Eventually, Lucette goes quiet for a bit...

"Annie, I have a really bad plan that will probably fail and make things even worse, but. Maybe it won't.."

"What is it?"

"We try to get married and if it works we run away somewhere, probably the colonies in America since it won't be that weird for someone English to show up there, and I pretend to be a man so no one tries to arrest us for being married."

"...that sounds great, let's do that, how do we get married given that I have no demon and yours ran away last time I was awake near it."

"I'll need to put my haunting off until my demon is strong enough to manifest even with you around, which means it will need to be stronger than it was the first night, and then we'll just have to hope that you not having a demon doesn't matter."

"... and if it fails I'll need to do the whole thing again but with Edward instead of you. And pretend the first time didn't happen."

"How tight a timetable are we on?"

"I should start delaying haunting now and in a couple of weeks we can probably try."

"And you won't be - pushed along, on his end - before then?"

"Marriage is typically delayed until your demons are ready to haunt the both of you, but I'll have to prepare for the wedding in the meantime."

Shudder.

"I really hope this plan works."

Fervent nodding. "We'll need - clothes, and spending money, and - I can go around in a veil so nobody recognizes me, it's not like it'll make it hard for me to navigate. And names."

"I can't think of anything besides Lucien, which really won't work at all to distance myself from my current identity."

"Uh... most of the names I know are Noregrsk names which won't match your accent at all..."

"I can pick something out of a book? Or ask my parents to pick something."

"...you're going to tell them? I thought this plan wouldn't involve telling anyone."

"I trust them and really don't want to leave without telling them... also we'll need my mom's help with delaying my haunting."

"We will? I was imagining just sitting up while you slept till it would show up for me."

"It's traditional to have two people keep watch over a bride, because otherwise one might drift off and because you can have a situation where the demon is able to manifest in front of the single watcher for a bit, but not for the full night, and so you have two watchers to ensure that the demon can get strong enough to manifest for the entire wedding night, as is required for marriage...."

"...I'm not entirely certain how much of this is just tradition."

"Will you be able to tell for sure when we are married enough?"

"I think I'll need to wait for the demon to do a full haunting?"

"Okay. If you're sure it's safe to tell your parents and they won't - interfere."

"I'm sure."

"Where are they?"

"Shrewsbury, it's a few hours by carriage. I used to live with them, but I've been preparing to enter into society, and unfortunately, living with them is not... conducive to that. Also, it's typical to have a woman to help manage any given household and I was planning to do that for my grandfather... though I've been distracted from that by recent events."