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It was Alice. She stood there, soaked to the skin, the rain dripping off her hair and nose and I, without thinking, wrapped her in my arms and folded her lips in mine.

Her mouth was sweet, all the sweeter for our seperation, and her tongue as tender and exploring as it had always been. Her hands cupped the sides of my face so firmly I thought my jaw would break- but what was a broken jaw next to a newly mended heart? I squeezed her so, so tightly; I had to make sure she was real. I smoothed the rain-slicked hair back from her face, stared into her soft brown eyes. Her eyelashes were clumped together by the rain, making her eyes look bigger and wider.

I grabbed her round the waist and spun her into the house, snatching her up into my arms and carrying her through to the kitchen. I wrapped her in my cloak whilst I built the fire up from the dwindling embers as she sat there, in her old stool, drumming her heels against its legs. That habit used to drive John Gregory mad but to me it had always been just another of her adorable little quirks.

"I'll run you a bath" I told her and I heard the brusqueness in my voice; Alice flinched and I inwardly rebuked myself. I'd let my anger towards John Gregory and my anxiety of what would happen to the two of us at his return ruin this beautiful reunion. "I'm sorry." I said gently, "I didn't mean to snap, I'm not cross." I added, kissing her head.

She looked up at me questioningly, I could see she was wondering whether or not she'd made the right decision returning to me.

"Please don't go" I whisper, "please, Alice, don't leave me- I can't take that again."

The anxiety behind her eyes melted away and she smiled broadly, her lips folding into one of her delicious pouts, ripe for kissing. As I leaned down to snatch said kiss, however, she dodged away and smirked "too hungry now, Tom. Maybe I'll feel more like amore with a little dinner inside me." Taking the hint, I moved to around the kitchen cupboards, looking to make a little light supper for the two of us whilst Alice disappeared into my master's summer study in order to take a bath.

I cut some ham and cheese as well as some crusty bread and took it through to the study. There, Alice lay in the big brass tub, filled to the brim from the pump and heated by the gas burners. She had lost none of her loveliness but the toll of the past few months were clear as she lay there, eyes closed, her head leant back against the bath rim. She looked pale and tired, there were dark shadows under her eyes and her face was much thinner. Her hair was swept back into a low knot but I could see that it was cut a little shorter; it framed her delicate little face better and made her look more sophisticated.

I moved to kneel beside her in the bath and stroke her face tenderly. She flinched, jolted out of her daydream and I smiled reassuringly at her; squeezing a sponge over her shoulders. She reclined back against the bath and let me bathe her. It was a fitting punishment; nothing could have hurt me more.

As she dozed in the bath I gently sluiced her shoulders and arms, feeling how little they had become; I also noted with some concern the traces of blood on her knuckles. One of her breasts, disturbingly, had a poppy bruise just where it connected with the chest wall and were slightly less full. Her little waist confirmed my suspicions of her weight loss and her bruised shins my suspicions of her rough treatment.

Without waking her, I liberated her hair of its knot and, resting her head in the crook of my arm, moved her gently so I could sluice her hair over the bath. Alice was usually a light sleeper but she didn't so much as stir whilst I washed her hair through with soapmilk and gently towelled it dry. I lifted her out of the bath and left her lying on the sofa, wrapped in bath linen to keep her warm and dry whilst I tipped away the bathwater. It had been left filthy and I wondered, uncomfortably, what living conditions Alice had been reduced to. I left her dress to soak in the washing tub before going back up to her room and preparing it for her occupation; making the bed and airing it out.

I hadn't been in the room since she left and no sooner had I crossed the threshold than I sunk onto the rug and began to cry. The room was clearly exactly as she'd left it; the bedcovers drawn back, and her dresses hung up in the wardrobe. Her books still stood on the shelf above her desk and her drawings were still pinned to the wall. It was like her loss hit me all over again; the realisation of how I'd failed her and her evident certainty of returning.

"Tom?"

I spun round, tears still streaking my face and saw Alice standing there in the doorway, wrapped in the flimsy bath linen.

"I'm sorry, Alice." I whispered, "I'm so sorry!" At this, I broke into sobs and Alice knelt down before me and just held me, letting me cry onto her shoulder.

"Shhh, no need to be sorry, Tom. I'm here now- I'm back! And Old Smeggory can't do nothing to separate us. He can't send me away again, we won't let him- we're prepared this time and together the two of us-"

"Don't." I choked. "I don't want to even think about that."

She held me even tighter and lifted my chin to kiss me tenderly. At that taste of her lips- the taste that had lingered on my lips since the very first one- I allowed my mouth to open and admit her exploring tongue. The bath linen dropped to the floor as I folded her in my arms once more and felt my heart become whole again. Alice kissed and licked my neck and chest, discarding my shirt, "I've missed the taste of you!" She threw my breeches to the floor, exploring the loins forbidden to her for so long, grasping my buttocks whilst I grasped her hips and lapped at her breasts and nipples. We were caught in frenzy of desperate, fervent desire that couldn't wait another minute. We were caught b the desire of young lovers finally reunited; like a soldier returning to his sweetheart after long years of warfare.

I dropped back onto her bed and pulled her down on top of me. As she fell into my waiting arms the ring around my neck pressed into her collarbone and she reached to rip it away from around my neck. Seeing it was a woman's ring she twisted it around her forefinger and looked at me questioningly, pouting seductively.

"One more thing, Alice; make me the luckiest, proudest man alive-"

"Oh, alright, don't nag, Tom!" She joked, cutting across me, "Of course I'll marry you, no need to beg!" She smirked.

I caught that arrogant smirk between my lips and rolled her beneath me. Straddling her and smirking down, it was my turn to be smug "it's you who'll be begging in a minute!"

"We are getting married though, ain't we?" She placed a finger against my lips, suddenly serious again.

"It doesn't seem like I have a choice!" I joked, reaching behind me to undo the chain and take the ring off if, sliding it onto the third finger of Alice's left hand. "Welcome to your new life as the future Mrs. Alice Ward!"