"What's that?"

They had seen off the wizards who had participated in the power sharing spell and Mrs. Lowe and Lady Wendall had disappeared into their respective rooms while Mairelon settled Kim onto the settee in the library before settling at the table with paper, ink and quill.

Mairelon sprinkled sand over the paper, "the notice for the Gazette." He smiled at her wryly, "so, this would be your best chance to cry off. We could pass off what happened earlier as a result of, er, heightened emotion but once this is published it would be quite messy."

"Do you want to cry off?" Kim's throat felt tight.

Mairelon looked surprised. "Good lord no. I just - I don't want you to, er, feel, er, obligated -"

Kim shook her head in disbelief. "Mairelon."

"Yes?"

"Come here."

Mairelon crossed the room and settled on the settee next to her; his eyebrows arched in silent inquiry. Kim didn't speak. Instead she slipped her arms around his neck and pulled him in for a kiss. When they came up for air she said, "I want to marry you." And kissed him again before adding, "because I love you, you goosewit."

Mairelon beamed at her, and cradled her against him as he leaned back against the arm of the settee. "Well, as I love you too and would be lost without you I suppose we should send that notice to the Gazette, shouldn't we?" But he made no move to call for a servant to take the notice seeming content to hold Kim.

She grinned up at him, "lost without me?"

"Quite." He confirmed. "If there is anything I have realized this Season it is that." He kissed her temple. "I thought I had lost you."

Kim brushed her lips across his jaw, amazed to feel a shiver run through his body in response to her touch. "I'm fine Mairelon, the spell didn't hurt me at all."

His arms tightened around her. "That too," he chuckled dryly, "however, I was referring to Lord Franton and your other swains."

Kim began to protest but Mairelon carried on. "When Aunt Agatha set up that ridiculous tea with Fulton I tried to convince myself that I was only angry with her because she had overstepped by not consulting me but even then I couldn't quite manage it. Then when I watched them swarming around you at your ball I couldn't deny it anymore. I loved you. And one of them was going to sweep you away from me."

Kim rolled her eyes and dug her elbow into his side. "That ball was your idea."

"Yes, well, I was thinking more of giving a come up to Mrs. Hardcastle and that Tarnower chit and making sure society respected you as you deserve. I'd quite forgotten that it would also be an invitation to every eligible man in England to come calling."

"You do tend to overlook the important details, don't you?"

"So it would seem. After all, I had that bloody Marquis sitting across from me in this very room going on about you as if the two of you already had an agreement."
"We didn't." Kim protested.

"Yes, well I wasn't to know that was I? I thought you were in love with him. That you'd marry him and I'd never see you again - after all with the way things stand I could hardly remain your mentor."

Kim thumped his chest indignantly. "As though I would ever just sherry off on you like that. After - after everything."

Mairelon caught her fist and kissed it. "My apologies."

Kim snorted. "Why didn't you just say something?"

"I did. When you came in that night I asked you about it."

"Not about Franton," Kim rolled her eyes, "about being in love with me."

"Oh, that."

"Yes, that."

Mairelon absently wound a stray lock of her hair around his finger. "I didn't want to presume." He said finally. "Or to make you feel as though I expected . . ." He trailed off.

But Kim understood what he meant. "I wouldn't of." Kim assured him. She raised up and kissed him gently on the lips. "I know you better than that."

Wrapping a hand around the back of her neck Mairelon pulled her back to him and kissed her passionately. "Thank you." He gasped when he finally pulled away.

Kim lay against Mairelon listening to the rapid beating of his heart as she waited for her own to still. "I knew I loved you the night you got foxed." She confessed, feeling that it was only fair to answer his candidness in kind.

"I'm that appealing a drunk am I?"

She snorted, "hardly, you're even more exasperating foxed than you are sober. No, you asked me if there was anyone I wanted to marry. And I said 'there isn't anyone' but I almost said 'except you.' I barely stopped myself. It was like I didn't know it til I was almost saying it and then couldn't believe I hadn't know all along."

"You should have said it." Mairelon grinned at her. "The way I was feeling that night I would have thrown myself at your feet."

Kim rolled her eyes.

"You don't believe me?" Mairelon's eyes sparkled mischievously as he sat them up right then slid off the settee to kneel before her. He took her hands in his and kissed each of her knuckles before asking, "why didn't you?"

"Why didn't I what?" Kim asked in bewilderment.

"Tell me there was no one you wanted to marry except me." He turned her hands over kissing her palms. "Come now, I told you."

She shrugged, "I didn't think you could love me. Letitia Tarnower is beautiful and she's practically thrown herself at you and you didn't notice. And you aren't interested in Reneé DuAuber even though she's beautiful and a brilliant wizard. Why would you love me?" She suddenly felt nervous, as though by her pointing it out Mairelon might reconsider his affections.

Instead he sat back on his heels and studied her seriously before asking, "is there a mirror in your rooms?"
Kim blinked. "Yes."

"Have you ever used it?"

"Everyday." Her bewilderment was clear in her voice.

Mairelon laughed gently. "Tonight take a closer look. I assure you it wasn't your wit that attracted the bloody Marquis from across the opera house. And as for Reneé - as your mentor I shouldn't puff you up like this but once you've finished your training you will be every bit as brilliant." He sat back down beside her and traced his thumb over her lip. "More than any of that though, you are Kim - strong, loyal, clever, fearless, and very much the woman I can and do love."

Kim wasn't sure if she kissed Mairelon or he kissed her. She just knew that the kiss seemed to go on forever as it blurred into a second and a third kiss, then a fourth and a fifth before she lost track. One of Mairelon's hands stroked her waist and hip through her dress as the other traced down her back. Her own hands were laced in his hair. She felt warmth spreading through her as Mairelon pulled her closer and began trailing kisses down her neck to her shoulders. Meanwhile Kim's nimble fingers made short work of Mairelon's cravat as she rushed to bare more of skin beneath her hands and lips. Just as she kissed the base of his throat, eliciting a soft moan from him, there was a knock on the library door.

Mairelon cursed softly then raised his voice, calling, "what?"

A maid poked her head in the door, "Lady Wendall sent me to tell you that dinner would be served individually tonight, sir. Rather than in the dining room."
"Fine. Miss Merrill and I will take ours in the library then. Send Hunch up, will you?"

"Yes, sir." The maid's head disappeared and the door closed.

Mairelon leaned back against the settee's back with a sigh. "I suppose that interruption was just as well."

"Oh?" Kim queried.

"Yes." Mairelon smiled crookedly at her. "There are limits to the amount of so called vulgar behavior that even engaged couples are allowed, you know."

"Oh." This time the disappointment in Kim's voice was obvious.

Grinning at her Mairelon stood and kissed her brow. "Besides," he added, "I really should get that announcement sent off."