“Promise? I promise to what?” Angelique answered quietly, more to fill the awkward silence that had fallen than anything else.
Roberts flapped his hands.
“All right, all right, she has said she’ll obey and she has promised too. We’ve forsaken everything else, but that’s good enough for me. No need to drag it out. I am sure we all have better things to do on this fine day. Though I must say, she’s a beautiful bit of work! Well done lad, it was about time.” He whispered a little too loudly as he winked at Lucas.
“About time for what?” Pierce suddenly woke up, stretched his arms above his head, and wandered towards the group.
Roberts held out his bible as another thought suddenly flashed into his mind.
“Nearly forgot! The ring!” He declared loudly.
Pierce immediately rummaged in his pocket and brought out the ring. He placed it on the bible. Roberts muttered some unintelligible words before holding out the book to Lucas.
Lucas stifled a yawn and looked down. His ring! How had it managed to get there? He rarely ever took the thing off except during his fights. It was a precious family heirloom. He picked it up and went to slide it back onto his ring finger, but another hand was suddenly in his. A small, delicate hand. The ring slid over a slender finger. His sapphire encrusted family crest slipped around to the inside just before the hand was snatched back from him.
“What’s going on?” A frightened tone reached him at almost the same moment as another prolonged snore.
“You may kiss the bride!” Robert’s shouted as he threw up his hands and appeared to over balance at the same moment. He suddenly fell backwards in a great flurry of robes and lay unmoving on the floor.
Lucas gave the man a small kick.
“What bride? No one has married anyone yet.” He poked the man with the toe of his boot a second time.
Roberts didn’t move, but joined in the with the pig like snorts and grunts coming from behind Lucas. Lucas looked over his shoulder and discovered Pierce, lying down again, his jacket rolled up under his head, fast asleep on the pew.
Lucas yawned loudly as fatigue overcame him. What he wouldn’t give for half an hour’s repose. What with chasing Angelique about half the night, the best part of a bottle of brandy inside him, and the walk to the chapel, it had all become too much. He needed to sit down. Collapsing on the pew behind Pierce, he rested his head on his arm and closed his eyes. The rhythmic snores of the other two men soon lulling him into darkness.
Angelique frowned at the three sleeping men. And then at the ring sitting on her finger. She slid the heavy embellishments from her palm to face her. Too stunned to say anything when Lucas had snatched at her hand, she now stared at the stones decorating the ring. Sapphires that matched its owner’s eyes, gleamed back at her.
A rustling behind her had her dropping her hand quickly, hiding the ring in the folds of her skirt as Henry and Mrs. Granger stepped over the sleeping vicar and walked away from the side table.
“Mrs. Granger and I just signed the papers. Congratulations.” Henry spoke nervously.
“Congratulations?” She repeated and she shook her head as if waking from a daze. “Perhaps you can help me. I am not sure I understand what just happened?”
Henry twisted his fingers together as he stared hard at the floor.
“Em, er, I think you just married his Lordship.”
Angelique let out a loud laugh. She had thought the same, but it was clearly a preposterous notion. Her laughter echoed back at her as if confirming her doubts. She became serious again when the sounds faded leaving only the three men’s snores to reverberate about the chapel.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Henry. I cannot possibly have married Lord Trenchard. He has been asleep most of the time I have been here, and is clearly still slumbering now. I don’t believe he has spoken one word to me since I arrived.”
Mrs. Granger joined them. She glanced over at the group of sleeping men.
“Not that his Lordship. The other one. Our his Lordship. Lord Caruthers.” She pointed at Lucas’ long, sprawling body to clarify exactly whom she meant.
Angelique felt the blood drain from her face. Marrying Pierce would have been awful enough. Marrying Lucas would be a disaster. The man had as good as kidnapped her for the sake of his friend. Though he had denied it, he had intimated that she was not wanted by anyone, least of all him. She took a quick step back as if distancing herself would help the awkward situation.
“I can assure you both that I did not marry anyone, especially not Lord Caruthers! Besides, they are all in their cups, and no vows were made.” Her voice trembled with agitation. The ring dug deep into her fisted palm. This couldn’t be happening. It was all a dream. It had to be. Perhaps she had fallen from Molly and was now lying unconscious in bed. That had to be the answer, because anything else was impossible.
The imaginary Henry scratched his head.
“But you definitely said, I do. So did his Lordship. And you promised to obey him,” he added, nodding at Mrs. Granger for support. The woman nodded back firmly as if that last fact sealed the bargain.
“Heard it all with my own ears, and it’s written on the licence.” Mrs. Granger affirmed as she placed her hand on Angelique’s arm, giving it a reassuring squeeze as she continued. “Been saying that he needs a wife for a while. Perrydale has been empty for far too long. You have caught yourself a good man there, my dear. I know you won’t regret it.”
The heat of Mrs. Granger’s palm warmed her skin. If she was dreaming, it seemed awfully real.
“But that wasn’t a wedding service. And the vicar didn’t pronounce us husband and wife,” she protested, grasping at any straw she could.
Henry sniffed haughtily.
“I don’t like to contradict my betters, but that looked like a wedding from where I was sitting.” He pointed to a pew on the opposite side of the aisle. “I was invited to Billy McPherson’s marriage in the village church last year. Looked exactly, and I mean exactly the same. You were standing right there together.” He pointed at the spot before the altar. “And Roberts definitely said ‘you may kiss the bride.’ Heard him with my own ears and nothing you can say will persuade me otherwise.” He looked at her as if daring her to call him a liar.
Mrs. Granger stepped in to back the footman up.
“And you are wearing his Lordship’s own ring.” She pointed out helpfully. “You needn’t try to hide it in your skirts. I saw him put it on your finger. He was looking right into your eyes. It was a beautiful moment.” She dabbed her own eyes with the corner of her handkerchief.
Henry smiled at the housekeeper.
“He deserves to be happy. Couldn’t believe it when he told me his intentions this morning. He said to bring you, my dear Mrs. Granger, but obviously, I had to let the rest of the staff know. They will be waiting back at the house to congratulate the happy couple.”
Mrs. Granger linked arms with the footman and turned to the door.
“We must form a welcoming party. Just as well that he is taking a nap. I will have time to organize a pie and some cake and perhaps you could see to a bowl of punch. Oh, how happy I am for him. I was beginning to wonder if it would ever happen, especially with his recent upset over Miss Sophia. Now there was a sweet girl if ever I saw one, but his second choice has merit too, I am sure. I swear his bride is the most beautiful I ever saw.” They carried on up the aisle as Angelique stared in horror after them.
She stood silently for several minutes before moving again. Ignoring the two men sleeping on the pews, she stepped over the vicar’s prone body and reached the altar. She picked up the paperwork and studied it closely, unable to hold back a gasp as she saw the signatures.
Angelique Vivienne Lancer was written boldly in one section, and a great flourish, which clearly said ‘Lucas Phillip Anthony Caruthers’ graced the space opposite. Another recognizable signature sat in one of the spaces for a witness. The rest might have remained blank, but the vicar had helpfull
y signed his own name, and Mrs. Granger and Henry theirs as witnesses. As far as the paperwork was concerned, she was indeed married to Lord Lucas Caruthers.
A thrill swept through her though she knew that the certificate was invalid. The wedding had been a sham, not that it stopped her dreaming. She closed her eyes for a moment, remembering those few seconds when she had been wrapped in Lucas’ arms in the stables, his breath warm in her ear.
Lady Angelique Vivienne Caruthers! The name felt right on her tongue, but she cringed as she heard a short cough behind her.
Lucas leaned over Angelique’s shoulder and took the papers from her trembling hand. Were his eyes deceiving him? Was that his name written as clear as day, and in his own hand writing too? He blinked hard, shook the paper, and held it up to the light. It was!
His head cleared faster than he thought possible as he stared down at the page. He didn’t know whether to be furious or not. He hadn’t intended for this to happen, but now that it had, he wasn’t as angry as he should be. When he thought about it, he wasn’t angry at all. He felt a grin spread across his cheeks.
He held the licence out as he looked down at Angelique, who stared back up at him with worried eyes.
“It seems we are husband and wife.” He smiled down at her in what he hoped was a reassuring manner.
Her eyebrows dipped charmingly, or so he thought, until she placed her hands on her hips, her worried expression turning into something more frightening.
“It would appear that we are. But let me tell you, we are not. I came here thinking I was taking a trip to your hunting lodge, not a trip up the aisle. I will have this annulled immediately.” She snatched the papers from his hand and waved them wildly. “You Sir, are drunk, and your friend completely pickled. The vicar is away with the fairies and your staff under some kind of delusion. I have been deceived and kidnapped, been forced to drink strong liquor and embarrassed in public. You have shut me up in your dungeon of a house, and when you let me out, you put me in unsuitable clothes on an unsuitable horse. As if that wasn’t enough you trick me into marriage to the most unsuitable man in the world! And you think I am so weak and unimportant that I am going to stand and quietly accept your petty plots of revenge?”
Lucas interrupted. He wasn’t about to stand around being berated for things he hadn’t done.
“Now, that’s not fair. I was genuinely bringing you to Perrydale to see the library. You drank the wine. I didn’t force you. It was you who shut yourself in your bed chamber for days, refusing all my enquiries and entreaties, not me. And you were going to do yourself an injury if you wore an unsuitable outfit while riding. The clothes were the best I had to fit you.” He crossed his fingers behind his own back as he dismissed the vision of Daisy’s selection of riding habits. “And I did take precautions with the mare. It was unfortunate that Pierce decided to call with his stallion without giving me adequate warming. I will admit that I’ve had a drink with my friend this morning, but I am sober now, believe me, and I know nothing of plots or revenge!”
She jabbed her finger into his chest.
“So you deny that you did all this to help your friend, or to get back at my brother for your broken aristocratic nose and blackened eye? Tell the truth, Lucas. Or can you not do that just this one time!”
Lucas opened his mouth, and then shut it quickly again. He could not deny that his original plan had been to see the Peckham Pulveriser on his knees, but that was no longer his intention. Hadn’t been from the moment he met her, if the truth be told. But he didn’t know how to explain that, or make clear how he felt. He wasn’t exactly sure what he felt himself.
He stared down at her angry expression. Tears brimmed on her lashes and he lifted his hand to cup her cheek, his thumb brushing away a sparkling droplet of water.
“Angel, I am sorry. I didn’t mean...” Words failed him as her breasts rose and fell inside the beautiful gown. Another of the gowns he had chosen. Was she wearing more of the decadent underwear he had ordered? Reason left him at the thought of the sheer silk and lace ruffles that Madame Lesmaes had assured him would be the most alluring, gracing that slender waist and those endless legs. His hand slipped from Angelique’s cheek to her neck, fingers threading through her hair. His other hand found her waist and he dragged her towards him.
“Angel,” he growled as his head descended.
Angelique lifted her chin.
“Miss Lancer to you.” She replied in a frantic whisper.
He shook his head fractionally, his lips brushing hers.
“Lady Caruthers now. I insist.” He slanted his mouth across hers, relieving her of any opportunity to respond. Embers burned brightly in every cell of his body and he didn’t waste her startled gasp. Sliding his tongue inside her delectable mouth had the embers bursting into sudden flame. Heat engulfed him as he felt her respond and he was about to deepen the kiss when he felt a firm hand on his shoulder.
“What the blue blazes do you think you are doing, you cur? Take your hands off my wife!” Pierce dragged him around sharply.
Lucas was about to explain the altered circumstances of their relationship, when a hard fist connected with his cheekbone. Caught unprepared, and still in a kiss induced haze, he staggered backwards, tripped over the step up to the altar and landed on top of the vicar.
Roberts let out a grunt and came around.
“I say! No fighting in the house of God!” He bellowed from the floor as Pierce hauled Lucas up by his cravat.
“I wasn’t fighting. I was kissing my wife!” Lucas protested loudly around his sore jaw.
Pierce punched Lucas again.
“My wife! You louse! I close my eyes for five minutes and you’re trying to cuckold me.” He shouted as Lucas staggered back again, this time sitting down beside the vicar.
Roberts managed to raise himself from the floor.
“Well, I saw Lord Caruthers put the ring on her finger. As far as I am concerned she’s his wife.” He dusted down the front of his robes and rocked on the balls of his feet. “Well, I must be going. Things to do. Must order some more communion wine. Congratulations once again, my Lord.” He gave a short bow and was about to walk up the aisle when something caught his attention. “Ah! Nearly forgot these. I’ll enter the details into the parish register as soon as I get home.” And before anyone could stop him he had tucked the papers into the register and walked up the aisle.
It took Pierce a few seconds to realize what had happened.
“Bloody hell!” He tried to run after Roberts, but his legs were still not quite steady and punching Lucas had taken what little strength he had regained from his nap. His knees buckled beneath him sending him sprawling on the floor. He lay there for a few moments before he rolled over onto his back and flung an arm over his closed eyes as he let out a mournful cry. “I am going to stay down here forever. I might as well get used to it now. There’s no point in getting up as I won’t have any legs left after Harold gets hold of me.”
A startled Angelique stared down at him.
“My Harold?”
Pierce peered out from behind his elbow.
“I don’t know any other Harolds.”
Angelique pressed her lips together.
“And my Harold is going to do what to your legs when he gets hold of you? And why?”
Pierce swallowed audibly.
“He’s going to remove one of them. Maybe both, if I don’t marry you.”
Lucas propped himself up on his elbows.
“With a rusty breadknife,” he clarified helpfully.
She rolled her eyes and placed her hands on her hips.
“And you believed him? How ridiculous! But even if it were true, would someone kindly please explain how is it that I now appear to be married to Lord Caruthers?” She ignored Lucas’ lazy, satisfied grin as she glanced back at Pierce.
Pierce sat up and pointed an accusatory finger towards his friend.
“Back-stabber! It’s your fault that I am going to be legless
,” he declared.
Lucas struggled to his feet and straightened his jacket.
“You are already legless, fool. If you hadn’t drunk so much of my best brandy you would now be a married man. Angel would be situated in the hunting lodge, and you could go back to town, able to carry on as normal. Instead, you imbibe bottles of booze, fall asleep, and probably end up on my new brother in law’s most wanted list.”
Pierce managed to haul himself up on a pew.
“And you took advantage of the fact. I might have guessed what you had in mind when you ordered all those fancy frocks, and made her wear those riding breeches! You were thinking only of yourself!”
Lucas squared up to his friend.
“Do you think I meant for this to happen? Do you think I meant to marry her? I am only just getting over Sophia. I am not like you. I don’t flit from one woman to another, changing partners whenever I am bored. Why, you have had more mistresses than I have had hot dinners!”
Pierce’s eyebrows came down in a solid line.
“I have not. I’ve had only three this year, besides whose fault do you think that is? Yes, yours! If you hadn’t introduced Daisy to that pompous prig, Portland, I wouldn’t be in this mess.”
Lucas could not have been more surprised than if a snowstorm suddenly blew up in August.
“What did you say?”
Pierce sat down in the nearest pew and covered his face with his hands.
“You heard,” he mumbled quietly, realizing a little too late that he had let his inner secrets out of the bag.
Lucas slumped down beside his friend, leaning forwards as he rested his elbows on his knees.
“Are you telling me that you were in love with my sister?” He could barely form the words, his mind swirled with incredulity.
Pierce shrugged. There was no point in hiding things now. His life was already forfeit.
“You can hardly shout. You loved Sophia, but were too stupid to admit it! But yes, I have been in love with Daisy since the day she was born. Didn’t know it back then, of course. Just thought she was the most incredible little thing I had ever seen.” His quirked one side of his lips in a lopsided smile as he reminisced. “We were only four and my family were visiting yours. Daisy arrived a few weeks early, during our visit. I can remember you going in to see your mother soon after. Her cries of pain during the birth had frightened you. You wanted me to go in with you. I stood by the bed as your mother held the crying baby out for you to take, but you turned up your nose and hid your hands behind your back. Your mother was trying to do something with her nightgown. It was caught and uncomfortable but she had sent the nurse away to allow us some privacy. She put the baby in my arms and said something like, ‘Pierce, say hello to Daisy while Lucas stops pouting and I sort out my nightgown’. I can recall being half scared to death that I was going to drop the squalling bundle, but I held on tight and said, ‘hello Daisy’ as instructed. She stopped crying instantly and blinked up at me with the biggest violet eyes I had ever seen. And I instantly fell in love with her.” He cuffed at his own eyes before taking another big breath and carrying on. “I thought I had so much time. She hadn’t so much as looked at another man in all the years we have known one another. Then three years ago, when I was still too young and stupid to pluck up the courage to tell her how I felt, you introduced her to Portland. And I never stood a chance.”
A Ring of Midnight Orchids: Flowers of the Aristocracy (Untamed Regency Book 3) Page 13