"You have?" Marcello asked. "Because of our families, do you mean?" She kissed her back. "I'm only playing out fantasies in my head," she admitted. "We can wait. Till Midwinter, when my family is here? If they come?"

She laughed again, as if that was one of her favourite things about Marcello. "That, and the sheer number of people who have been too kind to me o'er the winter not to invite them. But--" She shoved Marcello's knees apart and began to mouth her way down. "None of those people are here right now, are they?" With the unspoken, mildly sinister insinuation to Marcello that there was no one to save her.

Marcello only giggled again at the sinister-ness. "I would hope not," she answered, her legs sliding apart obligingly. "As you said, that would be a bit...ah. Awkward. I...No one said we had to wait for all of them to come. We could always do it...ah. Over again. For a crowd."