Blackthorne's Bride

For Linda Andrus

Your support has been invaluable.

Thank you to Evan Fogelman, for your steadfast support; to May Chen, for pushing me to make this my best work yet; to Christina Hergenrader and Courtney Burkholder, for your friendship and insight; and to my husband, for your encouragement and unwavering love.

No Man's Bride

Edmund and Cordelia (née Brittany)
Catherine (20), Elizabeth (17)

Good Groom Hunting

Mavis (née Fullbright) and Joseph Hale
Joseph Jr. (22), John (20), Josephine (18)

Blackthorne's Bride

William, Earl of Castleigh and Ellen (née Todd)
Madeleine (18)

Sir Gareth and Imogen (nee Stafford)
Thomas (23), Charles (21), William (20),
Ashley (18), Devlin (17), George (15)

London 1801

Lady Madeleine was going to make the best of this night, even if it killed her.

And it probably would kill her.

Maddie shook her head. That was no way to think. If one expected the worst, one received the worst.

But there simply wasn't anything good about dressing in boys' clothing and running around London in the dead of night. Unless one wanted to be kidnapped.

You're doing it again!
Maddie chided herself. She had to start thinking positively.

Very well, then ... She might not like wearing boys' clothing, but at least it was comfortable.

She didn't like to sneak out at night, but at least she didn't have to carry a parasol in the dark.

And she didn't like to climb into darkened windows, risk the wrath of her horrid uncle, or tempt the cutthroats hiding down every London alleyway, but ...

Oh, Lord! She was going to be murdered, and there was just nothing good about that!

Maddie tightened her grip on her cousin Catie's arm and hurried to catch her two adventuresome cousins, Ashley and Josie.

Above her, the moon was but a sliver in the dark, starless sky The tall, terraced houses of Mayfair—white and bedecked with flowers spilling from boxes in the daylight—now loomed menacingly over her. They stared at her from sightless eyes.

Maddie tried to keep her gaze on Ashley's blond hair. The London fog obscured everything except what was right in front of one's face, but Ashley's wheat-blond tresses shimmered silver in the meager light. Ashley turned a corner, and Maddie clutched Catie tighter.

"Hurry," Maddie whispered, not wanting to lose sight of Ashley. But then the fog closed in, thick and heavy, and Maddie had to reach out and feel her way past the building on her right. She lurched to the side and stepped on something furry.

With a squeak—hers or its—she ran on.

Catie and she rounded the corner, and Maddie saw Ashley's bright hair. She was waiting for them. Thank heaven for her luminous cousin. The fog hadn't infiltrated this street as thickly yet, and Maddie was able to see the welcoming houses and the small tree-lined park that made up Berkeley Square.

Home. Almost home.

She wasn't going to die.

"Are you well?" Catie asked, pausing for a moment.

"Perfectly fine," Maddie replied, wishing she weren't shaking so badly. "Why do you ask?"

"You're holding my arm so tightly that I'm going to have a bruise."

Maddie loosened her hold. "Sorry."

"It's all right," Catie said.

Jiminy! If anyone should be consoled, Maddie thought, it was Catie. Her horrible father had locked her in a closet for two days. She herself was only out on the dark, unsafe streets because, though she was scared half out of her mind, she couldn't leave Catie in there.

Up ahead, rising out of the fog like a ghostly galleon from a storybook, floated her father's town house.

Home. Safety. For all of them.

The girls climbed up the bed sheets they had left hanging down the side of the house under Maddie's bedroom window. Maddie collapsed gratefully on the floor when her feet were again on solid ground.

When her stomach had ceased fluttering and her limbs were no longer shaking like saplings in a storm, she rose and fetched nightgowns, cool water, and fresh linens for the others. While the girls washed and changed, Maddie opened her desk drawer and pulled out a stash of almond biscuits she'd been saving for just such an occasion. She passed them out as her cousins gathered on the bed.

"Thank you, Mother," Ashley said as she took her biscuit. Maddie stuck out her tongue. She was used to the other girls teasing her for fussing over them, but she knew they appreciated it.

She wasn't the eldest or the bravest or the most beautiful. Respectively, Catie, Josie, and Ashley fit those roles. Maddie had always been the most privileged. Her father was the Earl of Castleigh— rich and powerful.

But privilege was not something one chose, nor something Maddie enjoyed. She would have much rather been courageous or beautiful or wise. Instead, she was frequently described as kind and tenderhearted. Boring descriptors, especially for a girl of eight, but she figured it was the best she could expect.

She scooted onto her bed next to her cousins, and Ashley elbowed her. "Well, that was fun, wasn't it?"

Maddie wanted to groan. Fun? Her insides still jittered from the so-called adventure, and her hands shook as they tried to hold the almond biscuit.

"You know ..." Catie said quietly. Maddie thought she looked almost dead from fatigue. "Once we grow up and marry, we won't be able to have adventures like this anymore. Our husbands won't let us."

Now, this was a new idea, and one Maddie rather liked. No more climbing out windows. No more scratchy—er, rather comfortable—boys' clothing or dark city streets.

Josie sat forward. "When I become a pirate, I won't need a husband. I'll have loads of treasure all for myself."

"And I'm going to have lots of adventures," Ashley said. "I won't have time for a husband, especially a mean one."

Everyone knew she was talking about Catie's horrible father. He was even worse at being a husband than a parent.

"But how will you have money for adventures without a husband?" Josie asked. Maddie wondered the same.

"Well, I don't care how poor I am," Catie said confidently. "I'm not going to marry at all. Ever."

Maddie blinked. It was a shocking statement, one she couldn't imagine making herself. Not marry? Her father said it was a woman's job to marry.

Of course, her mother laughed at her father when he said that because her father always assigned women roles they didn't particularly want. Just the other day, when Maddie had tried to give a shilling to a little beggar boy on the street, her father scolded her because little ladies were not to consort with street urchins.

Little ladies weren't supposed to consort with a whole list of other people and things as well: injured puppies, spirited horses, homeless children, the poor and downtrodden.

Maddie didn't understand it. What good was all the wealth her family possessed if they didn't share it?

When she grew up, she intended to help people. And if a husband would stop that, then Catie was right, and Maddie had no need of one either.

Maddie stood. "And I'm not going to marry either. Never. I don't need the money. If you want, Catie, you can come stay with me. You too, Ashley, when you're not on an adventure, and you, Josie, when you're not on your pirate ship."

Catie smiled at her, then sat up straighter. Maddie thought she looked awake and alive again. "I propose that we make a pledge, a promise never to marry. I'm the oldest, so I go first. I, Catherine Anne Fullbright, swear never, ever, ever to marry so long as I live. Now your turn, Maddie."

"I, Madeleine Richael Fullbright, swear never, ever, to marry so long as I live. Now your turn, Josie," Maddie said.

"I, Josephine Linet Hale, swear never, ever, to marry so long as I live. I promise to be a pirate!"

"Now you, Ashley," Catie directed.

"I, Ashley Gweneira Brittany, swear not to marry for as long as I live. But you know what this means, don't you?" She didn't wait for an answer. "We're going to be spinsters."

Maddie didn't like that word. No, not at all.

Then Josie said, "It won't be bad to be unmarried if we're all unmarried," and Maddie felt a little better.

"So we'll make it fun," Catie interjected. "We'll be the Spinster's Club."

"That's right," Josie agreed. "We'll stick together. No men or mean girls allowed."

Catie was the first to sit up, stick out her hand, and Maddie took it gladly. She felt warm and happy, safe in her room with her best friends surrounding her.

* * * * *

Ten Years Later

"Lady Madeleine, I simply must have you. I
must.
May I call you
darling?"

Maddie gave Sir Alphonse Pennebacker a shove, thrusting him back far enough that she could catch a breath of fresh air before his perfumed stench invaded her nostrils again. "No, you may not call me
darling.
In fact, Sir Alphonse, I asked you not to call on me ever again."

Sir Alphonse smiled. "But, my lady, that is the beauty of our present circumstance. I am here. You are here. We are fated to be together."

"I hardly think fate played a role," Maddie said, scooting along the bookshelf in the Westmans' library. If she could reach the end, she might have a chance to dart out the door and escape Sir Alphonse. "You knew I would attend my cousin's wedding breakfast. My entire family is in attendance."

Maddie inched past a volume of Shakespeare and several books of poetry. A section of essays remained and then she would be free. Well, as free as she could be in a house brimming with her meddlesome family.

"The question," Maddie said, eyeing the essays, "is why you are in attendance."

"Distant relation," Sir Alphonse said with a wave of one lace-bedecked sleeve. He edged closer, and Maddie could not help but stare at the beauty mark above his lip. It was obviously painted on. No less obvious was the copious rouge he used to redden his cheeks.

Maddie moved imperceptibly nearer to the volumes of essays. "Distant relation of whom? The bride or groom?"