He shrugged. “I admit that I enjoy doing some good with the resources I have. And I’d rather steal food for the poor than get myself an elegant new sofa. But don’t tell anyone I said that. I’d be a laughingstock.”
“Your secret is safe with me.”
He gave her then the true smile she loved so much, crooked and sweet. “And your heart is safe with me, Lottie. You’ll never be lonely again, not for as long as I live.”
“Oh.” She caught her breath. Wicked man. Wicked, fiendish, beloved man.
“Tá mé i ngrá leat, mavourneen,”he whispered, his voice like white ocean and loam-scented rain. Charlotte did not need to know Irish to understand what he was saying. His bare heart was in the words, and her wild witch heart heard it.
“I love you,” she said in return.
His smile faded into an expression that went unfathomably deeper, and Charlotte felt a reflection of it in her own body. She lay back, and he moved over her with the calm mastery that had first drawn her to him, all those days ago in a St. James’s teahouse. As he slowly filled her, body and soul, she prophesized that this was how it would be from now on. Not just exercise, but love in the light. Her magic stirred in response.
“Charlotte!” Alex said with a surprise that would have been outright trepidation in a man less aware of his reputation as calmly masterful.
“I adore you,” she answered—but it came out in the ancient language of dreams, lifting them from the bed.
“This is very high-minded of you,” he said, shifting to ease his weight from her as they continued to rise.
“I tired of waiting for your proposal, so am elevating our relationship to a new level.”
He laughed and kissed the magic on her lips. And then—
“Ow!”
He winced as his head hit the ceiling.
“Sorry, sorry,” Charlotte said, but he was laughing again, and as he went back to kissing her she tasted his delight. Her incantationquivered, sending magic and happiness vibrating through her body. Passion flashed against it with each move Alex made. She even felt a small tremor of fear as the air swayed around them, suggesting at any moment they might tip over and fall. It was a beautiful but chaotic moment, and like some kind of pirate she surrendered to it.
Alex shifted onto his knees, setting the palm of his hand against the ceiling to stabilize them. Charlotte spread herself before him, floating, incantating. Her golden bee charms fluttered around her hard-pulsing wrist. Her hair swirled free. She was so content, she did not even notice the cobwebs dangling nearby. She saw only Alex, knowing he saw only her, as he took her with him into their own private heaven.
Afterward, they eased carefully back to earth, and Charlotte cuddled close against the black-inked barbs protecting Alex’s heart. “Now this is a perfect happy ending,” she sighed.
“You’re wrong,” he said, brushing the hair (and a grimy strand of cobweb he wisely did not mention) away from her eyes.
“Are you arguing with me in this romantic moment, sir?”
“Yes. And I’ll show you why there will be no happy endings for us.”
He spoke solemnly, but Charlotte was unafraid. They dressed again, gathering clothes at random from the floor, then Alex led the way through the darkening house, up the attic ladder to the roof. The house was gliding peacefully toward a darkening horizon stranded with the last wistful ribbons of day. The world beneath was indistinct, like the memory of a story but none of the words. Charlotte shivered as she sat on the ridgepole next to her pirate, and he slipped his arm around her.
“I’m not cold,” she assured him. A residue of magic or love coursed like warm, sweet tea through her body.
“I know,” Alex said, smiling. And she saw in his eyes that he did know—he saw her, and understood who she truly was. The warmth in her flared. “You’re in thrall to the sky,” he said, and she nodded, loving him, loving him so much.
He pointed to the velvet gray of north, where stars were beginning to appear. “Tomorrow I’m taking you there.”
“Where, exactly?” she asked, witch-like.
“Anywhere, darling. Into the forever. Into a life of endless wondrous beginnings.”
Her heart rose up, singing, to meet that wild path of stars.
“Well, then,” she said, grinning. “Tally ho!”
Epilogue
love—hope—faith
