Leo glances at the parlor door, then kisses him on the lips. "I will."

"I love you." Another kiss, quick and chaste. "I love you, Leo, I'm still your Lindsay," and they're so close and he wants to be closer still. 

"You're always going to be my Lindsay and nothing is ever going to change that."

They can keep kissing, as long as they're careful.

"No. No, nothing ever is." 

They can sit down and then they can be even closer; Lindsay shouldn't move into Leo's lap, but they can curl up together like cats and be dismissed as old friends. 

Leo wraps an arm around his shoulder and plays with his hair. If anyone comes in, he can make it look like he was accidentally touching it.

"What's he like? The stuff you can't put in letters."

"He's beautiful. Beautiful face, beautiful voice, beautiful hands, beautiful mouth. Good at kissing, good at tying me up, good at teasing. And I've known him for two days and — how did he put it — have exchanged more moans than words with him." 

"I guess it's better than getting married to someone who isn't beautiful and isn't good at sex. And him wanting to marry you at all is a good sign."

"From what I can tell, he seems sweet, although I can't tell much. I didn't have to ask him to hold me, after." 

"It's not a lot to judge a husband on."

"It's not," he agrees. "But — when he first came here he said he wouldn't have done it if he'd known I wasn't already ruined, and when I apologized for not stopping him he said I had to marry a man I barely knew and I didn't need to apologize, and that I didn't need to thank him so much. 

I don't know very much but — outside of the rumors, of course, nothing I know is bad." 

"Are you just trying to stop me from wearing a hole in the floorboards worrying about you?"

"Don't be silly, Leo, I already know nothing I say will stop you from wearing a hole in the floorboards worrying." A gentle, careful kiss. 

"We can rule out most of the most scandalous rumors, because he's marrying you, so he can't have seduced any other virgins, or he would already be married. And some of the other scandalous rumors aren't so bad."

"I doubt I disagree with you, but which ones do you mean?" 

"There's a rumor he's a molly."

"That'd be lovely." He's only a little wistful. "It is the kind of thing they say about a rake in the Navy whether it's true or not, though." 

"Wonder if he'd be a molly like you or a molly like me or a molly like Gabriel."

"Not like Gabriel, he clearly liked me well enough and it isn't as if I showed him." 

Leo's hand starts playing with Lindsay's scarf. "Why are you wearing this?"

Lindsay takes it off. 

The bruises are starting to heal. None of them have vanished yet, though. 

Leo is blushing.

"You are so beautiful."

He brushes a lock of hair away from Leo's face, lets his fingers brush the shell of Leo's ear maybe a touch more than necessary. "You're beautiful." 

"I'm not the one with bruises."

Is it risky to press his fingers into Lindsay's shoulders? Yes. Does he do it anyway? Also yes.

He hisses and —

— takes Leo's hands and moves them away from his shoulders. "Not here."