Lady In Distress (The Langley Sisters Book 3) (30 page)

“I’m all right now I’m in your arms. Please, it was me who was taken. Therefore, I should be allowed to do this.”

They heard a carriage racing down the road behind them then.

“This could be him,” Luke said. “Everyone stay as we are in the middle of the road, the driver will be forced to stop then.”

“Don’t shoot him.”

“What?” Luke took his eyes of the approaching carriage long enough to look at her.

“I know you’re angry with him and want to hurt him for the pain he has caused us, but I don’t want you to end up in jail, or us be forced to flee England.”

“He hurt you.” In his mind, that was enough to see Anthony dead. The rest didn’t matter.

“Hurt him back, but you will not kill him, Luke. Promise me this.”

Will snorted as Luke looked from him to Finn. The twins were listening with interest also. Ace was focused on the approaching carriage.
 

“I promise,” he sighed. She kissed his chin and then eased herself upright. He still held her against his chest, but she was now looking down the road.

The driver called to them to move, but when they didn’t, he pulled the horses to a halt.

“Of course this may not be Anthony, in which case Finn can do the explaining.”

“Why me?” Finn looked at Will
 

But he did not get an answer as the driver was yelling at them. “Move those bleedin; horses. I needs to get my passenger back to London!”

Luke raised his pistol, which shut the man up instantly.

“Those inside step down!” he roared.
 

“Phoebe told me that she and Livvy used that phrase,” Bella whispered to him, which Will heard, because the side of his mouth curled up.

The door opened and out stepped Lord Anthony. He, too, held a pistol. However, when he saw the five that were trained on him, he quickly dropped it.

“Hold my horse.” Luke took his jacket off and wrapped it around her, then dismounted. He had his fist in Anthony’s face before Will, who had also dismounted, could stop him. “You hurt the woman I love, you sniveling bastard, and were it not for my promise to her, I would be returning you to London in a long wooden box.” Luke punched him again in the stomach, the breath wheezing from Lord Anthony’s throat, as he bent double.
 

“Here’s how it’s going to be, Anthony,” Will said, wresting the man from Luke and punching him again. Picking him up, he added, “That was for what you did to Luke. The lies and attempts on his life.”

The man couldn’t speak, simply wheezed.

“You’ll leave London permanently. I have no care where you go, but if it is not a great distance from me and mine then I will hunt you down myself and put you into that box.”

“It was a very foolish move on your part, Anthony, taking on this family. We are very protective of our own, and will take whatever steps are needed to ensure its safety,” Finn added. “And it is lucky for you that between us we can set to rights what you have done.”

“I-I can’t leave London,” Lord Anthony rasped.

“Well, then, we have a dilemma,” Luke said. “Because if you stay, I will kill you. And the thing is, Anthony, I could do it and no one would tie it to me. In fact, no one would even know you were missing…for days, maybe months…perhaps not ever. Doesn’t appear to me like you have much reason to stay.”

Ace offered to accompany the man, and suggested that he knew someone who knew someone and he would soon have Anthony on a ship bound for France. Everyone was happy with that. Realizing he had no other option, Anthony simply climbed back into his carriage.

Luke shook his friend’s hand, and then watched as the carriage disappeared down the road, with Ace riding behind, before returning to Bella. She watched him walk towards her, seeming so small on his horse, huddled in his coat.
 

“It’s all right now, love. He’s gone.” Climbing up behind her, he pulled her back against him.

“Yes,” Bella sighed, leaning into him. “We have to take the horse back with us, Luke.”

“Why?” He looked at the animal still standing beside his horse.

“I know he’s not ours to keep, and it’s stealing, but perhaps we could buy him. He is a lovely horse, and I promised him I would look after him if he got me back to you.” She looked up at him and he wondered if there would ever be a time that his heart wouldn’t skip a beat when she did so.

“I don’t think he understands about promises, love.”
 

“Yes, he does,” Bella said, taking the horse’s reins and handing them to him, “because he took me right to you after all.”

Luke’s laugh was a lovely sound in the still night air.
 

“That he did, and I shall be always grateful to him for that.”

EPILOGUE

Luke stood with Finn and Will, waiting for Bella to arrive. Behind him, the guests had assembled and there was a low hum of noise in the Twoaks Village Church.
 

“Mrs. Popplehinge has an entire floral display on her head, Luke.”

Turning his body slightly at Will’s words, he looked to where the woman sat, and indeed her headwear reigned supreme over everybody else in the church. In front of her, he saw his family all displayed in the new clothes that Phoebe had bullied them into having made.
 

“I’ve heard about her.” Finn joined the conversation. “Apparently, she and my wife were not on the best terms due to a certain misunderstanding with her son.”

“That’s a polite way of putting it.”

Luke let Will and Finn talk while he looked around him, up at the eves where he had spent many long hours staring in his youth, counting the old wooden beams while a sermon was being read, and to the rear where he was baptized and to the pew where Bella and her family had once sat.
 

“Ace has just tried to slip into the back row, but due to his size, he has every eye in the church upon him.”

Luke turned again, this time to locate the man who had become his friend, and saw he was now seated with Ben and Alex.
 

“And here comes your fiancée.”

He’d been remarkably calm until that moment, but now that Bella was here he was suddenly beseeched by nerves. He must have made some kind of noise as Will moved closer to his side.

“Breathe easy now, my friend.”

“Tis a silly thing to feel such nerves, but I do, just the same.”

“Not silly, but understandable considering the road you have both traveled to reach this moment.”

“I love her so much, Will, I almost fear it.”

“I know what you feel as it was no different for me when I stood in your shoes to marry Livvy, but it will pass and soon you will simply enjoy the life you will share with your wife.”
 

“Thank you for standing up with me, when I know you wanted to walk Bella
 

down the aisle, Will.”
 

“It was my choice to make and Bella respected and understood it.”

Neither spoke again as the music swelled around them and Bella began her journey towards him on Freddy’s arm.

He watched Thea lead Rosie, with Livvy and a now heavily pregnant Phoebe behind them. All were dressed in pale blue with cream flowers in their hands.
 

He saw Bella then, her head and face covered by a veil, her dress in pale ivory satin. She had blue flowers in her bouquet and they trembled as she walked, telling Luke she, too, was nervous. Somewhere in the church he heard Henry squeal, which made Will chuckle softly, but he did not look away. His eyes were focused on her—his love, his life.
 

She reached his side and he saw through the thin lace, the soft smile she gave him, and then Freddy lifted the veil.

“Oh, dear,” both Phoebe and Livvy whispered as they started to cry.

Luke held Bella’s eyes as the service began, and never removed them as he spoke his vows. He heard the sniffles of her sisters and Reverend Popplehinge’s words, but he could see nothing but her, the woman he had waited a lifetime to make his.
 

 
“You may kiss the bride.”

She walked into him, placing a hand on his heart. She then raised her chin as Luke lowered his head, and their kiss was soft and sweet, the final joining of their two souls.

“About bloody time,” Will muttered, which earned him a hiss from his wife.

They walked out into the sunshine, into the love and warmth of their family and friends. Moses was driving the open carriage, with Bill as the lead horse, who had attached himself firmly to Bella’s side since her rescue of him. His mane was platted with flowers and he had been brushed until he shone.
 

They accepted congratulations from everyone, and more tears flowed until the men stepped in and herded everyone back to Rossitter House, where the Duke had decided the wedding breakfast would be held.
 

“Hello, Mrs. Fletcher,” Luke said when the carriage started the slow journey back through the village.
 

“Hello, Mr. Fletcher.” They both had silly smiles as they held hands and waved to the villagers who had stepped out onto the streets to congratulate them.
 

“Luke, why is Finn standing up in their carriage?”

Luke dragged his eyes from his wife and looked behind to where Livvy, Will, Henry, Finn and Phoebe followed in another open carriage. Something was definitely wrong as now, Will was standing, too.

“Driver, pull the carriage to one side and let the one behind draw beside.”
 

“It’s the baby!” Livvy called to them as their carriage flew by.
 

“Phoebe is having her baby, Luke. Quickly, we must follow!”

Issuing instructions to the driver, he then sat back and kissed his wife thoroughly, knowing that it would be quite some time before he could do so again.

***

Amanda Elizabeth Olivia Levermarch was born four hours later, in a room the Duchess of Stratton had readied for Phoebe as there had been no time to return to the recently purchased Levermarch residence. Livvy had been heard to declare it extremely unfair that Phoebe had hardly suffered like she had, but was happy to add that she had looked ugly during labor, which pleased both her and Hannah Wooller hugely. Doctor Brown had declared that his services were hardly required as the birth ran so smoothly, and was now sipping champagne and eating food with the remaining wedding guests, who’d declared this was the best wedding they had ever attended. A birth and nuptials was more than they had hoped for.

Leaving Phoebe with Finn, Bella left to find her husband, smiling at how wonderful that word sounded in her head.
 

“Is she well, love?” He rose as she reached his side. He’d taken off his jacket, untied his neck cloth and rolled up his sleeves, and her heart skipped knowing this beautiful man was hers.
 

“She is, and now resting with Finn at her side.”

“You look tired.” His thumb traced her lips.

“Yes, but happy also, and now I would like to sip some champagne and eat a piece of our cake with our families.”

They did so for another hour, talking to everyone together, and Luke never left her side. When he took her hand and led her from the room, eyes followed them but she saw nothing, only him.

“The duchess has prepared a room, love. Will you be happy here for our wedding night?”

“As long as I’m with you, I care not where we are.”

He led her upstairs to their room where he undressed her. Their lovemaking was slow and passionate, and soon Bella was lost to the magic of his hands and mouth. Later, she lay in his arms, her hands clasped in his, their bodies entwined, as he placed soft kisses into her hair.

“I love you, Luke Fletcher.”

“And I you, my love.”

Smiling, Bella allowed her eyelids to close, safe in the knowledge that when she woke it would be in the arms of the man she had loved her entire life. Her love, her life.

THE END

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Viscount Kelkirk ran down the narrow lane and past the shops, his long legs covering the distance with ease. “Minerva's Miracle Cures,” he muttered, glancing at the sign above one of the shop fronts. As if crushed eye of newt and several cloves of garlic with a pinch of the ridiculous could cure anything. Put a label on something and call it the elixir of life and desperate and foolish people tended to buy it.