Star's Crossing

Epilogue 6: In the Dark

Celebratory dinner was held at the Watts's, which reminded Mare of a night so very long ago. 

It was quite the ordeal, with neighbors and extended family present, children running around nipping at ankles and the elderly dozing in parlor chairs. Mare scarce had the opportunity to speak with Teddy, much less enjoy his presence.

Though she did, several times, catch him looking at her. Each time their eyes met, a shock of electricity zipped down her spine, and the contents of their war letters came spilling back into her like too much wine. Deep into an evening that would only go deeper, she excused herself to catch her breath.

But it wasn't solitude which met her in the rain-touched parlor—it was a familiar face.

"Camden," Mare said, with a sigh of relief. "Thank God you're here. You can take a pair or two of eyes off the happy couple."

"I can't quite tell if that's a compliment." Teddy's cousin kissed her on each cheek and held her at arm's length, grinning. His handsome face was only handsomer with age, refined to a point of near-cruelty. He'd fought with Teddy in the last two years of the war, and won a few scars. The most visible bisected his brow and ended at the height of his left cheekbone. It only served to make him more rakish than ever. "Forgive my tardiness. Work has been a riot, what with the Reconstruction and all it brings."

"Oh, please. You've heard me read a thousand times. What's one more?" She took his arm when he offered it, grateful when he detoured their course from the crowded parlor, dining room, and halls.

"I've missed this place," he said. "Lucky it survived the great fall all those years ago."

"As have you, it seems." Mare allowed him to lead her into the gardens, where they sought shelter from the October rain beneath an arbor veined with ivy. "I'd heard a rumor, you know. Of a lady called Serena."

Camden's smile sharpened. "A rumor of a rumor. Nothing to it."

"You've been a bachelor too long. Or is it meant to last forever? I admit, I'd admire you the strength of will." Mare watched as Camden shook a cigarette from a fancy box and lit it with a match, hand cupped carefully around the end. "Oh, don't tell me you've taken this dreaded habit up."

"Don't be a nag. Come on, try." He held it to her lips. Feeling daring, she took it and breathed in, as she'd seen her father do. She was seized instantly by a fit of coughing, which set Camden laughing. "Now you're a proper soldier."

"My head is light." Mare laughed, unsure if she disliked the feeling too much. "Now, enough deflecting. Miss Serena?"

"She's an artist."

Mare grinned. "To temper the absence of your soul?"

"Time will tell." He smiled. He looked, Mare thought, truly happy. The war had suited him better than Teddy, and it seemed to have struck in him a sense of vitality lost with the fortune of the family. He'd been hard at work in Philadelphia while Teddy had taken up a life of writing on the road. "And now the happy couple is engaged. When is the wedding to be?"

"Oh, soon, I hope." Mare sighed, clasping her hands as she gazed up at the dripping ivy. Her stomach tightened when she thought of marriage. Of all it would entail. It had become a familiar feeling. Want. Different than love or longing; something deeper, more desperate, more animal. "I do not know how long I can wait."

Camden's smile split wider. He appraised her with considering eyes. "Mare Atwood, if I didn't know any better, I'd accuse you of indecorous notions."

Mare bit her lip, heat searing her neck. She was grateful it wasn't Teddy beside her. There was no telling how well she'd be able to control herself in privacy, in rain. In the dark. 

"A good thing you do not know better, Mr. Doores." Something she'd said to him once before, over champagne and talk of wolves.

She reached for the cigarette and he obliged, and they stood smoking in the garden while the sound of laughter and music spun out into the night like gold thread.