"Knock, knock."
Jo blinked her eyes open and frowned as she shifted her head on Nicholas's chest to peer toward the curtained cell door.
"I think it's your sister," Nicholas mumbled sleepily, his hand rubbing over her back.
"Knock, knock," Sam said again from the other side of the cell door. "We're coming in, so make yourselves decent or suffer the consequences."
Jo grimaced and grabbed up the sheets and blankets, tugging them up to cover her and Nicholas as the curtain moved and Mortimer appeared to unlock the cell door and open it.
"Oh good, you're awake," Sam said brightly as she sailed into the room, a tray in her hands.
Jo rolled her eyes with amusement. "Well, we weren't but certainly are now."
"Ah well, it was about time you woke up. You guys have been sleeping-or not sleeping," she added dryly, "for two weeks now."
"We have slept some," Nicholas assured her, pulling himself into a sitting position. He leaned back against the headboard and dragged Jo up to lean against his chest.
"Besides, it's not like there's anything else to do," Jo said quietly. "It's that or worry."
"I wasn't criticizing," Sam said gently. "Mortimer and I were much the same way when we first got together. Well, not quite as bad, maybe. We had to come up for air on occasion, but then we weren't living with the possibility that one of us could be executed."
Jo swallowed and cuddled close to Nicholas, rubbing her nose against his chest. She'd been doing her best not to think about that for these last two weeks. Both of them had. They'd drowned themselves in each other, doing little else but make love and sleep and make love again, with breaks to eat when food was brought out, feed when they needed it, or be escorted up to the house for a quick bath or shower.
In fact, except for the small detail that they couldn't leave the cell when they wanted, and couldn't bathe or shower together, the last two weeks had been rather grand, she thought, peering around the room they'd occupied for two weeks. It didn't look much like a cell anymore. Sam, Marguerite, and the other women had worked magic in the room in the very short time allotted, placing a screen around the toilet to allow privacy, installing a coffee machine, flowers, bedside tables, an area rug, and even books, though those hadn't even had their bindings cracked. Jo could have almost pretended they were on a lovely vacation in a hotel were it not for the fact that the knowledge that this might be her last days with Nicholas was always at the back of her mind... and Nicholas's too. She'd seen that knowledge in his eyes many times, and the sadness it had brought to his eyes had nearly crushed her.
"Anyway," Sam said, sounding incredibly cheerful. "I know I'm early with breakfast this morning, but I couldn't wait. So, here you are."
"Why couldn't you wait?" Jo asked curiously even as Nicholas said, "Thank you, Sam."
Sam ignored Jo's question in favor of smiling at Nicholas as she set down the tray.
"You're welcome," she said, and smiled as she straightened. She then turned to head to the door, saying, "Oh, by the way, Anders brought Charlie back."
"He did?" Jo asked with surprise, and then her gaze dropped as Mortimer opened the cell door again and Charlie suddenly came running in and straight to the bed. Jo promptly sat up, taking the sheet with her. She patted the mattress. It was all the invitation Charlie needed; he leaped onto it at once and dropped across her lap like he thought he was a lapdog rather than the large German shepherd he was.
"Hi Charlie. Hello baby, was Anders nice to you?" Jo asked, petting him affectionately. "I missed you, boy."
Sam waited until the dog had settled and then smiled and nodded. "Anders said Charlie was a good dog and he'd have to get one, but now that everything is resolved you'd probably want him back."
"What?" Jo stiffened and glanced to her again. "What's resolved?"
"Did she forget to tell you?" Mortimer asked, stepping into the cell now himself.
"Oh, I guess I must have," Sam said innocently, and then slid her arm around the man and said, "You go ahead. You took the message."
Mortimer glanced to Jo and Nicholas. "Lucian called. He'll be here in an hour."
"And?" Nicholas asked tensely.
Mortimer hesitated, and then glanced down to Sam. "Go on."
Grinning widely, she announced. "You're innocent, Nicholas. You didn't kill that woman. He didn't explain the details on the phone, he wanted to do that in person, but he said to tell you you're free."
"Thank God," Jo breathed as Nicholas crushed her to his chest.
"So you two have an hour to eat breakfast, shower, dress, and present yourselves at the house. The whole Argeneau family is on their way over to hear about it. Congratulations, you two," Sam said with a laugh, and then slapped her leg. "Come on, Charlie."
The German shepherd hesitated, but then climbed reluctantly off the bed and moved to the door.
"He'll be waiting for you at the house," Sam assured them. "We all will."
Jo watched them leave and then turned to Nicholas and raised a hand to caress his cheek. "You're free."
"And innocent," Nicholas said solemnly.
"I always knew that," she whispered.
"But I didn't," he admitted. "And it's been a stain on my heart for decades."
Jo smiled softly. "You're a good man, Nicholas Argeneau."
"And you're a good woman," he said, twisting his head to kiss her fingers. He turned back and smiled. "How would you like to be a good wife?"
Jo blinked in surprise at the words and then frowned and asked with disbelief, "Are you kidding me? After everything we've gone through, that's your idea of a proposal?"
Nicholas's eyes widened. "I-"
"Because if so-" Jo crawled into his lap, straddling him. She clasped his face in her hands, scowled at him briefly, and then dropped her fake scowl, smiled, and whispered, "Then the answer is yes."
"Damn, Jo," he breathed. "If I were a mortal, I'd be dead of a coronary by fifty."
"Good thing you're not mortal, then, huh?" she asked with a grin, pressing a kiss to the side of his mouth, and then the other side, and then his nose, and eyes... "I love you Nicholas Argeneau."
"And I love you, soon-to-be-Mrs. Argeneau. Now and forever."
"Now and forever," she agreed as he drew her against him.