“You do know that you look a good ten years older than Annaliese right now, don’t you?”
“Only ten?” Seraphina asked. “I was hoping for fifteen.”
“A few additional warts might bump you up to that.”
“I’ll take that into consideration,” Seraphina said. “But to return to chaperoning, know that while I absolutelyadorelingering behind the two of you, I do understand why the two of you want to take your time getting to know each other better.” She lifted her chin. “With that said, though, if you ask me, I think you already know each other better than anyone knows you. However, I’m not saying that to pressure you into doing anything because I’m perfectly capable of continuing on as your chaperone, suffering in silence as I’m forced to linger around corners while the two of you steal a few kisses.”
“It doesn’t sound as if you’re suffering in silence right now,” Seth pointed out.
Seraphina sent him a wink. “I know, and with all that cleared up, shall we go take a look at those skunks?”
“Maybe you could go on ahead of us and wait right outside the barn so I can have, say ... five minutes alone with Annaliese?”
“Did I not just state how I’ve been suffering in silence because of all the lingering I’ve been forced to do?”
“Should I take that as you don’t particularly feel like lingering outside the door right now?” Seth asked.
“Indeed,” Seraphina said before she shot Annaliese a grin and headed out the door, tossing an “I’ll give you three minutes but no longer” over her shoulder before she disappeared from sight.
Twenty-Eight
Annaliese couldn’t resist a grin when she stepped through the barn door and saw Seraphina leaning her back against a tree, quite as if she’d thought she’d be lingering for more than three minutes.
“Seems like we might have had time to steal more than one little kiss,” Seth said, sending a nod to Seraphina, who responded by sending them a cheery wave before she headed toward the castle.
“I’m sure Seraphina will provide us with other opportunities at some point,” Annaliese said as she took Seth’s arm and they began following their temporary chaperone, her thoughts traveling back to what Seraphina had just recently said.
Truth be told, Sethdidknow her better than anyone, and better yet, he understood her need to make a difference in the lives of mistreated animals, and understood and accepted that she didn’t want to rush into a relationship with him.
The problem now, though, was that she’d realized over the past few weeks that Seth was the gentleman she knew she was supposed to spend her life with, and spend that life working together, with her devoting time to her animals, and him devoting time to his inventions, some of which would allow anyanimal she was lucky enough to rescue to live in a more hospitable environment.
In all honesty, she no longer carried any worry about courtship schedules, but she was worried that she might have been a little hasty declaring her desire to avoid the state of marriage because she’d been thinking about what marriage to Seth would be like often of late and . . . she’d discovered that she was no longer opposed to it.
Seth, however, true to his word, was giving them time to simplybe, which was lovely to be sure, except she was now of the opinion that she wanted to take the whole simplybebusiness to something so much more.
Her rather rapid turnaround when it came to the subject of marriage had surprised her, but she knew with every ounce of her being that Seth wanted to experience life with her, not hold her back from her dream, which now left her with the quandary of how to let him know that.
Shaking aside her thoughts when they reached the castle drive, Annaliese began walking toward Seth’s carriage, coming to a stop when the sound of something heavy thudding up the drive drew her attention.
Before she could discern what was causing the noise, Irma came rushing down the front steps of the castle, clutching a pair of binoculars.
“Norma Jean just handed these to me and told me to look down the drive,” Irma said, thrusting the binoculars in Annaliese’s hand. “You will not believe what I just saw, although you can’t see it yet from this vantage point but just wait.”
Norma Jean, in the company of Louisa, who unsurprisingly had Pierre on her shoulder, came hurrying up to join them, Norma Jean’s eyes sparkling in a rather interesting fashion.
Following a step behind was Ottilie, dressed in a skirt since the academy was in session, although when there were no students around she normally could be found strolling aroundin trousers that were cut off at the knee, even though the current temperature in Chicago wasn’t exactly conducive to short trousers.
“Were you expecting a delivery, Aunt Ottilie?” Annaliese asked once her aunt reached her, having grown accustomed to having all sorts of interesting things delivered to the castle since they’d been back.
“I’m not expecting anything to be delivered until Drusilla gets back from her trip, and according to the last telegram she sent, that should be within the week.” Ottilie smiled. “I’m sure you won’t be surprised to learn that Flick and Miranda, our newlyweds, still want to stay on my island—and yes, my solicitor has already been able to purchase that island for me. They’re going to finish packing up the rest of the treasure the captain and I found, although according to Drusilla, there’s not much left to pack. I’m sure, though, that Miranda and Flick are enjoying their time on a deserted island together and don’t mind seeing after the birds until I can hire permanent caretakers.”
Annaliese returned the smile. “It really was rather remarkable that Drusilla showed up on your island not long after we left, lending credence to the notion that God certainly was answering your prayer to get home.”
“Indeed, especially when Drusilla ended up on that island after making it to the island the captain’s crew was scouring after they marooned us.” Ottilie’s smile turned into a grin. “I’m sure the crew wasn’t expecting a yacht to pull up there, nor expecting a Pinkerton to be onboard, who made short shrift of interrogating the crew and then demanded the captain’s crew take them immediately to the island they’d left us on.”
“I bet Miranda and Flick weren’t expecting to have anyone visit them only a few days after we departed, and only a few days after the captain married them on the high seas.”
“Let’s hope Drusilla’s captain gave a blow of the ship’s whistle because”—Ottilie shuddered—“no telling what the newlywedsmight have been up to. However...” Her eyes crinkled at the corners. “Having Drusilla land on my island with the Merriweather yacht certainly made my life easier as she was able to get most of the crates Flick and Miranda packed onboard, as well as all the cannons we found. And to top matters off nicely for Captain Harvey, his mutinous crew has now been taken into custody and he’ll be given his boat back, although he might be done sailing the high seas for the foreseeable future.”
