Only…if they were trying to smear her, they would have attached details. As this stands, it is just a warning, a plea for me to be careful. But careful about what?
It was absurd, and every instinct Marcus had told him to throw the letter away and think nothing of it. But he read the letter a third time, the mention of the patronage and his proposal… now that he thought about it, was it not strange how quickly she had accepted his offer? A woman who had no experience with children, who did not want them, yet she agreed to a marriage in which that was the sole prerequisite…
He tried to remember that night as clearly as he could. He had been the one to approach her. He had also been the one to follow her from the room. But only after she had made a scene, forcing him to chase her. Was it done on purpose? Was this whole thing orchestrated? But why?
Careful, Marcus. Do not go down that rabbit hole. Not now. Not when everything is finally going so well. Lucy has been nothing but honest with you from day one… or she says that she has been… no! This letter is slander and should be treated as such.
His mind made up, Marcus was content to toss the letter, only for his wife to sweep into the room before he had the chance.
“What’s that?” she asked of the letter in his hand.
“Oh… nothing.” He scrunched the letter into a ball, attempting to look nonplussed and innocent.
She stopped short and looked pointedly at him. “Do not tell me, business calls for you.” A rolling of the eyes. “I was going to ask if you wished to spend the day with me and James, but I would hate to pull you away from such things…”
His laughter was stiff and choked. “Just as I was going to ask if I could spend the day with you and James. What a coincidence.”
“Truly?”
“Lucy…” He sighed as he stood from the couch, and then he shook his head as he approached her. There, he took her hand – his other still held the letter – and found her eyes. “I was being serious with you yesterday. I would hope that by now you might trust me at my word.”
“I thought it were your actions that I should trust,” she teased playfully.
“Oh yes…” He matched her grin. “Those too.”
His eyes flicked to her lips and Marcus was taken by a sudden desire to kiss his wife once more. He had not done so since yesterday, and just the thought made his lips tingle again.
“Today then.” She pulled her hand free and stepped back, stopping him from the kiss as if she had seen it coming. “Let us say, just after noon. Maybe that picnic we never got around to taking?”
It was silly, but Marcus felt a touch chastened by her dismissal of the kiss that had brewed between them. He wanted to kiss her again, to further prove his words, but as he tried to find her eyes, meaning to show her what was on his mind, she refused to give them.
Does she not want to kiss me? Is this a test of some kind? Or… what if she does not think that she needs to, now that she has me…
“Yes, a picnic sounds lovely.”
He watched his wife closely now, searching for… he was not sure! There was nothing to find. She had already declared her intentions, he had confirmed his own, and all that was left to do now was prove them. Which he meant to do.
But her intentions… they did come from nowhere. One minute, she wanted us to be strangers, the next she demanded my affection. Why was she so eager? It is not as if I have given her a reason to be.
He continued to watch, his mind turning with questions, and the letter in his hand burning his skin as if it called to him…
Marcus knew he should ignore the letter. He was aware of what listening to it might do. But the more he considered its words, the more he pondered them, the more he decided that he needed answers.
Or rather, a confirmation that he had nothing to worry about. Then, he could put it behind him. But only then.
“You know what I have been thinking about,” Marcus started with as much casualness as he could.
“What?”
“How much you’ve come into motherhood with James. It really is something.”
“It is, isn’t it?” She took his comment as a compliment, her smile splitting her face in two. “Can you blame me? He is rather adorable.”
“And after you were so against being a mother too,” he continued lightly, almost as if it was an afterthought. “When we first met, you wanted nothing to do with children.”
“Oh…” She frowned. “I would not go that far. It just wasn’t something I had ever really considered.”
“Not that it stopped you from agreeing to raise him,” Marcus continued. “For someone who had never thought of such a thing,you did not hesitate… or give it as much thought as many might do.”
