it off as nonchalant, but inside hope sprouted and grew with the rapidity of the forest when Sofós Voskós created Trilunium.
“Then I’ll have him come up.” He reached out and squeezed on of her hands.
That’s how, twenty minutes later, she found herself signing a marriage license that made her a princess of New Sargasso.
In name only.
There had been no “you may kiss the bride” moment in the short ceremony, such as it was. The vows were tepid at best. No richer or poorer or sickness and in health. Just a promise to honor, cherish, protect, and forsake all others. Not even “as long as you both shall live.”
And no rings. That was understandable given the rapidity with which it all happened and the need to keep everyone in the dark about it.
At least he’d promised not to cheat on her.
Minnie mentally berated herself. Even if he hadn’t explicitly promised, that wasn’t in Joss’s nature.
After it was all signed and sealed, the clerk left.
And Minnie was alone with her husband.
“We’ll sneak you onto the family car before it’s hooked up to the train in the morning. Your return ticket won’t be used. You won’t be seen leaving the hotel. You’ll have to stay on the car until we can get you off without anyone seeing then take you to the apartment.”
She nodded. “Makes sense.”
The thought of all that time to herself made Minnie nearly squeal with glee. And her father wouldn’t be walking in whenever he wanted.
She could log into the TriluniMunity whenever she wanted.
“Wait.” She turned to Joss. “There’s WiFi, right?”
He laughed. “Of course there is.”
“Good.”
Joss glanced at his watch. “I hate to do this, but I have a phone meeting in a few minutes. Make yourself comfortable. Order room service if you want. Or rather, have one of my team do it for you, so there’s no record of a woman’s voice being in my suite.” He started for one of the other rooms. “Did anyone see you coming up here?”
Minnie shook her head. “No. And I took the stairs. No one takes the stairs.”
“Hm.” He frowned and pulled out his phone to send a text. “I asked my security to make sure any footage of the hallway on this floor is secured.”
“What about my luggage?” Most of it wouldn’t matter, but some of it she wanted.
He sent another text. “It might take a couple of days to catch up to you, but it’ll be collected and brought to the apartment. Order anything you need online.” After digging through his shoulder bag, he handed her a tablet. “That has my username and password stored for several of the main sites. My assistant and I are the only ones who have access to the accounts connected to them, so my father’s people won’t see any unusual purchases. Use the fastest shipping to the default address. The passcodes are 110855 and 030556.”
“Thank you.”
He went into the other room for his phone call. She picked up the tablet and tapped in the release dates for two of the Trilunium books.
As much as she wanted to poke around a bit to see what he had on there, she didn’t. She opened a shopping app, found a brand of jeans she liked and put several pairs in the right size into the cart. Then she found some pajamas. Shirts. Other necessities.
She could live without makeup for a few days. She never wore it at home anyway. It didn’t sound like she’d be going anywhere for a while. After finding some yoga pants, matching tanks, and a few extra, oversized “boyfriend” flannels, she checked out. The fastest shipping would get most of it to the apartment in twenty-four hours.
Impressive.
Not long after she finished, one of the people who traveled with Joss asked her what she wanted for dinner. Minnie ordered light, not knowing how much Joss would eat.
She wanted to order her weight in chocolate, but decided that probably wasn’t the best plan. Maybe once she reached the apartment, she could order groceries in and include some then.
There were grocery delivery services, right?
Joss returned to the sitting area about the time dinner arrived.
He had a full steak and potatoes dinner. She had a small salad with grilled chicken.
“Is your phone turned off?” he asked as he cut into the steak.
Minnie nodded. “I turned it off before I left my room, but I also left it in there.”
“Good.”
“When does the train leave?”
“About ten tonight. We’ll be back in New Ancora before breakfast.”
“Sounds good.” She poked at