Page 50 of Dark Gambit: The Play

He nodded. "The Fates must have intervened."

"The Fates?" He'd said something about the Fates before, but she had thought that he’d meant to say fate.

"I meant fate. We were saved by fate."

She huffed. "You were saved by Sofia. You are just too stubborn and self-absorbed to admit that."

The door opening at the top of the stairs saved Marcel from having to respond, which was a blessing.

Getting him to forgive her by insulting him was probably not a good tactic.

Smelling food, Cecilia jumped out of Sofia's arms and rushed up the stairs.

"I need some help here," Eleanor said. "And get the cat before she trips me up."

They both rushed after the cat, with Sofia grabbing the tabby and Marcel relieving Eleanor of half of the packages she was carrying.

"What did you do?" he asked. "Rob the kitchen?"

"More or less. Emmett is teaching a class, so I decided to have lunch with you two."

As Sofia set the cat's food down, Cecilia attacked it with vigor she hadn't seemed capable of before.

Once Eleanor and Marcel were done setting up the table, the three of them sat down to eat, or rather her two companions did. Sofia was too upset to feel hunger.

"You can't just keep me locked up down here," she said. "You can compel me to keep everything a secret so I can go back and enjoy the retreat. There is another whole week of it. I would also love to spend time with Roxie. I miss her."

She could really use Roxie's cheerful company.

"That's an option." Eleanor eyed Marcel. "You should talk to the boss. About everything."

He frowned. "What do you mean?"

Eleanor waved with her fork. "If you pulled the stick out of your ass for a moment, you would know what I meant."

Sofia gaped at the woman in stunned silence, and so did Marcel. Did anyone ever talk to him like that?

He shook his head. "I don't know what I did to court such a remark, but I don't appreciate being spoken to like that."

Eleanor rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. You are so prim and proper, and I have the tact of a bull in a china shop. I just hate seeing you two tormenting yourselves needlessly. Sofia likes Marcel, and Marcel likes Sofia. Sofia is brave and admits her feelings, while Marcel is a chicken and refuses to pull said stick from that unmentionable place." She grinned. "There, I said it politely."

Sofia couldn't help the giggle rolling out of her mouth. "I think you've just become my favorite person." Well, perhaps her second favorite after Roxie, but Roxie wasn't there to call Marcel on his bullshit.

Eleanor laughed. "Sorry, doll, but I'm taken. You are a looker, though." She winked at Marcel. "Isn't Sofia beautiful? She's so graceful, so delicate, and such a fascinating contradiction of soft and hard, gentle and assertive. If I were a single male, I would be drooling all over her.”

Marcel's cheeks turned crimson. "Would you stop it already? What has gotten into you?"

Eleanor pretended to sniff the air. "I guess it's the pheromones you two are emitting."

37

MARCEL

What had gotten into Eleanor? Why was she suddenly siding with Sofia?

She wasn't the type to forgive and forget.

Was it the affinity at work?