Proper Scoundrel (33 page)

Jade looked into Marcus’s rich, cobalt eyes shimmering with yearning, and prayed for the strength to resist him, especially here before a sacred alter, a minister at hand.

Marcus wanted to fight the unyielding determination he could see working against him even now, but Jade wore her resolve like armour, reinforcing its strength with every beat of her heart.

More than he wanted his next breath, he wanted to win this woman, as radiant in breeches on the first day he saw her as now in silk and lace. He wanted to walk her up this very aisle and stand before the selfsame prelate, taking her only onto him for as long as they both should live. He wanted that little girl in the front pew to be theirs as well, and to give her sisters and brothers to love and protect.

Marcus tried to believe himself stronger than Jade and nearly laughed in self-derision. The Lady Jade Elizabeth Smithfield had turned out to be the worthiest adversary—man or woman— Marcus Gordon Fitzalan had faced in his thirty-eight years of life.

He was, truth to tell, frightened witless that Jade would win, that her skewed view of their situation would prevail, in which case, they would both lose, as would Emily and the children who would never be born to them.

Marcus took a minute to beg for help, due to the environ, and added his heartfelt thanks, in the event he’d been heard.

The drone of the minister stopped and his brother and Abigail spoke their vows with certitude.

Marcus turned to Jade then, holding her gaze, in hopes she’d listened as intently to the words as he and might feel his yearning to pledge her his troth. She gazed back as relentlessly. She understood, yearned as well, yet turned aside his plea, without uttering a word.

He may be wounded, but not broken.

When Garrett escorted Abigail down the aisle, nary a cane or wheelchair in sight, the eaves echoed with the spontaneous burst of applause.

After the ceremony, everyone travelled back to Peacehaven for a wedding breakfast—even the Fitzalan retainers from Seaford who’d held the bridegroom’s leading strings.

A table ran the length of the ballroom, its chairs occupied equally, adult beside child, Earl beside stable-hand beside maid beside Lady, as requested by the bridal couple.

Abigail’s sober father sat flanked by Beecher and Ivy. Eloisa sat at one end, baby-minder and cradle beside her. Children were tended by parents, all served by a staff hired for the occasion.

After the meal, the room turned into a puppet theatre, another request of the bride and groom, though a surprise to their attendants.

Emily, tugging Jade by the hand, came to sit in Marcus’s lap, patting the chair beside them.

When Jade sat down, Emily put Jade’s hand in Marcus’s, and he met her ebony eyes above that little blonde head as he clasped her hand tight. Emily placed a hand over theirs. If ever there’d been a sign Emily wanted them to be a family, this was it. Marcus kissed Em’s head. “Thanks, Emmy-bug,” he whispered to the insightful child.

“Welcome ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, bride and groom,” said Ivy. “To a special wedding presentation entitled, ‘The Wedding that Could Never Be,’ also known as, ‘The Stubborn Bride.’”

Jade’s gaze whipped to Marcus.

He shrugged and leaned close. “Garrett was closeted with Ivy all afternoon, yesterday. If you want to bash a head, choose his. Besides, what makes you think this has anything to do with you? Was it the word, stubborn?”

Jade tried to pull her hand from the three-way clasp, but neither he nor Emily would allow it.

The curtain parted. Children clapped and cheered.

Hector the Hungry Hedgehog was in love, so lovesick, he couldn’t eat. Why, he could barely sleep, and when he did, he hardly snored, a serious affliction for a hedgehog. He gave a demonstration of his weak snore for the children and told them he forgot how a real snore should sound, so, “If you please,” said he. “Can you snore and help me remember?”

The little ones snored louder and longer than Hedgehog could bear. He put his hands to his ears and swung his head from side to side, as if the noise was driving him mad.

Marcus laughed aloud.

Jade was charmed, he believed, though she’d hardly admit it. The stubborn bride, indeed. Between Garr and Ivy, he wondered who’d come up with this one.

Hector’s love was Merry Mouse, and though it was apparent, from her sighs, that she loved him as well, she declared that they could never wed.

“We live in different worlds,” said she. “We even look different.”

“I love the difference,” said Hedgehog in a sly scoundrel’s voice.

“But my skin is soft and velvet smooth and yours is covered in spines. And I know for a fact that hedgehogs eat mice, and I’m a mouse!” The mouse puppet squeaked to prove her point, setting off a fit of giggles from the audience.

“But we both live in underground burrows,” said Hector, “and that must count for something. I would never eat you, or any of your relatives. You know me better than that, Muffin mine.”

“But you need a bigger house than mine. You collapsed our family’s little underground burrow while you were building your great big one. Now all my baby cousins need me, because they have nowhere else to go. If I go off with you, they’ll have no one to care for them.”

Hedgehog puffed out his chest. “We can care for your cousins together.”

“My burrow’s not wide enough to fit you.”

“I’ll make it wider. I can do anything,” bragged Hedgehog with a swagger that tickled the children.

“No,” Merry Mouse wailed. “That’s impossible. You’d have to destroy your home to make mine bigger. What would happen to your brother?”

“He’s a big boy. He’ll go and make a new burrow somewhere else. He cares about me and wants me to be happy. He wouldn’t hurt your mouse cousins. Don’t you trust me? Don’t you want to marry me?”

“I do,” admitted Merry, “But my cousins need me, so I can’t.”

“You’re afraid,” said Hedgehog, “that you’ll like my spines. Afraid that someday Sergei the Wolf will come along and I won’t win the fight. You think it’s safer to care for your cousins than make a life together with me.” Hedgehog sighed. “There’s nothing keeping us apart but you. I’m going away. Forever.” And he did.

The children moaned in disappointment.

The indignant mouse paced the stage. “I’m a strong mouse. Merry as the day is long. All the mice need me, and I never needed any ... critter ... until Hedgehog.”

A blush rose up Jade’s neck. Marcus looked back at the stage, hoping she didn’t realize he’d noticed.

Merry Mouse wept, and some of the children yelled, “Don’t cry. Please don’t cry.” One of them cried too, until Sergei the Wolf chased Hedgehog back onto the stage. “Mice are more delicious than spiny Hedgehogs,” said Sergei. “Give me that one for dinner tonight.” The wolf puppet pointed to Merry. “And I’ll never trouble you again.”

“Never!” shouted Hedgehog.

“Then I’ll take her!” Wolf lunged toward Merry and Hedgehog wrestled him in a dramatic fight, drawing gasps and warnings from their young audience, until Hedgehog won the day and toppled Sergei off the back of the puppet stage, his wolf cry fading as he fell.

The children cheered. Hedgehog bowed.

Merry Mouse, with a flowing white bridal veil and flowers in her hand, agreed to wed her Hedgehog Hero, and they were married by the Pompous Parson. Then Glory the Fairy Queen made an appearance in a burst of fairy dust and granted them a “Happily Ever After.”

The children sighed in contentment and applause broke out. Jade rose as the performance ended, able to pull her hand away only because Emily’s hold had slackened when she fell asleep.

Marcus called her name, but Jade looked straight ahead as she left.

Garrett and Abigail had left the performance before her and she’d promised Abby to help her change for her wedding trip.

When she got to Abby’s door, however, she heard Garrett’s voice and stopped short of knocking.

“Money doesn’t matter to me, Garrett,” she heard Abigail say. “Stop the blasted railroad. We don’t have to live in a castle on a cliff. We can live anywhere, here even, as long as we’re together.”

“If it were just about me, I would have stopped it already to help Jade, you know that.”

“Who else is involved, then? Marc certainly wouldn’t care if it meant helping Jade.”

Jade was horrified to be the subject of their discourse, but she couldn’t seem to move away.

“A hundred families are involved, the entire population of Tidemills, as a matter of fact. The villagers there depend on their flour mills for their living. But they need to ship the flour more efficiently, or the village itself is at risk, which is why they need the railroad. If it doesn’t reach them—and it has to go through Jade’s property before it can, as soon as next week to satisfy Parliament—Tidemills will become a ghost town. The villagers will lose everything.”

Jade felt hope slipping away and panic rising up to take its place.

“But those people can move, live and work elsewhere,” Abigail said. “Can’t they?”

“They could move, if they could afford to, but that wouldn’t solve anything. The only trade they know is the flour mills they’re trained to operate. Their mills are powered by the tide and can exist nowhere else.”

Jade fell against the door, all the fight drained out of her. A hundred families.

Garrett opened it, responding to the sound, and she nearly fell into his arms. He helped her to a chair.

“I’m sorry ... I didn’t mean to ... intrude,” she stammered.

Tailcoat off, cravat hanging loose, top button open, Garrett chafed her hand. “It’s all right. I was about to go and find you. I’m going to stop it, Jade. The railroad, I mean. Neither of us—he indicated Abigail—cares about the income, or the house in Seaford, as long as we have each other. We might have to live here for a while, though.” He chuckled half-heartedly.

“No,” Jade said, her fight gone. “I wouldn’t mind taking you and Abby in; I’d like having you around. But an entire village, Garrett.” Jade swallowed her panic and forced a smile. “I haven’t the room to house a hundred families.”

Abigail bit her lip as she handed Jade a glass of water. “I didn’t know myself until now. Jade, tell us your problem. We’ll help you. Marcus will too. All the girls would help, if you’d let them.”

Jade shook her head. “Merry Mouse concedes. Let the railroad go through. My stubbornness was a foolish determination to grant a dying old lady’s unreasonable request. Think no more about it. Go to Seaford and take some time alone. I’m only sorry it will be cut so short. If I’d have let the railroad go through sooner, you could have a proper honeymoon.”

Jade touched Garrett’s hand. “Forgive me, Garrett, for all the frustration and expense I’ve put you through. It’s a wonder you didn’t have me arrested.”

He chuckled. “Forgiven and forgotten, and Marc wouldn’t let me have you arrested. I tried.”

Jade responded to his tease with a weak smile and kissed both their cheeks. “Abby, you don’t need me to help you change, do you?”

Abigail blushed and Garrett chuckled.

Jade got to her room down the hall like a walking corpse and winced at the analogy.

She’d know soon enough what a corpse looked like, if not what it felt like to be one, because she had no other choice now but to dig one up. Tonight.

Jade lay on her bed in her darkening bedroom realizing dusk had already fallen. It had been a long day. Garrett and Abby were leaving late. The puppet show had delayed them. She wiped the tears sliding down the sides of her face with the backs of her hands. She and Marcus had never been destined for one of Glory’s “Happily Ever Afters.”

If she got caught tonight, she’d be hauled off to Newgate. If she didn’t get caught ... well, she still wouldn’t be free to relinquish herself to Marcus. The women in her care must remain her prime concern, which was neither here nor there at the moment.

She rose and sat on the edge of her bed. For now, she must concentrate on the task ahead, not the nebulous future. At least she needn’t worry about Emily, tonight. Marcus and Ivy had promised Em and Molly they could sleep in the puppet wagon as a special “wedding” treat. Ivy would stay with them and Emily had talked Marcus into sleeping there as well.