disbelief, and a deep hope that I haven’t manifested his image through sheer loneliness and being surrounded by all his shit.
But I’m not making this up, because other people can see him.They want to get him off the couch.Where he’s sitting, smiling arrogantly at me like he…like he owns the place.
I lower my hands.“Is this…” I can’t get out the rest through my shaking voice.
“Why don’t we go to your office?”David picks up my tote and slides it back over my forearm to rest it on my elbow.
“David?”I focus on him instead of the vision in a full evening suit sitting on my chaise.“What?”
“Let’s get you both in the office.”David gently turns me around, and then less gently grabs Leo by the arm to get him up.
I walk through the halls, not seeing the extravagance around me for once.I turn my doorknob, forgetting I locked it, and have to rummage through my bag to find the keys, which have disappeared into the black hole of my purse only to reappear after I’ve spent a good thirty seconds searching for them.
“Is this real?”I collapse on the seat closest to the door.Leo takes the other one and David hovers by the door, which he closes behind him.
Leo quirks an eyebrow.“The woman who travelled to Victorian times is confused when I travel in the opposite direction?”
“It’s really you.”I feel pressure in the back of my eyes, getting emotional as I lift a hand to tentatively cup his face, making sure he’s real one more time.
“This conversation probably doesn’t need me.I’ll go.Call me later and I’ll help sort out the legal details.”David opens the door and slides out.
“It’s really me,” Leo says, ignoring David altogether.
“I thought I’d never see you again.”
“I thought the same.”Leo turns his head to plant a kiss on my palm.
It breaks the dam, and I rush from my seat into his lap, running my hands all over his body and planting kisses all over his face.
“But…” Kiss, kiss, kiss.“How?”More kisses.I restrain myself to his cheek so he can answer and I don’t have to stop.But I can’t restrain myself from moving to the corners of his mouth.
“I mentioned in the letter that I was going to Osborne House to see the unveiling of a portrait.Actually, did you find the surprise I left you?”Leo’s voice is muffled, what with an Indian-American woman smothering him with a lot of pent-up affection she never thought she would get to unleash on the object of that affection ever again.
But now I get to.
“Yes.Loved it.”
Leo had a portrait of me commissioned.I don’t know who he got to do it or how it looks so much like me, but I love that he wanted a reminder of me around.It’s hanging in my room, because it would be hard to explain why I’m hanging a Victorian painting of myself over the library fireplace.
“Victoria had a painting commissioned of you.Two actually; one she kept and one she gave to me.Because of how obviously sad I was when you left.”
“What?”That makes me pull back, eyes wide in terror at those ramifications.
“Oh, yes.You made quite the impression on Her Majesty.Not even Forsyth’s proof could change her opinion for long.And he did try after you were gone.She said you must have had good reasons, and either way, you were a citizen of her empire who needed help.”
“Well, I don’t like that bit, but I appreciate her defense.”
“She had the portraits painted, from a court painter who had seen you at events.With help from Her Majesty and myself for the details.She was convinced your breasts were smaller than they were, but I set her straight.”His eyes track directly to the breasts involved in the controversy.
Yeah, he’s going to be seeing them in a second.In this office, if it comes to it.
