Page 63 of A Spot of Tea and Sorcery: Vol. 6

Starlight twinkling on snowy mountaintops.

Very, very slowly, Luna turned her head, met Mr. Grimm’s gaze. And there it was again—that expression she’d first recognized when she’d seen it caught in the thaumagraph. Only there was no need for a thaumagrapher’s magic now. The truth was all too evident, spotlighted by silver moonglow through her windowpanes.

“That’s what I meant,” he said. He stretched out his hand, using his pinky finger to gently swipe another wet strand of hair off her tear-soaked cheek and tuck it behind her ear. Then he cupped her face with his palm. “When I said I don’t want to be your lover. It’s because . . . because I want to be so much more.”

“Really?” Luna’s voice was so soft and high, it hardly sounded like her own. It certainly wasn’t the right voice to be the counterpart of those dreamy deep tones of his. But it was the best she could manage in the moment.

He brought his other hand up, framing her face gently. “When I make love to you, I want to make love to my wife.” His voice broke a little, the emotions too intense. “My beautiful, my brave, my brilliant Luna, I want to love you and adore you with all my heart, body, and soul, from now to the end of our days. Holy and sanctioned in the eyes of the Green Mother.”

Luna sniffed and hated that it was not a romantic sound at all. “You don’t believe in the Green Mother,” she said.

He chuckled and drew her face toward him, kissing her forehead. “I do, actually,” he whispered. “Only a supremely gracious goddess could have created someone as perfect as you.”

She hiccoughed out a little laugh-sob. “I was just envisioning your murder by teddy bear-bludgeoning!”

His mouth, pressed against her forehead, broke into a smile. Chuckling again, he leaned his forehead to hers and looked into her eyes. “You see? Perfect,” he said. “Oh, my Luna, my dear, you are perfection itself in my eyes.”

He was so close, her view narrowed down to make him look a bit like a cyclops. But it was, nonetheless, deeply sexy. Luna let her lashes drop as his mouth drifted over hers. A much sweeter, gentler, more tender kiss than those they’d shared downstairs on the rocking chair. The purity of his passion was undeniable, and she trembled as she leaned into him, even as she kept her hands to herself, tightly wrapped around Gruffles’s threadbare body.

He pulled back at last and pressed his forehead against hers once more. “Marry me, Luna,” he said roughly. “I beg you. Marry me, and let me be a husband to you. Let me care for you and protect you and love you for the rest of my life.”

Luna’s lip quivered. She sniffled again, trying to withhold a sob. Placing her hand on his cheek, she kissed him, very softly, before drawing back and looking deep into his eyes. “I can’t.”

He blinked, his brow puckering. “Erm.”

“I can’t marry you, Mr. Grimm,” she said, shaking her head.

His mouth moved a few times before he managed to tilt his head a little to one side. “Erm, might I ask . . . why not?”

She turned away, as tears chased familiar paths down her cheeks. The reason thundered like a wild pulse in her throat,but she could not bear to speak it. Instead, she said the first thing that came to mind.

“Well, for one thing, you don’t want to have children.”

He was silent for a little while. She could practically hear him blinking in confusion. “What makes you think that?” he asked at last.

“Youmade me think that!” she answered with a little shrug and shot him a short look. “That day when Garden malfunctioned. Remember? You said, ‘What kind of a father would I make?’ In quite a disparaging tone, I might add.”

“Ah!” He sat back, placing his hands on his knees. “I see.” He pressed his lips into a hard line. After a moment, he said, “I don’t know that I would make the best father.”

Luna snorted.

“But that doesn’t mean I don’t want children.”

“Really?” She turned to him, her breath catching.

“I mean.” He rubbed a hand down the back of his neck, and his cheeks looked a little pink in the moonlight. “I mean, I . . . I sometimes . . . sometimes I can almost picture it. You know? A little boy named after my father. A little girl named after your aunt.”

“Which aunt?”

“Apolonia.”

A smile broke across her face, so spontaneous, Luna couldn’t stop it. “Loni for short?”

“Yes!” he answered at once, catching her eye. “And . . . and maybe a few more besides.” He hesitated. “I can’t promise that I would be the, erm, the best father ever. But, Luna, I swear to you, I would do everything in my power to make our family a happy one.”

Luna sniffled again and studied the top of Gruffles’s head. “For what it’s worth, I’ve always thought you’d be a wonderful father.”

“You have?”