“I met Marcus’s brother,” Cecelia finally said. The gnome wasn’t going to go away. Not until she got some details. “He asked me to dance.”
“And what did Marcus think of this?”
“I think he positively hated it,” Cecelia said, finally feeling a buoyancy of spirit. “He hated every second of it. And he hated it even more when Allen asked me to take a drive with him in the park tomorrow.” It was terrible to be happy about making the man jealous. But she had made him jealous. Hadn’t she?
Milly waggled a finger at her. “Don’t cause problems between the two of them. You won’t like what will happen if you do.” She drew in a deep breath. “He obviously cares about his family.”
“What he feels for his family is obligation.”
“And you don’t like that, I suppose?”
“They are not his family. His family is in the land of the fae. His family was supposed to include me.” Her voice cracked on the last comment, and she forced herself to steel her spine. She flopped down on the bed. “What am I going to do, Milly?” she asked. “I’m stuck here all by myself until the next moonful.”
“It’s bette
r than being at home with your father, isn’t it?” Milly asked.
It was. It so was.
Milly reached over and pushed Cecelia’s hair back from her forehead. “You’re going to go for a ride in the park with a handsome man.”
“He is handsome, isn’t he?” she asked.
“Sinfully,” Milly affirmed. “He reminds me very much of Marcus.”
Cecelia growled. “You had to go and ruin it for me, didn’t you?” She threw a pillow at Milly’s head, and the gnome scampered across the bed and over to the window. She threw open the sash and waved at Cecelia. “Have a good time on your ride in the park,” she said. But then she stopped. She pulled a rolled-up piece of parchment from her décolletage. At the disgusted shake of Cecelia’s head, Milly shrugged and said, “I like to keep my hands free.”
“What is this?” Cecelia took the parchment and began to open it.
“A plan to thwart your revenge against Marcus, I believe,” Milly said. But then she sobered. “It’s a mission.”
“But… but…” Claire sputtered. “I’m on holiday.”
Milly shook her forefinger at Cecelia. “You’re in the land of the other world until the moonful. You’re not on holiday.”
Cecelia harrumphed. “What’s the mission?”
The gnome glared at her.
“I know you read it.” Claire tossed the parchment onto the bed. “Tell me what it says.” Milly couldn’t keep herself from reading the missives she carried back and forth.
“You’re to go on a mission tomorrow.” She shook a finger at Claire. “No rides in the park with the younger Thorne.”
“What kind of mission?”
“Do you remember last year when Claire threw some earl into one of her paintings?”
Cecelia vaguely remembered it. The man had been missing ever since. She nodded.
“It’s imperative that he be found. He’s a danger to everyone.”
“Who’s my mission partner? Claire?”
“Yes…” Milly said the word slowly.
Cecelia watched Milly closely, narrowing her eyes at the gnome in warning. “What do you know that I don’t?”
“Nothing,” Milly clipped out. She held her hands up as though in surrender. “Not a thing, I swear.” She probably had her toes crossed. Garden gnomes could do mad things with their toes.