Magic in the Stars (26 page)

“Browne can go to hell!” the belligerent Maeve retorted. “It
ain’t none of his business, and none of your’n either.” She swung her fist at
Agatha, who dodged.

The blow struck Aster squarely on the cheek, and she
staggered. Shocked, Jacques and Hugh jumped into the fray as the two women went
at each other again.

Appalled, Aster drew back as the irate widow grabbed a loose
stone from the wall. With a furious swing, the widow aimed at her adversary.

The stone flew from Maeve’s hand and slammed into Hugh, who
dropped to the ground. Blood spurted from the blow to his brow.

Feeling the crushing of doom to her faint hopes, Aster fell
to her knees besides the boy, weeping and trying to staunch the gash with her
gown.

With the license tucked in his coat pocket, Theo galloped
for home, trying not to imagine all the potential disasters he’d left untended.
Instead, he fretted over whether purchasing a special license instead of a
regular one had been a wasted effort. Would Duncan actually come downstairs if
they married in the Hall?

He had hoped to marry this evening. Waiting for morning
seemed to just ask for trouble. He would become as superstitious as Aster at this
rate.

But the vicar was busy and claimed the morning would be
better. The special license would allow him to come to the Hall. That had been
the best Theo could arrange. He need only hang on to the lady another eighteen
hours or so, and she would be irrevocably his.

Perhaps he ought to feel a little guilty about not asking
her father for Aster’s hand, but as she’d said—Theo was inclined toward action
first, and Scotland was a long way away.

By the time Theo saw the Iveston carriage and the baggage
wagon loaded with boxes rumbling toward him, all his doubts and fears coalesced
into shocking reality.

Once again, he was about to be abandoned—
Aster
was leaving
.

What had his brothers done this time?

Which made him so angry, he couldn’t think at all. Aster
knew better than to be frightened off by anything his family did. He expected
more from her!

Maneuvering his gelding to block the lane, Theo held up his
hand ordering his driver to halt. Ever obedient, the coachman did so.

Theo swung down from his horse and yanked open the door.
Three demure young women and one confused old one stared back at him. “Where
are you going?” he demanded. “Why aren’t you planning a wedding?”

And then he saw the bruise on Aster’s cheek, and his temper exploded.
“What the devil happened?”

He hauled her bodily from the carriage to examine the damage,
wanting to weep as he caressed the appalling purple marring her perfect cheek. He
didn’t think he shouted, but she winced, and her younger companions bunched
their gloved fists. He held her tighter, waiting for explanation, with his
heart ready to burst from his chest.

“It was an accident,” she asserted, struggling against his
hold. “Hugh was hit by a rock. You should go to him. Now put me down.”

She spoke calmly, but Theo could practically feel her
vibrations. It didn’t take a mathematician to add two and two.
If she blamed herself for Hugh’s injury
 . . .
she would run. She
was
running.

He added the fuel of panic to the conflagration of his fury
and fear.

“How badly is Hugh hurt?” Theo’s imagination had run rampant
since the Prophetess of Doom had first darkened his doorstep. Alarm thundered at
the thought of young Hugh lying hurt and injured as Dunc had been. But he would
yank out his heart before he’d lose his little general. He clamped his arms
tighter against her struggles.

“Dr. Joseph is with him. He seems to think Hugh’s eye will
be fine in a few days. Now set me down.” She wriggled against him—as if all
those lush curves squirming against him would encourage him to set her aside.

“And why aren’t you with Hugh instead of in a carriage?”
Theo demanded, even knowing the answer.

“He could have lost his
eye
!
This is all my
fault
,” she wailed,
flinging her arms around his neck and weeping into his shoulder. Theo held her
close and despaired of ever having what he wanted.

“I simply cannot risk endangering anyone else, so I am
leaving,” she announced, pushing against him again.

That’s what he’d figured. Hugh got swatted—and she believed
it was
her
damned planets at fault. A
gentleman would let her go and try to woo her back to reason—or better yet,
hunt a more rational female.

Theo had no such intentions. He kicked the carriage door closed
on the gaping women. “Go fetch the lady’s wardrobe. And cats, and a wedding
gown,” he commanded. “She’s marrying me tomorrow with or without you.”

Aster pummeled him with her small fists, but he wasn’t
having any of it. He’d pander to her planets some other day, but not on his
wedding eve.

The driver was already heeding his orders about London, and
the team galloped off. Theo doubted even Aster’s audacious relations would leap
from a moving vehicle.

All he needed to do now was persuade a madwoman to
stay—which made him equally insane. They deserved each other.

Carrying his betrothed, Theo flung her into the saddle, much
as he had the first day she’d arrived.

“No running away,” he informed her, swinging up behind her.
“I will not have hysterics. That’s an order.”

She choked on a mixed sob and laugh. “You cannot order me
about. If I wish to go home, I shall. You cannot let me harm anyone else.” She keened
this last.

Hysterics
, Theo
thought in his fit of rage. But he meant to stay the damned course. This one
was not escaping. “Unless you deliberately hit Hugh in the eye with a brick in
a malicious fit of temper, I will not believe you are responsible. We cannot
keep having this argument.”

He urged his mount down a side lane and toward the pond. The
day was hotter than Hades. They both needed to cool off, and he knew just the
place to do it. Memories of last night’s bath danced in his mind as one of the
best moments of his appalling life.

“We
must
keep
having this argument until you listen,” she cried in anguish. “It does not
matter how it happened—I am the
catalyst
!
My chart is littered with danger. I simply cannot do this to your family. I
cannot
!”

“Because you’ve grown fond of them?” he asked skeptically.
“That’s not possible. They’re an ornery lot of useless thugs, including me.”
Reaching the pond, he swung off and lifted her down.

“Do you mean to dunk me to see if I’m a witch?” she asked in
confusion, taking in the pastoral setting of willows and sun-flecked water.

“Excellent thought.” Theo removed her scarf and flung it
over a laurel, then swung her around to start on her confounded hooks. “But if
you drown, I drown with you. We’re in this together.”

She grabbed at her bodice and attempted to struggle out of
his hold. “We are not! What are you doing? I can’t swim!”

“Of course you can’t. I’ll teach you if you like. But it’s
shallow on this end. We’re going to cool off and let the madness die down
before we go back to the Hall. And then you’ll plan our wedding. I am not
listening to any more daft warnings.” After loosening her hooks, he yanked off
his coat with the precious piece of paper inside, deliberately folding the coat
and hiding it under the laurel.

A scientist learned to think through a problem and come up
with a detailed solution. He could do this, one step at a time.
Seduce the lady
seemed the next logical
step.

“My warnings are not daft! Hugh could have been blinded!”
she shouted, as if he were deaf and not just stubborn and selfish.

“Duncan could have married Margaret,” Theo countered
senselessly.

He slid Aster’s sleeves off her shoulders when she did not
undress as requested. She had beautiful shoulders, all soft and creamy. And
then there was her splendid bosom, rounded like full moons above her chemise.
He could just look at her and be a happy man. Well, for a while. Looking and
not touching would quickly make a starving wolf of him.

“Duncan marrying Margaret would not necessarily be a
disaster.” She translated his senseless remark while trying to return her
bodice where it belonged. “I need time to
think
!”

The pins had loosened from her hair, and copper curls sprang
every which way. She brushed one from her eyes, and Theo took the opportunity
to yank a sleeve entirely off her arm.

He appreciated the fact that she understood him well enough
to follow his inadequate communication. “You don’t need time to realize that
you
leaving
us would be a disaster,”
he countered. “Life is messy. Things happen. Learn to take them as they come.
Tomorrow, the moon might fall into the sun. You cannot live in constant fear.”

“Yes, I can,” she whispered as he pulled her closer to push
off her other sleeve. She leaned into him, and her tears dampened his linen.
“My baby sister was
recovering
from
fever. I just wanted to make her feel better when she grew restless, so I
picked her up to soothe her. And she
died
,
right there in
my
arms. I wanted so
much to make her well, and I
killed
her!

“And then, after the funeral, I climbed into a carriage with
my little brother and sisters to keep them entertained. And the horses spooked and
ran for a cliff! Our driver saved us, but the children were all bruised and
shaken. My father’s only heir broke his arm! It could have been so much worse.
You have to understand,” she pleaded. “Even Uranus cannot change my disastrous
chart in the family sector.”

Theo gathered her up and sat down on the stile with his
goddess in his lap. “My mother died when I was five. We had an older sister who
died of influenza when she was a baby. My father lost fingers in a yachting
accident. Duncan is blind—and it’s not because you told him so.
You
are not to blame. The stars and the
planets aren’t to blame. And if you try to tell me this faradiddle one more
time, I shall fling you in the pond and refuse to listen ever again. Do you
understand?”

“You’re not listening now,” she muttered against his chest.

“I know,” he said in satisfaction. “I’m
doing
now. I’ll listen later.”

With that, he finally kissed her.

All families suffer
tragedy.
Aster attempted to grasp what Theo was telling her while he was
kissing her—not the best time to try to organize her confused thoughts.
The accidents didn’t have to be her fault?

He nibbled her lips, and her heart raced faster.

Her baby sister had died—just
as his has.

His tongue played a seductive game until she parted her lips
and allowed him entrance. She inhaled the ale he’d been drinking and the musky
scent of sweaty male, and her insides tightened in expectation.

Desperately, she tried to recover her train of thought.

Did she dare believe
that maybe the chart meant someone she loved was in danger—but
she
wasn’t necessarily that danger?

Theo caressed her breast, and she nearly expired of lust. Despite
her throbbing jaw reminding her of the jeopardy she placed them all in, Theo’s caresses
made taking life’s risks seem so sensible, so possible . . . She
couldn’t think while he was kissing her like this.

She slammed her hands against his broad shoulders, shoving
him off balance just enough to escape from his lap. “If it’s not
me
,” she said curtly, “and I am free to
marry anyone I choose, then I should find a man who treats me with respect.”
She yanked her gown up and reached behind her to pull together what hooks she
could reach.

Lord Theophilus Ives, scientist extraordinaire, sat there,
stunned. And speechless, but that was not unusual for him.

Stupidly, she almost wept at his loss . . .
and hers. They really were perfect for each other in so many ways. But not in
the ones that truly counted. Her family was right.

They didn’t love each other. He clearly did not respect who
she was. He didn’t even seem to respect himself most days. They would drift
apart the instant the lust wore off.

Trying not to see the desperate man beneath Theo’s towering
rage, she dug in her hair for any remaining pins and began pulling it tight. “I
want to go home. I want my cats. They at least accept me as I am.”

It was almost like hitting a man when he was down—if he was
not so much bigger than she and so very certain of himself.

Stiffly, eyeing her as if she might shift into a dragon at
any moment, Theo yanked on his coat. “I accept you as you are,” he said with an
unusual degree of caution.

“If you did, you would be introducing me to the Astronomical
Society and pointing out to them that through the positions of the planets, I
have predicted everything from the weather to our disastrous family
connections. You would accept that I know things that you do not. Just because
I cannot always predict my own chart perfectly does not mean I am not good at
what I do.”

“They will not listen,” he argued. “I am saving you from
humiliation.”

“Say you,” she said with scorn. “Isn’t that something I
should be allowed to decide? Do you mean to haul me around for the rest of our
lives whenever you don’t agree with me? Or do I have permission to think for
myself upon occasion?”

She had no idea where these words came from. She terrified
herself by saying them. She felt as if she were ripping her heart out and
handing it to him.

Not that his lordship understood that. He looked thunderous.
He visibly struggled—probably to prevent heaving her over his shoulder again.
Finally, he gave a curt nod. “Fine. I shall escort you back to London. I will
speak with Herschel about having you present at the next meeting. And I will
send a note to the bloody damned vicar that he need not officiate our wedding
in the morning.”