“ ‘I’m moving him out!’ I said. ‘He’s already in a rage that I burnt his books. Well, when I get back out there with my men we’re throwing out his marble table and his golden chair. He’ll find them sunk in the muck where he dumped the bodies.’

“ ‘What bodies?’ She was amazed.

“I doubled back and told her that part—of how I’d first seen him in the moonlight, dumping the bodies. She was very intrigued.

“ ‘But this is a killer, this person,’ she said.

“ ‘I’m not afraid of him,’ I countered. ‘And after what happened when he attacked me upstairs, I know that Goblin can and will protect me.’

“I glanced back at Goblin who was coming behind us at a distance. I nodded at him. My brave companion.

“She looked at the darkening purple sky. The cicadas were singing everywhere. It seemed the Earth was purring. ‘Boy, I wish there was time for us to go out there,’ she said.

“I laughed. ‘Neither of us has the sense to be afraid!’ I admitted. She began laughing and then both of us were laughing, unable to stop it. I put my arms around her finally and just held her, happier than I’d ever been in my whole existence.

“We walked on together, but all I could think of was lying down with her on the grass and letting the gathering shadows be the bed curtains.

“I told her again that when we went out to the island tomorrow we’d take the armed guards. I had my thirty-eight. I asked if she knew how to shoot a gun. She said Yes, she’d been taught at a place called Gretna Gun by her cousin Pierce, just so she’d be able to protect herself if she ever had to. She was used to firing a three fifty-seven Magnum.

“ ‘This Pierce,’ I said, ‘I don’t want to talk about him. The marriage plan is a dreadful miscarriage of fate. I feel like Romeo standing in the way of whatshisname.’

“She laughed in the most delightful manner. ‘Oh, it’s so good to be with you,’ she said. ‘And part of it is simply that you’re not one of us.’

“ ‘You mean that I’m not a Mayfair?’

“She nodded. The tears were threatening. I put my arms around her and she laid her head on my chest and I could feel her crying.

“ ‘Mona, don’t, please don’t. Feel safe with me.’

“ ‘Oh, I do,’ she said. ‘I really do, but you know they’re going to find me.’

“ ‘Then maybe we can just hide you behind those big columns,’ I said. ‘We can just bolt the door to my room and see if they can break it down.’