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“You want a what ?” Maria asked.
“A locket,” said Robin.
They were in the piano room. Maria was meant to be practicing but since Robin had materialized, she was certainly doing nothing of the sort.
“ You want a locket?” Maria stifled a giggle.
But her amusement, amusement that was aimed at Robin, didn’t escape his notice.
And Robin de Noir did not like to be laughed at.
“What?” He rose abruptly from where he was sitting next to her on the piano bench. “Why are you laughing?”
“I’m not laughing.” Maria insisted, but she was having a hard time pulling the corners of her mouth down.
He glowered at her. “This is supposed to be serious. I am asking for a locket of your hair, after all.”
Maria’s face went slack with surprise.
Robin glanced around to make sure no one was listening. Loveday would never let him hear the end of it, that Miss Heliotrope would probably have a conniption, and he wouldn’t put it past Digweed to start crying. And Sir Benjamin…well, he didn't want to think what Sir Benjamin might do.
“That’s what lovers do, isn’t it?” He spoke again in a hushed voice, wishing there was more cushion in the room to muffle the sound. “Give each other lockets of hair?”
Maria stared at him, her brown eyes wide and jaw slack. It was a facial expression she knew Miss Heliotrope would reprimand as terribly unladylike and uncouth to boot, but Maria didn’t care.
She and Robin had flirted for years, but it wasn’t until her eighteenth birthday that they finally kissed, of course, and that had only been a few weeks ago. It was shocking enough to hear Robin refer to them as lovers , but another thing entirely for him to say lockets of hair .
She laughed. She couldn’t help it. She knew it wasn’t a good idea, especially when his cheeks started turning red and he drew back like a snake ready to strike.
“What?” He demanded, his own eyes going wide. “I thought you’d think it was…romantic, or whatever!”
“Oh, Robin, I do, but…” Maria swallowed back her laughter, not wanting to drive him away before she could explain. “I’m not laughing at the idea, I’m laughing because…because it isn’t lockets of hair.” A rogue giggle escaped her just saying it. “It’s locks of hair.”
She watched him deflate a little.
“ Locks , not lockets.” She reiterated.
He inhaled deeply, and exhaled in a way that could only be described as defensive. “Well, I’ve just never heard it properly.” He began to pace about the room in a way that was also, somehow, defensive. “People just don’t go around talking about things like that. And I certainly don’t go around reading about lockets of hair.”
“Locks, Robin. Locks.”
“Oh just forget it!”
He looked ready to storm off, and Maria knew if he left now they would never have this conversation again. She leapt from the piano bench and rushed to his side, catching up his hand in hers.
“Don’t go, Robin,” She implored, blinking up at him. “I…I would love to give you a lock of my hair.”
His face softened. It was a rare expression, one that she had only ever witnessed being bestowed upon her, one that accentuated his already handsome face in what she supposed to be the best way possible.
His hand gave hers a gentle squeeze. “All right.”
Maria stretched up on tiptoe to press a quick kiss to his cheek. “And don’t worry,” she whispered in his ear while she was close, “I won’t tell my uncle you’re madly in love with me.”
“Oh shut up.”
And she did shut up, but only because he kissed her.