"Kate!" Ali called. "Are you OK? We saw that you were in that fight in the brewery before the police escorted us all to safety. Apparently, you girls are private detectives or something…"
"We are. I am sorry, Ali, that we could not tell you, as I never knew who might overhear." Kate kissed him softly. "My affection for you is real, and our kisses really meant a lot to me. My last relationship did end badly, and I needed these precious hours as much as you did."
"These precious hours still have a few to run, Kate. Whilst Creepy Vines is a crime scene, we can collect our things from the cottage. We shall be staying in a hotel tonight and heading home tomorrow. As such, I am hoping that we can spend the rest of the afternoon and evening together."
"There is a party at Dawson's Vineyard tonight, Ali. I would be delighted to have you as my escort." They shared a long kiss. It is not True Love, Kate thought. All the same, I like these 'holiday romances.'
"Mr Robinson, may I enquire as to your intentions towards our daughter." The expression on Anne Pembroke's face reminded Dan of a wary watchdog. Catalina's stern countenance truly reflected that she was the daughter of Isabella of Castile, the great Warrior Queen. At least Mary's father is still a ghost!
"Ladies Pembroke, my great-grandfather Sherlock Holmes speaks of The Woman, the one lady who eclipsed all the rest of her sex for him. I have always hoped to find The Woman who would be that for me. After nearly sixty years of life, my hopes have been fulfilled.
"I love Mary, and she loves me. As such, I wish to ask you both for her hand in marriage. Unlike my great-grandfather, I shall not let The Woman slip through my fingers. If she is on this earth, nobody else will ever supplant her in my heart."
"Henry said something similar to both of us in turn," Catalina murmured. "You are not him! When you say those words, I believe that you really mean them."
"Henry meant them, until it no longer suited him to keep them," Anne grumbled. "I fully agree with your assessment of Mr Robinson, however, darling.
"You have our blessing to court Mary, Mr Robinson. Do not make us regret it…"
"I wonder what my mothers want with Dan," Mary mused.
Liz and Jeff chuckled from beside her. "They are giving him the Shovel Speech, I expect," the latter observed. "Hurt her and they will never find your body. It is an old tradition."
"Exactly," his wife agreed. "The suitors who really are keen will not be deterred. Dan has never really fallen for anybody before. He was waiting for The Woman! Those bloody Holmes genes!"
"Dan said something similar after our first kiss. I am forever more the only woman who exists to him, or something. All I can say is that I have wondered what a Fairy Tale True Love's Kiss was like, until I first kissed him, and I knew at once that I had experienced one."
"How romantic!" Liz sighed. "Jeff and I love Dan like an extra sibling, so we want him to know the love that we have. It seems that he has."
Mary saw Liz's normally warm eyes turn icy and a look of grim determination settle on Jeff's face. "Oh, and Mary," Liz continued in a firm tone, "hurt him and they will never find your body…" Mary gulped audibly, a look of terror coming across the face of a woman who had commanded a militia and had ordered almost three hundred Protestants burned at the stake. "I think that she got the message, Liz darling," Jeff noted wryly.
Gregory Dawson had organised a barn dance for the evening. This was in full swing. Velma was not surprised to see Mystery Inc's two least courageous members seemed more interested in the buffet tables.
"Jinkies!" she commented when dancing with Jigger. "It is a good thing that nobody is allowed to eat anything yet, as Shaggy and Scooby see the expression 'all you can eat' as a challenge!"
"They will never change, dearest!" her husband replied. "As Rex says of Luna, however, we would not want them any other way!"
"That is true, Jig darling."
"Auntie Anne! Auntie Lina!" Harriet Milligan called excitedly, running up to Anne and Catalina, Lorcan and Lysander Scamander following in her wake.
"My dear children!" Anne responded, kneeling to embrace Harriet.
Rex and Louise looked on, his arm around her shoulders. "After being beheaded before Bess' third birthday, it is good that Anne gets an opportunity to show off what a good mother she would have been. I also think that she really does wish that she had been a good stepmother to Mary. True, the two of them love each other dearly now, but Anne admits that she was a hardcore bitch back then. Henry VIII brought out the worst in her. Ironically, her former love rival gives her the stability that she needs to flourish."
"True Love does that, Rex. It makes both partners into the best that they can be. Marrying a sociopath is unlikely to improve either partner."
"Too true, Louise. Henry VIII was as gruesome a specimen of an odious oik as you could ever wish not to meet!"
Zelena smiled as Harry, Ginny and Wednesday walked up to her. "Hello, my pretties! How is Parvati's pregnancy going?"
"Very well, thank you, mon vieux." Parvati was a soulmate to the Potters, as was Daphne. With Ginny being also found to be a soulmate of Tracey's, the family was getting rather complicated, as James put it. Throw in Daphne's two-year-old daughter Dora and Millie, Pansy and Sirius, and, as Albus put it, there are two many bloody Potters! Whilst that earned him a dishwashing charm to the mouth from his father and a stinging charm to the ear from his biological mother, both privately conceded that he had a point.
"We have a scan for you to see," Harry added, pulling out his mobile. "After that, we must be getting back to The Alchemists Arms. Goodness only knows what mischief the kids are up to!"
None, Harry love, Parvati said through the adult Potters' mental link, also shared with Ron, Hermione and their mutual soulmate Padma. Lily is a sweetheart, Dora is asleep, and James, Al and Sirius are having an impromptu kickabout with a muggle football.
Thanks, Parv.
No problem, Pans. Sirius really is a credit to you and Millie. Your fathers may have been sods, but you overcame that. Three cheers for Themyscira!
"Fancy coming with us for a quick spin in the TARDIS, Bessie darling?" the Doctor asked as they danced to The Blaydon Races. "It would be great to spend a few days together. Yaz can stay with Ryan and Graham, should we need extra private time together."
"Can we tarry for a while, Doctor? The anniversary of Mama's execution is coming up shortly. I want to be with her on the day. My other Mama, Mary, Kate and the others fully intend to keep her mind off those dreadful events of 1536, and 1542, and 1552, and 1554… Only three of us died of natural causes, with only me of a great age. Even my sixty-nine is scant years by the standards of this strange new age…"
"Of course, Bessie. I shall park the TARDIS in your grounds. We can still spend some time together."
"Thank you, Doctor. I shall enjoy us spending some idle hours together."
James Bond drained his vodka martini. "It was good to see you all again. The old DB5 showed that she can still handle herself with aplomb too.
"Congratulations on a successful first mission, ladies. May it be the first of many."
"James' statement is seconded by those personages amongst our number currently in the immediate vicinity."
"Gleeps, Jupe! Use English from time to time please!"
"My husband said that we all second James' statement, Pete."
"Thanks, George."
"We shall be leaving early tomorrow," Ali told Kate as the Barn Dance was ending. "I do not know if I shall see you before I go. I guess that we should say our goodbyes and part as friends."
Kate produced a piece of paper from her handbag, wrote on it with her ballpoint pen and handed it to him. "That has my mobile number and email address on it, Ali. I would like to keep in touch. These last couple of days have been wonderful, despite being tied up by those wicked men. For that, I owe you one final kiss…" She proceeded to bid him a thoroughly non-verbal farewell. "Goodbye, Ali. I won't forget you."
"Nor will I you. Goodbye Kate."
She watched him and his friends depart for their hotel. Bess and Mary walked over to her and pulled her into a three-way embrace. "I shall be weeping tears both sad and happy tonight, sisters. One day I shall have what you both have, a True Love of my own. Until then, I shall be content with a few kisses with handsome and kind men."
"You will, Kate," Mary reassured her. "Were we not promised our hearts desire before our lives were restored to us?
"Sisters, I never felt as alive as when we were escaping from that barn or about to mount our horses to stop that wretch Crawley. I do not want to get hurt or killed, but I know that death is not the end. That said, for all the risks, I now more than ever have a reason for staying alive. I have a family that loves me and a soulmate of my own. If I can have my heart's desire, Kate, why should you not have yours also?"
Said sweetheart walked up to them. "Do you have any plans for the rest of the week, Dan?" Mary asked him.
"Other than walking Baskerville? Well, I do have to take you shopping – for a ring. Your mothers have agreed that I may seek your hand in marriage."
"You asked them…? As Bess would say, you have the heart and stomach of a king!"
"Actually, I have something better." He kissed her. "I have the heart of a queen!"
Author's Note: The usual thanks to my good friend and fellow author on this site, Model Builder. His encouragement and feedback were invaluable.
There should be further adventures of the Pembroke Girls and their friends coming before too long, as well as for The Secret Circle and for Wonder Witch and her Furies, plus more from Rex Milligan's decades' worth of battered exercise books. I hope that you, my readers, will be along for the journey.