by Shana Galen
"Bloody hell! It's your father."
Her feet seemed to move of their own accord then, and she all but ran inside the blacksmith's shop. She skidded to a stop and stared at the drunk anvil priest.
Ashley reached out and gripped her hand, Lord Nicholas came up beside her, and Maddie, in her horror, realized what Blackthorne had been saying. She was to marry Lord Nicholas.
"And do ye come here of your own free accord?" the priest asked.
"No!" Maddie shouted. She was not going to marry Lord Nicholas. She was not going to marry anyone.
"Maddie, don't be a fool," Ashley hissed at her. "Your father is almost here. Do you want him to find you unwed?"
That was a rather terrifying thought. Her father was not a violent man, but he'd already shot one fiance. Could she allow the same fate to befall Lord Nicholas? "No, but—"
"She's here of her own free will," Ashley said. "Aren't you, Maddie?" Ashley poked her in the back, and Maddie nodded.
The priest frowned at a piece of paper Maddie assumed was the marriage certificate. "So it's ta be a dooble ceremony?"
"Right," Jack said from beside Ashley. "Now, get on with it."
The priest began asking for their names, but Maddie didn't listen. She couldn't stop staring at Jack. She was about to become wife to his brother, but she couldn't spare a glance for her intended. All she could think was that she was going to lose Jack forever.
"No, it's Ashley, not Ainsley," Ashley was telling the priest, "and I'm marrying him, not him." She pointed to Jack and then Nick, and the priest nodded and wrote something down.
Oh, Lord. Maddie swallowed her fear and horror. The priest was so drunk he could barely stand. The man began trying to sort the couples out again, and Jack growled, "Hurry up, man. Hurry up."
Maddie turned toward the door as the priest began the ceremony, a simple one. "Do ye take this woman ta be yer lawful wedded wife?"
"I will," Lord Nicholas said.
Maddie heard the clatter of hooves outside cease and knew her father had arrived. There was an ominous silence. She clenched Ashley's hand.
Ashley squeezed her hand back. "He's too late," she whispered, then turned as her name was called. "I will," her friend answered, and Maddie felt Ashley's pale hand shake.
The silence outside was broken as her father's voice rose, issuing orders to his footmen. Maddie could hear stomping and yelling.
"Do ye take this woman ta be yer lawful wedded wife?"
The shouting came closer, and Maddie could hear her father's voice raised in anger.
"Madeleine, do ye take this man ta be yer lawful wedded husband?"
Wait a moment ...
Maddie spun round, her mind now focused on the ceremony. Could it be her turn? But hadn't Jack just—
"Lady Madeleine, answer," Jack demanded.
"But—"
"Hurry up," Lord Nicholas barked. Everyone was staring alternately at her and then the door. Maddie noted that someone had had the foresight to bar it, but now there was an ominous pounding on the thick wood.
"Hurry up!" Ashley said, and Maddie threw her hands in the air.
"I will." Her head ached and she felt dizzy.
The priest swayed—either that or she was worse off than she thought—and then said, "Weel, then, Ainsley and—"
"Ashley," they all corrected.
The priest blinked. "Verra weel, lass. Ashley and Nicholas, Madeleine and John, in the name o' the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, I declare ye man and wife." He lifted a blacksmith's hammer—one of two items in the shop that had anything to do with metal forging—and banged it on the anvil. He looked at Maddie and Jack. "Oh and ... er, man and wife." The hammer struck again.
Maddie took in one breath then another, and still the light-headedness persisted. The pounding on the door grew louder, and she closed her eyes to drown it out. But nothing could stifle the pounding of her heart. She did not dare to believe it, and yet—
"Wait." Nicholas held up a hand. "I'm married to her?" He pointed to Ashley. "Or her?" He pointed to Maddie.
The priest frowned and consulted the certificate. "Er ... ye are married ta the fair one, lad. Yes. And the dark-haired lass is married ta him." The priest pointed to Jack.
Maddie glanced at Jack, who was staring at her, his face unreadable. He didn't look away and his expression didn't soften.
Her heart felt like it might burst from hammering so hard.
"But that's not right," Ashley said over the banging on the door and the pounding of Maddie's heart. "You've married the wrong brides and grooms!"
The priest frowned. "Wha' now?" He took another swig from his brandy jug and shrugged. "Ooh, weel, it's a trifling mistake."
"Trifling?" Nick hollered. "You've married the wrong couples. I'm stuck with her."
Maddie glanced at Jack, who had still said nothing. Did he realize he was stuck with her now? Or perhaps the truth was that she was stuck with him.
Lord Blackthorne was her husband.
The room seemed to swim again, and she had to clutch Ashley to stay on her feet.
The priest waved all concern away. "Ah weel, juist sort yerselves oot."
And then he lifted his jug high, tilted his head back, and toppled over.
Chapter Thirteen
Maddie looked like she might follow the priest's example, and Jack reached out and grasped her shoulder to steady her. She jumped at his touch, and he quickly withdrew his hand.
My wife, he thought, staring at her. My wife. What the hell had he gone and done now?
"Open up this door before I kick it in!" Lord Castleigh's voice was punctuated by three short thumps that sounded very much like kicks already.
His father-in-law.
"Let's go," Jack said, herding everyone toward the adjacent room. "Out the back."
Nick grabbed Jack. "Wait. I'm not leaving until this is fixed." He pointed to the crumpled marriage certificate in his hand. "I didn't agree to marry her." He pointed to Ashley.
"And I agreed to marry you?" Ashley said, stepping between the brothers. She poked Nick in the chest with one finger. "If I had the choice between marrying you and eating a three-course meal of horse feces, I'd grab a napkin and fork."
"Is that so?" Nick looked down at her. "Well, if I had the choice between—"
"Do something!" Maddie hissed at Jack. "My father will be inside at any moment."
Jack turned to look at his wife. She was staring up at him, expecting him to save her—save all of them. What a disappointment he was going to be.
"... I'd drop my breeches," Nick was saying, "and ask for the hot coals."
"Enough," Jack said firmly, stepping between the lovebirds. "Castleigh is coming in, and I for one don't want to be on the other side of his pistol."
"But we can't leave," Ashley protested. "We need the priest to do the ceremony again and marry us to the right people."
"You go try and rouse him," Jack said, pushing past her and fumbling in the darkness for the back door. "I'm getting out of here."
He found the latch, then pulled the door open and jumped back as Castleigh's startled footmen leapt to attention.
"Oh, hell," Nick said, and then he was beside Jack. The two brothers dispatched the footmen in a matter of moments, and then both couples were standing in the moonlit courtyard.
"I think we should split up," Jack said. "If Sir Gareth is close behind Castleigh, we'll make it harder for them to catch us if we aren't all together."
"But I don't want to go with him," Ashley complained.
"Jack," Nick said, taking his brother by the shoulder, "we have to fix this. I'm going to go check on the priest. Maybe he's come around."
When Ashley followed Nick back into the blacksmith's shop, Jack turned to look at his new bride. "You want to go try and rouse the priest?"
She shook her head. "No. Do you?"
Jack looked at her for a long moment. He couldn't have orchestrated this muddle in a hundred years, and yet, while it was happening,
he hadn't stopped it. He'd known this would ruin him, and yet he'd stood silently, allowing the priest to marry him to the wrong woman. And he had a feeling Maddie had seen what was happening and allowed it to go on as well.
He took her hand. "I say, let the priest sleep it off. Come on."
He pulled her into a run, leaving the blacksmith shop, her irate father, and Nick and Ashley behind.
* * * * *
Maddie couldn't fathom where Jack could be taking her. They'd left the small town of Gretna, with its cozy inns and houses, and were once again trudging over a dark road. Actually, it was barely a road. She doubted a carriage could have even traversed the small, muddy trail. She supposed that was why Jack had chosen it.
He was moving quickly, his hand clamped firmly around hers, forcing her to keep up.
Or perhaps he just wanted to be certain she stayed by his side. He hadn't broken contact with her since they'd left the blacksmith shop.
Maddie shook her head. The exhaustion was playing tricks on her mind. Jack did not want to keep touching her. He did it out of necessity or because he had forgotten he still held her—not because he wanted to.
He had wanted Ashley.
And she had wanted Mr. Dover.
Oh, Mr. Dover—
She focused on breathing deeply and moving her leaden legs, refusing to think of her lost fiance. She would never stave off the tears if she thought of him. Or of poor Ashley, left with the wayward Lord Nicholas. Ashley must hate her for running off. And Maddie didn't blame her. She was a horrible friend.
And the worst part was that whenever she looked at Lord Blackthorne, she didn't care. She was glad he was hers and not Ashley's.
That was, until she remembered that he was all wrong for her.
Maddie's legs finally buckled and she tugged on Jack's hand. "I have ... to stop," she panted. "I'm too ... tired."
"We can't stop here," he told her, looking impatiently from her to the road. "We need to put more distance between us and your father."
Maddie shook her head. "I don't care. I don't care if he catches us. I'm going to collapse if we don't stop."
Jack stepped before her, cupped her face in his hands, and Maddie couldn't keep her eyes from closing and from enjoying the feel of his warm flesh against her chilled face. "Maddie, if we just go a bit farther, we'll arrive at a town. We can stay at an inn. You can have a bath and a meal. You don't want our wedding night to take place along the road, do you?"
Her eyes popped open. Wedding night? But he couldn't possibly be thinking of—
Oh, Lord. He probably was. He was a man. And she was his wife now.
He was right that she would have preferred a cozy inn to a patch of brush beside the road, but she was simply too tired. She could barely stand.
"I can't, Jack," she told him. "I want to go on, but I simply can't."
He took her hands. "I have another idea. Can you walk, or do I need to carry you?"
Maddie preferred to collapse right where she was, but she agreed to walk. She couldn't make Jack carry her, after all. The difficult part was getting her legs to cooperate, but with supreme effort she lifted one foot and then the other.
Her eyes were on the ground as she concentrated on making her feet continue to move. Consequently, she plowed into Jack when he stopped. She stumbled, but he caught her around the waist. Despite the fact that her body was numb and weary, she felt her skin tingle where he touched her.
"Careful," he said, and she wanted to heed the warning.
The problem was, she didn't know whether she should watch her step or her new husband. Both might prove dangerous.
"Stay here," he ordered. "I'll be back in a moment."
Maddie realized she'd been staring at his mouth. Now that he was gone, she looked around. They were on the outskirts of one of the many farms in the area, and Jack was heading for the small farmhouse. When he reached the door, he turned back and gave her a small wave, and then the door opened and light spilled out.
Maddie turned away so as not to be seen clearly. She was embarrassed at how wretched she must look. She could have certainly used a bath at an inn, but as it stood now, she would probably have fallen asleep and drowned in the water.
She didn't know what Jack said to the owners of the farm or even how long he spent talking with them. Somehow, she found herself in a clean, warm stable, resting on a bed of straw. She was able to open her eyes long enough to see Jack looking down at her with a worried expression, and she wanted to reach out and tell him that she was fine. Tired, but fine. But the words were too heavy for her mouth, and her eyes slid shut again.
She awoke the next morning when something snorted in her face. The thing snuffled and wheezed, and she opened her eyes and stared straight into the snout of a rather large pig. She jerked back, and the startled pig trotted out the stable door.
The stable where she'd been sleeping was quiet, and Maddie realized she was alone. The straw beside her was flat and matted, so she knew Jack must have slept there. Through the windows and doors, she could see that the morning was fairly advanced. The sun was out and the steel-blue skies of Scotland spread out above her.
She stood, though her muscles protested, and finally hobbled to the open stable door. She saw no one about, despite the evidence that someone had been there. The troughs were full and chicken feed had been spread. Seeing an old cloth covering a pail next to the door, she lifted it and saw bread and cheese.
She smiled and reached hungrily for a slab of the thick, country bread. She was so hungry, she might have devoured the entire contents of the pail. But she knew Jack would need sustenance as well, so with a slice of bread in hand, she began to search for her new husband.
Ten minutes later Maddie wondered if she'd been abandoned. She'd walked around the stable and gone up to the farmhouse, but saw no sign of him or anyone else. She was about to make her way back to the road when she saw a pair of ducks lift into the sky. Maddie frowned at the tight group of trees, realizing there must be a body of water behind them. Trudging in that direction, she found a battered path and followed it to a large, clear pond.
It was now late morning, and she stood on its banks and smiled. The grass near the edge had been worn away, and she could imagine many picnics on the soft soil where she stood. Across the pond, she saw a few ducks. A mother and her golden ducklings made a long line of ripples in the water. To her left were more trees, one with a rope hanging off it, and she imagined children swinging on it in the summer. Still smiling, Maddie turned to her right, and her breath caught in her throat.
To her right was a naked man.
More specifically, her naked husband. He hadn't heard her approach, and his back was to her. He stood thigh deep in the water, arms raised, brushing his wet, black hair off his forehead.
Maddie almost stumbled when she spotted him. She'd had no idea the male body could be so beautiful. His legs were long and muscled, the thighs chiseled like a sculpture. His bottom was round and firm, the cheeks a shade lighter than his bronzed body. His waist tapered in at the hips, making the breadth of his back and shoulders stand out in contrast.
His back was hard and muscled, the water from his wet hair sluicing over the ripples and planes. As he lowered his arms, muscles moved, and her heart sped up. She could imagine that hard flesh under her fingers, could imagine those muscled arms coming around her. The thought made her mouth dry.
And then a cloud moved away from the sun, light filtered through the trees, and Maddie saw what the overcast day had been concealing. What she had assumed were shadows were actually bruises on Jack's legs and back. Some were old, turning green and yellow, and some fairly new and still black and blue. But all looked as though they hurt.
She must have made a sound, must have inhaled or issued a small cry, because Jack turned and saw her looking at him. The concern in his face mirrored what she felt, and he started for her.
"Maddie, what's wrong. Did your father—"
She shook her head quickly,
unable to speak now that he had turned and she had the full frontal view of him. Lord, he was as magnificent from this angle as from behind.
He was also as bruised—no, even more so. His stomach, so lean and hard, was marred by black and blue smudges that extended over his ribs. His upper chest was relatively free of the painful marks, but as he approached through the shallow water, she could see scratches and scrapes almost everywhere.
Well, not everywhere. The poor man might be hurt, but she couldn't help gazing down at that one appendage so interesting and terrifying to virgins.
Yes, his manhood was there, and it appeared unhurt—not that she was any great judge, as this was the first of its kind she'd seen.
She quickly looked away, and Jack splashed up to her. "What's wrong?"
She reached out, grazing his shoulder with two of her fingers. "You're hurt. Jack, I didn't realize you were so bruised and—oh, your eye." Her fingers strayed to his face and the puffy, red skin next to one eye. She could see that he'd shaved this morning, and she could now make out old and new bruises on his jaw. She traced her finger down his smooth jaw and touched one fading mark.
"I'm fine." He caught her hand and held it.
When his fingers twined with hers, she realized that she was standing before a naked man and took a step back.
Jack followed.
"Perhaps you should dress," she said, looking behind her. "The owners may come upon us at any moment and—"
She trailed off as she looked back and he shook his head. "They've gone into town this morning," he said. "In fact, I asked them to let me know if they hear anything about your father or my brother."
Maddie blinked. "You told them who I was?"
Jack shrugged, obviously as unconcerned about this as his nakedness. He made no attempt to cover himself. "I don't think we're the first eloping couple to knock on their door. They seemed sympathetic, especially after I gave them a few pounds."
"You paid them?"
"The last of my blunt, too. I'll have to rely on my name and credit from now on." Jack winked at her. "Come here." He tugged on her arm, and she stumbled into him. It was an awkward tangle of limbs for a moment as Maddie tried to move away without touching him and Jack tried to pull her closer. Finally, he took her shoulders and held her still. "Calm down. You've got straw in your hair."