Maddie smiled and started pinning the bottom of the dress.

“I hope you’ve been having a good time while you’ve been here,” the Duchess said. Vivian tried to think about how to respond to that without referring to Malcolm, but luckily, the Duchess kept talking. “Maddie said this is your first time in England; it’s too bad you’re leaving so soon after Christmas, but I’ve already given her a list of things you two should do in London.”

Vivian smiled to herself.

“Yes, too bad we’re leaving so soon,” she said. Malcolm’s idea sounded better and better the more she thought about it.

Chapter Seven

Vivian went to bed that night with a smile on her face. She woke up the next morning—Christmas Eve—in a panic. There was no way she could stay on in England with Malcolm. What had she been thinking?

First of all, she had responsibilities back at home! Sure, she was on vacation until January 3, but she needed to get her house in order, unpack, switch out her calendars, and water her plants—all the stuff she usually did after Christmas but wouldn’t be able to do if she stayed in England.

Secondly, what would Maddie say? Vivian had spent decades keeping her dating life separate from her life with Maddie, and this would destroy all of that! Yes, fine, she’d invited Malcolm to Christmas Eve dinner, but she would pretend to Maddie that was Julia’s idea. There was no way she could pin an extra few days with him in London on Julia!

But most importantly, she barely knew this man! Why the hell had she even considered being alone in a foreign country with a stranger? He’d mentioned staying with him—stay with a stranger, in his home? What if he was some sort of ax murderer or something? Maybe no one would ever see her again!

No, she couldn’t do this. She wouldn’t stay.

Yes, that was it. When he came for dinner tonight, she’d tell him she was sorry, but there was no way she could stay; she’d had a lovely time with him, but that was it, and Merry Christmas.

Or Happy Christmas, whatever it was they said here.

Okay. Good. That was the plan.

Granted . . . she did have so much fun with him. And so what if it was just that vacation kind of fun, where they didn’t really know each other or need to fit into each other’s lives and nothing was at stake—it was only a few more days! They’d keep having vacation kind of fun—maybe even the better kind of fun—and then she’d go home and everything would go back to normal. Shouldn’t she be in favor of having more fun in her life? Especially since she wouldn’t have the opportunity to do something spontaneous like this again once she took the new job?

And he probably wasn’t an ax murderer. Wouldn’t she have read something about an epidemic of women in England being murdered via ax if that was the case? He did work for the Queen, after all—not that people who worked for royalty were automatically model citizens; historically, it seemed like it was very much the opposite. But she didn’t really think people with those jobs got carte blanche to go around committing crimes.

She got out of bed, plucked a notebook out of her purse, and got back in bed. She needed a pro/con list, that’s what she needed.

She spent ten minutes scrawling down everything she could think of on both sides of the list.

PROS

CONS

I have so much fun with him

So much to do at home

New job will mean a lot more work; last chance to do something like this for a while!

Maddie will freak out

Probably not a murderer

But he could be a murderer!

Sex! (hopefully)

Sex??? I barely know him!

She tried to come up with a fifth bullet point on either side to break the tie, but everything she thought of seemed very clearly like a secondary point to one of the eight bullet points she already had.

She shook her head and got out of bed. She needed to sit on this for a while. She should take a shower, go downstairs and drink some of Julia’s delicious tea and eat some of those glorious scones she’d been stuffing herself with for days, and put this whole decision out of her mind for now.

She hadn’t dated anyone in a few years, which was probably why a few kisses had gotten her so giddy about a ridiculous idea like staying with Malcolm in England after Maddie left.

Fine, that last point in the pro list was a significant one.

Maddie was busy doing final fittings with the Duchess for the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day outfits, and Julia was occupied in the kitchen, prepping for the holiday meals, so Vivian spent most of the day curled up on her favorite chair in the sitting room, reading and drinking tea and eating whatever snacks James periodically set in front of her. She hadn’t had a day where she had literally nothing to do but relax in a long time, and instead of being able to take advantage of it, she kept thinking about Malcolm Hudson.

She’d sort of expected to get a note from him that day, but one didn’t come. Maybe he’d changed his mind, too. Maybe he’d realized spontaneity wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, and thought of all the work he had to do, and remembered he barely knew her.

Yes, that was it. He’d decided she shouldn’t stay, either. Maybe they could just both pretend he’d never said anything about it the day before, so they wouldn’t have to talk about it, and they’d just never speak of it tonight, then never see each other again.