No; the terrified Jay was not pleased. Not at all! Neither the rhythmic strumming of Nelly’s guitar 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 tall Trader Juliette, the underappreciated soldier-lover of her youthful imaginings, had a full life in which he was recklessly endangering her life as well as his own, and he could not be expected to hold any consideration for the pleasure of one brightest, remarkable girl. Intellectually, she knew this. And yet…
   Truly, it had been a most incendiary day when Countess Kerry had brought him to her attention.
   Only in this moment of extremity could it have happened that a sudden clatter of hooves shattered her composure into a million enchanted pieces! She shut her eyes tight for one moment of silent prayer. Surely it could not be — but it was! At the door, the incarnadine, inchoate and masculine face she had come to know so well! “Without you I am nothing,” he laughed as the blood rose in his face and ears while there was a much-appreciated break in the formerly-incessant shelling. “I need you, Sweet Cheeks!”
   At that moment as he excitedly began to show her his plans for the villa they were to share, she knew that life without him was unthinkable, if not unspeakably untamable. Wthout him, could she ever have woke up. Incredibly enough, it had all been a dream?