“What are you doing, young man?” Mrs. Chuke demanded.
“Be careful of the Fabergé crystal!” Mrs. Pettifer cried.
“I am kidnapping your leader,” Alex said, grinning piratically. “If you have a problem with that, I advise you to take it up with the Wisteria Society.”
He began to stride toward the door, Charlotte speechless in his grasp.
“You cannot kidnap her!” Mrs. Chuke said.“Sheis the kidnapper in your relationship.”
Alex laughed. “She certainly stole me, it’s true. Heart and soul, the very moment I saw her. And now I am stealing her from you. Good evening, ladies.”
“But this will bring the feud upon us all over again!” Miss Gloughenbury said.
“It will indeed,” Alex agreed cheerfully.
A moment of silence followed as the witches processed this.
“You knave!” Miss Gloughenbury shouted, crossing to pour herself a cup of tea.
“Outrageous!” Mrs. Chuke declared, settling comfortably onto a sofa.
“But Lottie,” Mrs. Pettifer said in a tremulous voice. “Will there still be a wedding?”
Charlotte’s heart, swooping wildly, felt an unexpected, gentle tug of familial love. She looked out through the tumble of her hair to smile at Mrs. Pettifer. “You continue preparations, Mama, and I shall return briefly from being kidnapped to attend it.”
The witches fell to murmuring excitedly amongst themselves. From her inverted position, Charlotte heard them say something about Lettice havingactuallypointed at Eugenia Cuttle-Plim’s mother when prophesizing Beryl’s true heir all those years ago, not Delphine Pettifer, and therefore Eugenia was therealProphesized One.
She would have laughed had that been appropriate for a kidnappee.
Alex carried her from the room, pausing only so she could say good-bye to Woollery (and Alex could steal his pocket watch). As they passed through into the entrance hall, Miss Gloughenbury tapped a teaspoon against a cup peremptorily. “Ladies, ladies, if you will kindly come to order...”
A shiver went through Charlotte’s blood. That could have been her. She’d been oneMansfield Parkquote away from corseting her life forever. If not for a week of madness with a wild pirate, she might never have learned what a witch she really was.
“Thank you for rescuing me,” she said to Alex.
He laughed. “Just returning the favor.”
And so they fled.
Which is to say, they went upstairs, and Charlotte packed severalsuitcases and wrote a reference for her lady’s maid, while Alex complained good-naturedly about just how many books she was bringing... then there was a handshake with her father, who accidentally came upon them in the hall and managed to say a gruff word or two about making wise investments... then they were almost to the door when Mrs. Pettifer rushed out to ask if they wanted lilies or roses at the wedding reception, and ensure Charlotte had packed a toothbrush, and wish her a most delightful abduction indeed... after which they left the house hand in hand and never looked back.
Until three minutes later, when Charlotte realized she had forgotten her favorite teacup, butafter thatthey crossed the road to Alex’s rumpled little battlehouse and, like proper lovers, flew away into the sunset.
The old stone cottage illuminated the darkening sky like a piratic moon as Bixby steered it one-handedly, a Thackeray novel in his other hand and half an eye on the horizon. He was heading nowhere in particular—“away,” Charlotte had told him, and while he did not approve, he obeyed. Meanwhile, in the bedroom, Charlotte and Alex undertook a mature conversation.
“I’m going to exercise you so much you won’t be able to walk straight for days,” Alex said, tugging on Charlotte’s corset ribbons.
“Don’t be too sure,” she replied, unbuttoning his shirt. “I’ve become quite fit, this past week.”
“Oh darling, you have no idea how much core strength you’re going to develop.”
The corset clattered to the floor. Her chemise followed soon thereafter.
“On that subject,” Charlotte said, trailing a finger across hischest—“when you eventually do ask the question to which you alluded earlier, I will not expect a speech.”
“Really?” He pressed her back against the wall and pulled down her drawers, maneuvering them carefully over her boots so as to not cause a premature ejection of darts. “Don’t women like such speeches?”
“In principle. But in the actual moment, you should be too overcome with emotion to articulate properly.”
