He had passed through the chummy stage, the brotherly stage, even the cousinly stage, and he had now reached a point where all feeling of relationship ceases, and where the desire for relationship begins. The little sprite was going home. The rolling waves would resound no longer to the music of her voice.

"Kitty–don't let it be good-bye. Don't say it's all over. I love you, Kitty. You're not only a summer girl, are you?"

"But, Harry, you only asked me to be a summer girl."

"I know, dear, but now I ask you to be something else."

The sprite laughed and shook her head.

"Too, late, old fellow," she murmured–"too late! Jack Hilton asked me to be his all-the-year-round girl, and I have consented. You've had what you asked for, Harry."

~New Castle [PA] Herald 27 July 1909: p. 7, conclusion

XXX

I'm dedicating every day to you
Domestic life was never quite my style
When you smile, you knock me out, I fall apart
And I thought I was so smart
~Aaron Burr in Dear Theodosia, from the musical Hamilton

XXX

Summer 1914

What a beautiful afternoon, Harold Hill happily thought to himself as he surveyed his newest hunting grounds.

The most gorgeous woman he had ever seen stood directly in his line of sight, wearing a winsome pale blue gown edged with white lace and navy blue ribbon. A matching girdle surrounded her slim waist and was tied in a charming bow at the front. As a further mark of her impeccable fashion sense, she had paired this becoming ensemble with the smartest little white lace-up boots that accentuated her trim ankles.

At first, the music professor was content to sit on his bench and merely watch this lovely sight, as he had just polished off a filling home-cooked dinner and was greatly enjoying the warm breezes coming off the large lake in the nearby vicinity. But when the lady tilted her sweet face upward and inhaled the perfumed summer wind with a look of pure pleasure, he had to intervene.

Standing up and approaching the shoreline, Harold drew upon his other favorite ruse for making the acquaintance of a beautiful woman: "Pardon me, miss – do you have the time?"

Marian turned toward him with a saucy smile – she knew his little game, and enjoyed playing it just as much as he did. Arching an eyebrow at him, she retorted, "Did you forget your watch again, Mister Hill?"

He caught her hands in his just before they could teasingly swat him. "Yes – and I did so on purpose, Missus Hill."

Her eyes sparkled mischievously. "Just so you could accost me?"

He gave her a look of mock-admonishment as he lifted her hands to his lips. "Well… I prefer to think of it as flirting."

"Mmm," she dreamily agreed as his mouth lingered over her fingers. If they had been in an out-of-the-way alcove, he would have pulled her to him for a kiss that left both of them breathless. But as they were in public – though no one was standing too close by – he only chanced a few gentle nibbles before lowering her hands to a more respectable position.

"I'd like to take a stroll with you around the lake right now, Madam Librarian," he said in a low voice. "Alone."

Marian looked positively giddy at the invitation, but cast a concerned glance at the blanket Mrs. Paroo was sitting on and responsibly demurred, "Are you sure Mama will be all right managing the twins all by herself out here? Winthrop is busy playing with the other boys, so he won't be of much assistance."

Harold nodded confidently. Though their daughters weren't yet walking, they had become swiftly and sometimes terrifyingly mobile on their hands and knees, so the music professor used his ingenuity to fashion a portable travel pen out of tent poles and canvas that could be easily assembled and disassembled as needed. The mechanically-minded Tommy Djilas had made a few canny refinements to this design, and it ended up working beautifully for its intended purpose – try as they might, the twins couldn't figure out how to escape their corral. When River City's mothers witnessed this toddler pen in action, they immediately clamored for the manufacture of these contraptions, so the music professor and his assistant were currently in the process of getting their design patented and produced.

Although she was not fully in earshot, Mrs. Paroo laughed as if she knew exactly what they were talking about. "Go on and enjoy yourselves, me dears! The babies are all tuckered out and they'll be down for at least the next hour or two. Just make sure you're back in time for the fireworks display – Mayor Shinn says it'll be our finest Fourth of July spectacle yet!"

They didn't need to be told twice. After giving an appreciative nod and smile to her mother, the librarian laced her arm through the music professor's and they immediately set off in search of a bit more privacy. Given that it was late afternoon just before dusk – Harold never did get the time from his wife – he estimated they had at least two or even three hours in which they could canoodle to their hearts' content.

While they had been released from their parental responsibilities for the time being and could fully revel in being a man and woman in love, Harold couldn't help thinking both fondly and worriedly about their adorable girls, even as he spirited Marian away to one of the many little alcoves that lined the lake. He was a devoted father now, and shared his wife's concerns about the security of their precocious daughters. It was simply amazing, the things they got up to when he and their mother turned their backs for just a few moments! Just last week, he'd caught Penny trying to eat an enormous brown spider – and if it hadn't been on the other side of the window pane, she would have succeeded in doing so, as her little rosebud mouth was pressed vigorously against the glass and grunting in frustration at the inexorable barrier that prevented her from accessing this tasty treat. Alarmed, Harold had swooped over and scooped her up in his arms, while Marian had simply laughed and reassured him that it was perfectly normal behavior, as she witnessed Winthrop attempting similar antics when he was that age.

Thankfully, Mrs. Paroo, for all her indulgence as a doting grandmother, was more than capable of looking after rambunctious children like Penny and Elly and seeing that no harm came to them. So Harold relaxed and turned his thoughts to the heated interlude he'd been looking forward to sharing with Marian all day long.

In the two years since the music professor and librarian first met, they'd stolen so many delightful moments together at concerts, parades, town assemblies, the annual summer picnic in Mr. Madison's rose gardens – and Harold was once again slated to take Marian to the Fireman's Ball in September. She was going to wear a different gown this year, but in the same deep vivid reddish-pink color he since learned was called cerise. To his mind, this brilliant hue was the perfect compromise between red and pink, and so had become his favorite shade to see her in. Today, she wore pale blue and looked no less beautiful in it, though she did wistfully remark that her gown was a little out of date when he complimented her on its loveliness that morning. His response to that nonsense was to take her in his arms and wordlessly reassure her of the enduring intensity of his desire for her no matter what she was wearing.

Once they reached a more remote area of the lake and their pace slowed to something a bit more meandering – the sense of heady anticipation was still one of his favorite parts of trysting with his wife – Harold suddenly became conscious that Marian was softly humming In the Gloaming as they wended their way among the increasingly narrow paths through the foliage. While this wasn't too surprising – a recorded version of the song by John Lovering had just come out this year, which resurrected it as a smash hit – it wasn't quite the tone he wished to set for their romantic rendezvous.

Bringing the librarian to a halt, he turned to face her. They hadn't made it to an alcove yet, but they were alone enough that he could engage in a bit more intimacy without the intrusion of prying eyes. "I hope you know that I'll never abandon you or our girls like that, my dear little librarian."

"Of course I know that," she said tenderly. "I suppose I could've chosen a better song for our stroll. But I've always been fond of In the Gloaming since my silly schoolgirl crush on the music teacher who sang it to our class – and I've loved it even more ever since you hummed it to me the night you thought we couldn't be together."

"Oh, yes," Harold said, brightening as the memory came rushing back to him. Once a path had been cleared for him to stay in River City, the intensity of that particular embrace was very pleasant to recall. Deciding to hell with the alcove, he pulled his wife into his arms right then and there, and was delighted when she just as enthusiastically nestled into his embrace. It had cost him so much to be with Marian – a public reckoning, a new business, a mortgage, a marriage – and she was well worth the price. The librarian was his all-the-year-round girl now, and her sweet surrender to him more than made up for her initial (and admittedly well-deserved) rejections of his romantic pursuit. More than that, he had learned the joy of wholly surrendering himself body, heart, and soul to her in return, as he had never, ever dared to surrender to any woman before.

After a long and languorous kiss that did indeed leave them both breathless, Harold buried his face in Marian's now-disheveled curls and said as intimately as if they were engaging in pillow talk in the sanctity of their own bedroom, "I love you, Marian. I love you with everything I have and everything I am. I can't believe what an arrogant ass I was, thinking that I'd only want you for one summer alone! I tell you, if any fella tries to make our daughters into summer girls, I'll put him in a ditch so deep that his body will never be found."

Marian laughed softly. "I don't think that will be necessary, darling. Our girls will be able to fend off such fickle men handily, because we'll teach them how to do so – just as my Papa taught me."

"We certainly will," Harold heartily agreed, before his mouth found hers again.

Though his words were fierce, his kiss was soft and sweet and gentle. It was Marian who deepened it into something far more clinging, Marian who pressed ravenously against him for more as they embraced beneath the long shadows of the pine tree they stood under. The unyielding façade she maintained in public all but collapsed as she kissed him wildly, and he clung to her just as eagerly and desperately as she did him, until they were both trembling and gasping and pulling each other into the nearest alcove. While they hadn't been planning to make love in earnest, they enjoyed each other as fully and erotically as they possibly could without removing any clothing – which meant that he came in her hand when she unfastened his trousers and worked him over, and that the scent of her lingered on his fingers after he returned the favor by finding his way beneath the split-seam of her drawers for a long and delectable interval.

Fortunately, their habit of carrying several handkerchiefs allowed husband and wife to conduct the proper post-canoodling ablutions. It also greatly helped matters that there was a rivulet nearby for washing up in, and they had taken care to wear fabrics that did not wrinkle or stain too easily. So by the time the music professor and librarian returned to their family to watch the fireworks display, the only evidence of such outdoor shenanigans was their twinkling eyes, rosy cheeks, and bright smiles, which they wore so often in each other's company that not even Mrs. Paroo was the wiser as to what exactly had occurred during their stroll together. While Harold was a man who was deeply and passionately in love and didn't care who knew it, he would have submitted to tar and feathering before he besmirched his wife's dignity. So his loaded but gentlemanly silences were yet another little delicious game he liked to play in order to keep everyone else guessing, which ensured that he and his lady could have their fun together and that her scrupulous and upright reputation would remain intact.

As Harold exchanged several fond and heated glances with Marian during the show, he reflected that summer really was the sweetest season for romance, and he avidly looked forward to not just the rest of this summer, but all the wonderful summers, autumns, winters, and springs they would continue to share together in the years to come.