Secrets of the Night

Chapter 21

Night had fallen again and Marcus was even more nervous this time. But a different kind of nervousness. Not the excited nervousness he had felt last night. This time it was more of a scared nervousness. What if she wouldn't show up tonight? Would he really return back there every night and wait for her?

Marcus hoped - prayed even - that she would show up tonight. And that there was a reasonable explanation as to why she hadn't been able to come last night. He knew that if she would show up tonight, that there would be a good explanation. That it would all make sense to him. But what if she didn't show up and left him with even more questions?

No, he had to keep a positive mind. There was no reason for her to not show up. She would be there. Marcus had to believe that with every last piece of his body.

As he was approaching their meeting point, he squinted his eyes, trying to make out a person in the darkness. He couldn't have been bothered to bring a lamp with him tonight as the sky was free of clouds and the moon would offer enough light for them.

And then he saw her. She was already awaiting him, standing in front of the brick wall and looking at him, a soft and unsure smile on her lips. She had her hair down this time, the cap in her hand, just in case.

Quickly he got off of his horse and tied it to one of the trees so it wouldn't wander off and was finally stood in front of Willow again. For a moment neither of them seemed to know what to say, for they had never met as casually, as planned as this time.

"I hoped you'd come back here again tonight." Willow finally spoke up in a small voice, her gaze focussed on the ground beneath them.

"Well if you thought you could get rid of me by not showing up last night you thought wrong." Marcus laughed. He was so relieved, so happy that she had been there, already waiting for him. It was like a heavy weight had been lifted off of his shoulders, the moment he had seen her standing there.

"I'm really sorry about last night." Willow apologized, still feeling really bad that she hadn't managed to come and see Marcus last night.

"I was absolutely planning on meeting you and I tried to but..." She trailed off, not quite knowing what she was supposed to tell him. Ugh, why didn't she think of a good excuse beforehand?

"A situation occurred that made it impossible for me to leave." The explanation was quite vague, Willow was well aware of that, but it was the best she could have come up with on such short notice.

"I'm not mad at you, Willow." Marcus reassured, sensing that she had been worried about him being mad at her. And probably she had been to some part frightened that the situation could end up like last time, when he had been angry. "Although I am quite curious to know what 'situation' kept you from leaving."

Damn it, Willow cursed in her head. She had hoped that the answer she had given would have satisfied him enough to change the topic to something else, but obviously it hadn't.

"Well... uhhh..." She was searching her head for something - anything, biting her lip in disarray.

"Phi- The Grand Duke caught me in his study when he returned from his trip yesterday. To be fair I had been told previously not to enter that room, but I went in there anyways. Which was a mistake, definitely, and I see that now. Either way he was not very amused to find me in there and he was furious, obviously. So he decided to lock me in my room for the rest of the day till then next morning to teach me a lesson."

As Willow wasn't able to come up with a lie that made enough sense to be believable on such short notice, she decided to just tell him the truth. It wasn't a usual punishment for servants to get locked into their rooms as far as Willow knew, but she didn't really care what Marcus thought about her brother's ways of punishment.