“Gone where?” Marcus asked, throwing his napkin down.
“We don’t know,” Ainsley replied. “Milly and Ronald are in with your parents.”
“Where?” He jumped to his feet.
“In the morning room,” Allen said. He looked down at Ainsley and shook his head. “Don’t say any more. You’ll worry him needlessly.”
Ainsley just nodded.
Marcus strode toward the morning room. Cecelia was probably there with the gnomes and his parents. She had to be.
He stepped into the room to find his father pacing from one end of the room to the other. “Someone had better tell me what’s wrong.” Marcus snapped. “And it had better be soon. Where is Cecelia?”
Ronald sat in the big, purple high-backed chair and swung his feet, eating a scone. “Millicent is the only one who knows where she is, and she’s not telling.” The gnome began to grumble. “Makes me want to toss her over my knee.”
“I’d like to see you try,” Milly spit out.
“Would you two stop it?” his father said with a heavy sigh. “This is getting us nowhere.” He turned to face Marcus. “It appears as though Cecelia has returned home.”
Marcus’s knees buckled beneath him and he sunk into a chair. “What?” he breathed. After the night before, she wouldn’t have left. And she wouldn’t have gone without saying good-bye and telling him when she would return. Would she?
“She received a summons late last night,” Milly said. Ronald was the only one who called her Millicent. Marcus still didn’t understand that.
“A summons home?” Marcus asked.
“A summons to the sit on the throne as the Queen of England,” Ronald said caustically. Then he rolled his eyes. “Of course, it was a summons home.”
“Ronald,” Marcus’s father warned.
The gnome settled down. But then he faced Milly. “I asked you not to do this.”
“It couldn’t be avoided,” Milly said, her gaze downcast.
“She left,” Marcus breathed.
“Yes,” his father confirmed.
“But she’ll be back,” Marcus said. Of course she would be back. She wouldn’t leave him. Not after last night.
“I sincerely doubt it,” Milly said.
She’d left him. She’d really done it. She’d sat in his lap and kissed him, and they’d talked long into the night. And then she’d gone straight to her room.
“Did she leave this morning?” Marcus asked.
“Last night,” Milly said. “Late.”
After their talk. After they’d spent so much time wrapped in one another’s arms. “She’s gone,” he said aloud.
“Marcus,” his mother began, her voice soft. “I’m so sorry.”
“So am I.” Marcus got to his feet, although he worried his knees would betray him.
He was sorry he’d ever kissed her. Because now their last kiss together would be the kiss he’d never forget. He’d relive every moment with her in his arms for the rest of his life. But she was gone. This time, she was the one who’d left. Was she still angry over what had happened before? It was the only way to explain her sudden disappearance.
She’d wanted to leave him. To make him feel as wretched as he’d made her feel. Only she’d done so with a purpose? That couldn’t be the case. She wouldn’t be so cruel. Would she? He quit the room. His mother and father followed him down the corridor until he turned the corner. He needed some time to think.
***