Marcello shook her head. "I didn't," she said. "I...I wasn't planning on it. I didn't know how things were going to go, whether I would stay. But then you told me...you told me to ask you whatever I wanted, and that's the thing I want most," she said quietly.

She kissed Marcello between the eyes. "You know that it doesn't matter to me if she disapproves all together, don't you? I'll still marry you."

Marcello looked up at her, adoringly, and gave her a tight hug, not letting go. "I love you," she said quietly. "I love you so much. She...she wouldn't have let me stay if she disapproved altogether," she said. "She would have tried to discourage me. She wouldn't have let me come back to you. That's why I don't understand."

"Then perhaps that's not the reason." She held Marcello close. "I hope so, anyway. I'm just . . . disappointed, mostly. I was so looking forward to telling her. I thought that if anyone would be unconditionally happy for me, it would be she."

"I know," said Marcello. "I...I wanted someone to be happy. I...that's part of what I wanted to come here for." She sighed. "i'm sorry," she said. "It's my fault. Meg told me...ages and ages ago...that I shouldn't ask you until after the season."

"Why? Because I won't be able to hear the voice of reason o'er the screaming need to have a baby right this minute?" She curled around Marcello and giggled softly as she settled down with a small squelch in the mud. "Perhaps. But that would be my fault for being foolish and none of your own."

Marcello kissed Niabheara's head. "If you didn't mean it," she said quietly. "If you didn't really want to marry me...I wouldn't want to do it. I...she was happy when she thought there was a baby. Isn't she a midwife? Shouldn't she know it's impossible to tell three days after the fact?"

She gave a sad sort of half-smile. "I should hope that was more wishful thinking on her part," she said. "I've had to tell myself twice already that there's no way of knowing three days after the fact. Or two. Or twenty minutes."

Marcello smiled slightly, and looked up at her, smoothing her hair. "Is that wishful thinking on your part?" she asked quietly. "I'm sorry about all this. I thought it was a good idea. It obviously wasn't. I just...I never expected Meg to be upset."

"Nor did I. I'm holding onto the fact that Meg's not a very good liar and she did say it was mostly surprise." She put her hand down to prop up, and immediately lost it to the mud. She began to chuckle. "Ah, gods, let this not end like Tir-Nan-Og with both of us rolling in the muck."