And what was she doing here?
"Good afternoon, Lucas." Jocelyn said warmly.
"Oh, I beg your pardon. Good afternoon, Lady Dashwood." Luke replied politely. He then turned to Henry. "I didn't know you were all good friends with Meghan." Luke smiled, but seemed indeed quite confused.
Meghan's hand went behind her neck.
"Hi, Luke."
Luke turned back to her, and his smile grew bigger.
"Yes, hello! What a nice surprise this is."
Meghan stood up as he approached her, and was surprised to feel him peck her on the cheek without holding back, as his hands grasped hers in a lovely greeting.
Jocelyn pressed her palms to her chest, silently swooning as her lips curled into a smile. Henry, meanwhile, just stood for a bit, feeling awkward as usual. Then, he spoke.
"Right then. I really must be getting back to work..."
Luke broke his gaze with Meghan at this, remembering his original business.
"Hold it - I have something for you." He handed some sort of document to the frazzled Englishman. "From Dad. He'd like to meet you for lunch."
Henry nodded vaguely at this as he tucked the letter into his jacket.
"Yes, yes, tell him I'll look into my schedule." he said, sounding a bit hurried. "If you'll excuse me, however, I must get back to my office. It was very lovely meeting you, Meghan."
Meghan looked at him. So much for her chance.
Before walking out, Henry did make one other comment that he deemed necessary.
"Er...you're welcome here anytime. Just so you know that."
"Thanks." she said contentedly. "I'll see you."
He smiled, then flew off in a mad dash for his writing desk.
With that, Meghan and Luke turned back to each other.
"Well, isn't this lucky! I've just finished helping my sister. Funny story, really. Everyone became so fed up with the planning, what with all of the other Christmas parties that will be interfering and such, she decided to cancel the Christmas ball - and have a New Year's ball instead! We won't have to plan for another month! Would do you think of that?"
Meghan, who was still why fact planning for a ball had to be made two months in advance, simply grinned at him.
"That's awesome."
"Yes, I thought so. And now, considering the rest of my day is clear, what say you and I do some "chilling" together?"
Meghan chuckled.
"Okay. As long as you don't ever use the term "chilling" for references to anything other than freezing food ever again."
"Yes, I was feeling a bit odd about it. Alright then. Shall we be off?"
The three all moved into the sitting room. Meghan picked up her coat.
"Have you got a mac?" Luke asked her, a bit slyly. "It's started raining again."
"No, sorry, I don't." Meghan said, equally sly. "Didn't bring any raincoats with me. But this will do."She held up her coat.
Luke shook his head - he still hadn't stumped his American friend. He started to make his way to the door, and Meghan started to follow - before she remembered that she couldn't leave yet.
"Luke." she said. "Please, can you wait a minute? I still have to do something."
The boy was confused, but obliged to Meghan wish. He went to stand by the door, and saluted to her.
Meghan giggled a bit, then walked back into the sitting room, where Jocelyn was still standing.
"Thought you might be back." the woman said with a smile.
"I still haven't told you...about my friend, Faye. She's being expelled."
"Oh?" Jocelyn mused. "Why is that?"
"She admitted to trying to dump punch on...well, Clarissa. But she won't admit to the real truth - that she didn't have anything to do with it. And now she's gonna lose her scholarship, and be kicked out, and she'll never get into Oxford - "
"Consider your problem solved." Jocelyn said simply.
Meghan smiled, grateful.
"Thank you. Thank you, so much."
"It's no trouble. Whatever you need, Meghan, don't hesitate to ask."
Don't hesitate to ask...
Meghan looked down.
"Then can I ask you something else?" she asked.
"And what would that be?"
She closed her eyes.
"Can I ask you to understand that my friend, Daphne...she's also my cousin."
"How very lovely. She's as beautiful as you are, I'm sure."
Meghan looked up, into those eyes yet again. It was more than obvious, what she should do next.
"I have a picture of her. I can show it to you, if you want."
"Oh yes, dear. I'd love to see it."
And Meghan reached into her coat, ready to throw it all down on the table, ready to show this woman the truth, ready to give Daphne what she'd always wanted.
She handed Jocelyn one thing: the school picture.
And she had fully planned on handing her the rest, maybe a minute later, at the most.
She would've done it, really - if they hadn't at that very moment heard an ear-shattering shriek.
"WHAT IN BLOODY --- ARE YOU DOING HERE?!"
Meghan looked at her challenger, standing in a pink fluffy robe with a green facial mask (finally resembling her true self), and then looked back at Jocelyn, pained.
"I'll be back. I promise." Meghan told her.
And with that, Jocelyn was left standing there, holding that picture. Meghan had bolted from the room and out the door with Luke. But somehow, the picture seemed to make Jocelyn very, very happy.
The Green Hollering Witch, however, was not happy. That is, not until she found a shiny, smooth silver object on the ground near the door. A shiny little object with the name Meghan Reynolds in a scrawling engraving on the back.
Oh, how very amusing.
"How did you know what a mac was?"
Meghan looked up from her delicious sandwich, made with quality by expert chefs at none other then The Crystal Spoon, which was today's destination for the "Wild Couple", as they'd been branded in many magazines. She had insisted that it would be a wonderful choice, and Luke had soon agreed, after trying the steak.
"What?" she said.
"How did you know what a mac was?" Luke repeated. "I thought you were an American."
"I am." she told him. "But that song, Penny Lane - like the horse, remember? It has a line that goes, And the banker doesn't wear a mac, in the pouring rain..."
"Very strange."
"Very strange." Meghan sang, laughing. "Exactly."
"Is that my good friend Luke, talking about Beatles songs?" came a voice. "And what's this, Miss Meghan as well?
They looked up to see a familiar surfer-guy busboy waltzing over to them.
"Ian?" Luke questioned, surprised. "I didn't know you worked here."
"Well, of course you wouldn't know." Ian said, with a smirk. "Snobs like you wouldn't be caught dead in a place like this."
Luke mirrored this smirk, with a bit of disgruntled sarcasm.
"Aren't you something?"
"I certainly am." Ian laughed. "And how are you, Meghan?"
"I'm...good. Nice to see you."
"Luke here is very lucky to have you." Ian announced. "Isn't that right?"
"Very true." Luke conceded. "Shouldn't you be cleaning tables, or something."
Ian started to answer, but suddenly froze, staring wide-eyed out the window next to which Meghan and Luke had been dining. The two of them turned to see what he was staring at...and came face-to-face with about ten different cameras.
Meghan screamed as they all started flashing like crazy, and caught a flash from across the room - yet another photographer was there, drinking coffee. She looked at Luke.
"Let's go." he said firmly. He grabbed Meghan by the arm and pulled her out of the booth. They made a beeline for the door.
"Wait!" Luke cried. "Meghan, I wanted to ask you - do you have a sister?"
"No." she replied in a haste. "But I do have a cousin." she said with a smile.
She just barely was able to catch Ian smiling back before she and Luke pushed out the door and onto the London streets.
They were somewhere in town. They didn't quite know where they were. They just knew that they were out of breath, and needed to stop.
Meghan and Luke were both laughing hysterically, despite their troubles. The former was bent over as she stood gasping for breath, holding her arms against her stomach.
"Well, that was something of a rush, yeah?" Luke quipped through his laughter.
"That's an understatement." Meghan replied, still hugging herself as she stood up straight.
"I'm so sorry, Meghan." the boy told her. "I'm sorry that you have to go through this."
"It's alright." she told him. "Actually, to tell you the truth, cameras are the least of my worries."
Luke put his arm around her, drawing her in.
"No worries." he told her. "You let me take care of the worries."
"I don't...I don't know if you can." Meghan breathed as she put her arms around him and they came together in embrace.
As if on cue, Meghan suddenly felt something drop out of her coat and onto the ground. She immediately backed away, to see the remaining contents of the envelope all spilled out in front of her.
And in front of Luke.
Who stooped to pick up a document printed in the state of New York.
Who read said document.
Who looked at Meghan in confusion after reading that document.
"Meghan." he said. "Is this the worry you're talking about?"
She looked at him as if someone had suddenly haled off and punched her in the stomach. Just like that. And all she could do was nod as tears began to roll down her face.
Luke picked up the remaining three objects. Within seconds, he'd pieced everything together. Meghan turned away, and started to cry.
And then she felt herself being pulled into another embrace. She sobbed into a shoulder she had been sure she'd lost.
"Meghan. Please. Don't cry." Luke said, as soothingly as he could muster in his shocked state. "I'm sorry."
"No." came her muffled cry. "I'm the one who should be sorry..."
Meghan instinctfully grabbed for her silver locket. The locket she always trusted to be hanging there, faithfully latched at the back of her neck.
Tonight, however, it had betrayed that trust.
"My locket!" she yelped, pulling away and frantically touching her neck and feeling inside her pockets. "It...it fell off...it's gone!"
Seeing this, Luke thought for a moment, then reached into his own pocket. He pulled out a small black box.
"I'll help you look for it." he told her. "But in the meantime, why don't you wear this instead?"
He opened the box, and through her tear-stricken eyes, Meghan recognized the glittering butterfly necklace she'd seen before. She looked back up at him in awe.
"Not as a replacement, or anything." he continued. "But I've been carrying this around for some time, and now seemed like a good time...to you know, give it to you."
He took out the necklace and stepped behind her. And for once, Meghan made no protest as he hung the glittering jewels around her neck.
And then she turned to face him. And their eyes met. And she felt closer to him than ever before.
He knew everything now. He knew her inside and out. And it felt wonderful.
Hope that was a surprising er, twist. He.
Will be back soon
-rf-