Billie and Leroy went home not long after Ian put Smitty to bed.  Bobbie and Simon, though, agreed to stay over for a few days in case Smitty had difficulty adjusting.  Edwards showed them to a room and assured them if there was anything they needed all they had to do was ring and bowed himself out.  Bobbie grinned and watched him go.  "This could get habit forming, being waited on like this."

"Hmmm. I'll have to get one for myself," Simon agreed.''

She leaned back against the bed and toed her shoes off.  "Betty says they're a lot of work."

Simon, as he loosened his tie, looked at her. "Really?"

"Edwards has very firm ideas on what is proper for an earl and what isn't," she said.

"Ah, well," he replied leaning down and smiling at her, "I've got no such problem. I'm just me. No proper title to embarrass."

"Thank goodness," she said.  "Now, who's taking my clothes off?  You or me?"

"Oh, I most humbly volunteer for the privilege," he replied sitting down beside her on the bed and running a hand up the sleek nylon on her nearest leg, up well under the skirt.

"Most humbly?" she said.  "Hard to imagine.  Still I like surprises.  She began methodically, slowly unbuttoning his buttons.

"You do like to torture me, don't you," he said, in between kissing the skin he was revealing as he pulled off her nylons.

"No honey.  What I like is that you like it so much."  She gave up on his buttons and pulled the shirt loose from his trousers and sliding her hands over his back with a sigh of pleasure.  "Must be my southern upbringing, you know."

He undid her skirt and she helped by lifting her hips enough so he could slide it off. He started on her blouse and his lips traveled up her neck to her chin then her lips.  She gave up totally on undressing him and zapped his clothes away, her hands sweeping over him, caressing every part of him she could reach, slowing only long enough to let him remove her blouse and bra.   After that it was a slow and loving kind of passion and they lingered over it and each other.

When it was over she was molded along his side, his arms around her, keeping her close.  Her eyes fluttered open again, looking at his body, gleaming in the half light of the darkened room, her hands still savoring him absently.  "I love your body," she said, pressing a kiss to his jaw.  I love touching you."

"That's a very good thing, since I love touching you and I love every inch of you, even that elbow right there," he rose partway up from his pillow and bent to kiss it.

"You make my poor elbow sound like it's defective some how," she said.  "And it isn't in the slightest."

"No indeed. It is quite a perfect elbow. He turned his attention to her neck. "As is your neck."

"Ah, well.  That's okay then," she said.  After a while she said, "Simon honey, you don't have any idea what might have happened to the tapestry do you?"

He'd been nibbling on her earlobe when she said it. He stopped and pulled away from her, enough so he could look at her face. "Ah," he said.

"Ah what?" she she asked.

"The onset of doubt," he replied quietly.

She wriggled a bit to get a better look at his face.  "I'll take that as a no, then, shall I?"

"Take it as you will."

"And you've no idea if those guys would have tried for it on their own," she asked.  "When you didn't come through?"

"If they did I didn't know about it," he replied, his voice tight.

She took a deep breath and laid a hand along his cheek, feeling the tension there.  "I don't have to doubt you to ask these questions," she said.

"Oh no? You don't think so? Because from my viewpoint it seems otherwise."

"Yes, I can see where it might, and I'm sorry for that," she replied.

He sighed. "This isn't going to work long term, is it?"

"I see no reason why it shouldn't if we both want it to," she said.  "And right now I'm trusting you and I need you to actually trust me rather than assume the worst."

He met her eyes and held them for a time. "I had nothing to do with taking anything other than Smitty's notebook from your vault. If they went after it again, it wasn't with me telling them anything."

"I don't think you had anything to do with it being missing," she replied, holding his eyes in her turn.

He nodded. "All right. I appreciate that."

"Does that mean you're going back to nibbling my earlobe?"

"Maybe later. The mood's kinda gone right now. In fact I think I'd like a drink, want one?"

"No, thank you," she said, sitting back against the headboard.  "I wish I knew more about magical things.  I mean could it have like removed itself if it wanted to do that?"

"I don't see why not. Maybe a spell to call it home. But then Elihu is dead and Dia doesn't have it."  He was pulling on his pants. "I'll be back in awhile. I'm going to get a drink."

"Okay." she said watching him leave.  She stared at the door for a few moments and then reached over and turned the lamp off, slid down in the bed and composed herself for sleep.  He was just going to have to get over it on his own.  There was nothing she could do to help.

It was several hours later before he found his way back to bed. He lay down beside her, relieved to see she was asleep.  She stirred in her sleep, turning towards him, then drifting deeper into sleep, her hand on his chest, and her curls tickling his chin.  He wrapped an arm around her and kissed the top of her head and finally fell asleep.