No; the terrified Marcus was not pleased. Not at all! Neither the rank odour of decay nor the study, by the fiercely-staring portrait she so loathed impressed her, and it was all because he wasn’t there. Intellectually, she realized that dashing Lex Baker, the inexplicable, burning loving suitor she had turned so thoughtlessly away, had a full life in which he was seeking a new life as a Foreign Legionnaire, and he could not be expected to hold any consideration for the pleasure of one arcane girl. Intellectually, she knew this. And yet…
   Truly, it had been a most tenebrous day when the gypsy woman had brought him to her attention.
   Then, without any warning, a confused chorus of greetings from the courtyard shattered her composure into a million unconquerable, illicit pieces! She realized, in a single instant, what was now to happen. Surely it could not be — but it was! At the door, the foreign and masculine face she had come to know so well! “Come to me,” he intoned in the outwardly-rough manner she had grown to love while the music in her heart rose to a new crescendo of happiness. “I need you, my unknowable partner-in-crime!”
   Suddenly, as the band began to play, she knew that life without him was unthinkable, if not untamable. Wthout him, could she ever have started to think about what they would call their children?