Page 26 of A Spot of Tea and Sorcery: Vol. 6

“Luna?” Ward looked down at her, his voice concerned. “Luna, what’s wrong?”

“Air!” she blurted. “I need to get some air.Now.”

To Luna’s relief, he didn’t question her at all. He merely slipped a hand around her waist and guided her out of the receiving line. Weaving through the busy throng, he guided her to one of the tall glass doors and out onto a wide veranda. It was too crowded, and Luna clutched her date’s arm all the harder. “Please, Ward! Take me somewhere quiet! Somewhere people can’t see us!”

“Sure thing,” he answered at once and led her down the steps. Soon they were out in the magically-illuminated garden. There were plenty of people there too, but Ward found the entrance to a shrubbery maze, and Luna breathed more easily the instant the tall, dark bushes shielded them from any watching eyes. Perhaps she’d made it all up. Perhaps there was nothing so very strange about that woman’s intense gaze. She was just on edge. After everything that had happened last night, after too little sleep, and now being here, in this very strange circumstance . . . she was probably just a little overwrought. Nothing more.

“Here we go,” Ward said as they rounded a bend and came upon a little stone bench. “Have a seat,” he told her. “Take a load off.”

Gratefully, Luna sat on the little stone bench and dragged several big, gulping breaths into her lungs. It was strange to breathe this magically-warmed air in the middle of winter. It did not feel like the Fool’s Spring of yesterday; it felt like a real summer evening. Closing her eyes, Luna drew another steadying breath.

“I’m sorry, Ward,” she said at last. “You must think me very silly. I was just so—”

Before she could finish, she found herself abruptly wrapped tight in an embrace, and Ward’s mouth closed down on top of hers. Luna uttered a little squeal, pushing against his shoulders. “Ward!” she gasped when his lips relented. “Ward, what’s gotten into you? Ward!” she squeaked again, for his mouth jumpedfrom her mouth to her neck, all wet and hot and eager. His hands moved from her waist, skating up to her bodice in a way she did not think any spinster auntie would ever approve. Gods above,shedidn’t approve much either!

“Ward, stop it!” she cried, grabbing his hands and yanking them away from her. She scooted back on the bench so far, she nearly went over the edge in a poof of petal-skirts. “What in the blazes do you think you’re doing?” she demanded furiously.

He gazed down at her, panting and flushed and confused in the moonlight. “Didn’t you say you needed to get some air?”

“Yes!” she gasped, trembling with shock and unpleasantly aware of all the dampness on her neck and shoulder.

Ward’s brow furrowed. “Luna, don’t you know what ‘get some air’ means?”

“Well, I suppose Ithoughtit meant that I needed to, you know,get some air!”Luna drew herself up a little straighter, tossing curls curiously back from her forehead. “What else is itsupposedto mean?”

With a dismal groan, Ward sat back. He buried his face in his hands for a moment, shaking his head. “Seriously, Luna,” he growled. “I’m at the end of my rope with you. Just when I think I’ve got you hooked, you go wiggling off again! And I’m left wondering if I should just cut bait and call it a day.”

Luna sniffed. “I’m not a fish, Ward.”

“No, you’re certainly not. You’re the most crazy-making woman I’ve ever met, that’s what you are!” He threw up his hands then and turned to her, his expression waffling between anger and hurt. “What’ve I got to do, Luna? What’ve I got to say? I thought tonight was what you needed, but here you are, blowing cold again just when I thought you were ready to blow hot! What is it going to take to win you over?”

“I don’t know.” Luna sat straighter, adjusting the folds of her skirts with shaking fingers. “If by ‘win me over,’ you mean ‘getme to let you put your hands all over me,’ it’s going to take a lot more than two tickets and a carriage ride!”

The words were nasty, and she hated herself the moment they were spoken. She hated as well how flushed and uncomfortable she felt, how aware of certain parts of her body where his unwelcome touch had strayed. Tears stung her eyes, threatening to spill over. She felt rumpled and a little used and so desperately uncomfortable, and—

“All right!” Ward let out a blustering sigh like a man defeated. “All right, I give up. I know what I’ve got to do. I thought there could be another way around it, but you’ve pushed me to the edge, Luna.”

A wash of cold terror flooded her soul. Luna froze in place. Was this it? Was this the moment when he turned on her? When he reminded her of that earring he’d handed over to her last night, confronted her about her doings in the warehouse district? Visions of handcuffs slapping down on her ensorcelled wrists burst in her head. She saw herself trying to crush these enormous rose skirts into the close confines of a prison cell as bars clanged shut behind her.

“Please, Ward,” she began, turning to him, her hands clasped tight. “Please, don’t.” She was ready to go down on her knees and beg.

Only . . . somehow it was Ward who was down on his knees in front of her instead.

She gaped.

Then, in a whisper like a curse: “Oh, Green Mother above!”

“Luna Talbot,” Ward said, reaching out to clasp her hands in his. “You’ve driven me nearly out of my mind since the day I first laid eyes on you. But, since I can’t imagine going through life being in my right mind anymore, there’s only one thing left to do. What do you say? Will you marry me and drive me crazy forever?”

A pulse like drums throbbed in her ears. She sat there, listening to it, counting out the beats. Convinced that surely she must have misheard the words echoing in her head behind that pulse.

Then her mouth opened, and she blurted, “What?”

“Marry me,” Ward repeated, leaning forward urgently. His gorgeous green eyes took in her face, scanning her features for some sign of her forthcoming answer. What he saw must not have encouraged him much, because his brows drew together. “Come on, you don’t have to act so surprised. You knew this was coming eventually, didn’t you? It’s what you wanted!”

Her lips came together, parted, came together again, without any sound emerging. Finally, with a rough shake of her head, she reached out and grabbed hold of his shoulders. “Oh,get up,Ward,please!”

“All right, all right,” he said, rising and brushing off the knees of his dress trousers. “It’s a bit damp down there anyway.” He peered at her from beneath the bobbing coil of his forehead curl, his brow creasing into deeper lines. “So, um . . . was that a yes?”