Page 96

“I came to speak to your mother.”

“Did you now? About what?” Seren’s words were a touch sly. Like she was up to something. And what was it poking Lark in the back?

“Are you packing? Here, of all places?” Lark turned to face Seren, completely scandalized.

“What? Oh my god! Lark! This is my mother! Jesus, who do you think I am, Mary Shelley? She’s the one who⁠—”

“I know what Mary Shelley did on her mother’s grave!”

Lark tried not to laugh. Seren’s face still radiated sheer horror.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I just felt… Whatever it is that’s in your pocket!”

Lark tried to stop laughing, but Seren’s expression was not making it easy. After a while, she covered her face with her hands and leaned back into the embrace.

“I guess I’m totally botching this, aren’t I?”

Seren raised an eyebrow.

“If by this you mean totally scarring me for life, then I think you have succeeded entirely and completely.” Seren finally smiled at her.

Lark turned in the embrace and lifted her hands to cup the beloved face.

“No. I came to speak to your mother. About you.”

Seren’s eyes widened again.

“Lark, if you’re going to tell me that you came here to talk sex stuff to my mother⁠—”

“Seren Crowhart, quit this at once! I came to talk to your mother about proposing to you once my divorce is finalized.”

Seren’s mouth closed with a snap. Lark soldiered on.

“I spoke to the Refuge lawyer and retained her. With my own money, can you believe it?” Lark could have sworn she was flying about an inch off the ground just recounting her earlier meeting. “And she got in touch with the people Dagmar left contacts for. She is confident we will get half his fortune and the divorce decree soon, since he is—Actually, you know? It doesn’t matter. None of what is his matters at all. I will be putting most of it into the Refuge and similar programs in Baton Rouge and New Orleans. And I’m going back to school. I looked up what I need to become a fully certified women’s and victims’ advocate, and I can do it. It will take some time to get the necessary credits, or whatever these things are called, since I was home schooled, but I will be working at the Refuge full-time, and it counts and⁠—”

Seren placed her own hands over Lark’s.

“Breathe, my love. Breathe. For me.”

Lark inhaled, exhaled, inhaled again and finally felt like she could open her mouth without words falling out of it at the speed of light.

“I’m going to be free. And I will be doing the things I believe in. And I want to marry the woman I love, so I came to her mother to ask her opinion on the matter.”

Seren’s smile was almost blinding. She reached into the offending pocket and pulled out a small leather box. Lark’s thoughts screeched to a halt.

“No way…”

Seren only beamed wider, the happiness and humor in the expression effervescent.

“Yes way.”

She flipped the lid open. On a satin cushion lay two almost identical rings. One had a single blue sapphire, and one counted three stones, an identical sapphire hugged by two diamonds.

“These were my grandmother’s rings. She had been married to our grandfather, had my mom and Victoria and then, after he was gone, lived happily ever after with the woman she loved most dearly. My grandmother, too, was Water.” Seren stumbled over the words, her voice getting choked up before she continued. “Victoria had the rings set aside for me in Boston. It appears that she always believed it was only a matter of time before I proposed to you. She even bet with Deryn that I’d be the one out of all my sister to propose and get married to the love of my life first. If Deryn ever finds out that she lost the bet because you proposed to me first, she’ll be very mad, but I digress…”

Seren lowered Lark’s hands from her cheeks and kissed her knuckles.

“I love you. I loved you from the very first moment I saw you. I loved you passed out, in threadbare clothes, cold and probably concussed, bleeding on my aunt’s kitchen floor. I loved you when I watched you eat lobster bisque, half frozen. And when you kept refusing my muffins and free coffee at the Brew. I loved you when you put your hand in the fire to pull mine out. I loved you when you kissed me.”