The Bad Luck Wedding Night, Bad Luck Wedding series #5 (Bad Luck Abroad trilogy)

by Geralyn Dawson

  "I said, don't tell me how I felt."

  "Not that part. The other part. The now part."

  Nick grimaced and attempted a retreat. "I don't think this is an appropriate time for this particular discussion. Your friends and my family followed me here determined to join the search. One of them is liable to check this warehouse any minute."

  "I don't care if Queen Victoria arrives, I want to have this discussion here and now. You can't toss out something that profound and leave it lying between us like a... like a..."

  "Skunk?"

  She responded with a droll look and silence. He scowled. Surrendered. "Oh, all right. I love you, Sarah."

  She took a step backward, slumped against a crate. Bewilderment painted her face. "You've never said it before."

  Annoyance rippled through Nick. She didn't have to look so surprised. He exhaled a harsh, frustrated breath. "Maybe I was waiting for you to say it first. You're the one who is being stubborn about agreeing to make a go of this marriage. A man does have his pride, you know."

  "Oh. Well."

  " 'Oh. Well?' " He braced his hands on his hips and loomed over her. "That's all you have to say?"

  Now she was the one licking dry lips. "I suppose you want to know how I feel about you."

  "The thought did occur, yes."

  Her complexion took on a greenish tint that stirred panic in Nick's soul. She doesn't...

  "I do."

  He waited a beat. "Do what?"

  "Love you." She swallowed hard. "I love you, too."

  He froze like a stone. "Say it again."

  Now a smile fluttered at her lips. "I love you, Nick."

  Sunlight burst across the darkness of Nick's lonely soul. A smile began in his heart and worked its way slowly to his lips. "Thank God."

  He pulled her into his arms and kissed her, long and lovingly. He kissed her with joy, with promise, and with passion. When they finally broke apart, he rested his forehead against hers, and said softly, "You won't be sorry, Sarah. We'll have a good life, I promise. You'll like it here in England."

  She pulled away, gazed up at him with worry clouding her eyes, and Nick got a bad feeling in his stomach.

  * * *

  Sarah's stomach rolled and pitched so much she thought she might just throw up. Desire ran heavy and hot within her, and her woman's core felt empty and aching. But it was her heart that gave her the most trouble at the moment. The coppery sensation of fear had her heart firmly in its grip.

  "Nick... about my staying. I'm not... I don't..."

  He took a long step back. Cautiously, he asked, "You don't what?"

  She fumbled for the words and ended up with a weak, "I need more time."

  Frustration flashed in his eyes. "Damnation, Sarah! Why are you saying this? I don't understand. I love you. You love me. Shouldn't that take care of all the questions?"

  "One would think so, yes. But love didn't exactly solve our problems last time, did it?"

  "That was different." He exhaled loudly. "We were little more than children then. We didn't know how to make compromises. I was wrong to ask you to leave with me on such short notice, and I know seeing me with Susan Harris complicated matters. But if we'd been more honest with each other and compromised, been flexible, we could have made it work. Now we have a second chance. We can make our marriage work this time around."

  Sarah wasn't so certain, and she fought to find the words to explain. "I don't know if I believe that love can overcome everything."

  Again he raked his fingers through his hair in frustration. "We can work something out about where we live. I'm willing to spend time in Texas every year, although I'd prefer it not to be the summer. It's compromise, Sarah. That's all. Love and a willingness to compromise."

  "Oh, Nick." Despair washed through her in waves. "The prospect of living in England isn't nearly as daunting as it once was. The McBrides' visit has proven to me that distance need not mean the end of special friendships. They may require a little extra care to maintain, but anything worthwhile deserves an investment of time. It's the rest of it—"

  He waited. When she didn't speak, he prodded, "Rest of what? Is it the title? Are you still afraid to take your place in Society as a marchioness?"

  "No, I'm comfortable with that now, too. The wedding festivities have shown me I can hold my own in that particular shark pool."

  "In that case, I don't see what is still holding you back. I have to tell you I find that both perplexing and annoying. Please explain yourself."

  "I'm trying," she snapped.

  "Try harder," he snarled back. "I'm a good man, Sarah, but I'm at the end of my patience."

  She pushed past him and began to pace, trying to find the words to express the emotions in her heart. She didn't blame him for losing patience with her. She was fed up with herself.

  "Sarah, I'm waiting. What's wrong? Is it me? Did I do—"

  The challenge in his tone was enough to fan her temper and loosen her tongue. "It's not you. Nothing is wrong with you. You're perfect! That's the problem. You're a wonderful husband and a wonderful brother and I'm sure that someday you'll be a wonderful father. You're handsome and intelligent and kind and just wicked enough to be interesting. You're an excellent friend, a savvy spy, a loyal and dedicated servant of your queen. The only bad thing about you is, you have a tendency to be bossy, and that is something I can just ignore."

  "Thank you, I think. So what, pray tell, is the problem here?"

  "It's me." Realization of the truth was a blow to the heart that shattered it into little pieces. "I'm the problem, Nick. I don't think I can be the wife you deserve."

  "What nonsense is this?"

  "It's not nonsense. It's the truth. Something is wrong with me as a woman. I don't... I don't like sexual relations, and you are too much a man to be content with a woman who doesn't enjoy the physical aspect of marriage. You'd never be happy with me, not in the long term. You'd find someone else who could give you what you need in that respect, and that would break my heart."

  Nick turned his head away and muttered a dozen different invectives, each more colorful and more base than the last. But it was his final comment that offended her the most.

  "If that's not by far the most idiotic, feebleminded, insanely stupid thing I have ever heard a woman say. And I've heard plenty of women say plenty of ridiculous things."

  She stiffened. "Well, pardon me."

  "I damn well won't. Not as long as you are repeating such utter nonsense."

  "It's not nonsense. I don't like sex."

  "Liar." He braced his hands on his hips and leaned forward. "I seduced you with the Pillow Book and you liked it. You sure as hell liked what I did to you in the garden at Charlotte's ball."

  "That wasn't sex."

  "It wasn't?" He smacked his forehead with the palm of his hand. "Fancy that. Here I've gone all these years thinking I knew what sex was."

  "You know what I mean."

  He snapped his fingers. "Oh, you mean no ride up the cockloft. Of course. The expression of love doesn't count if a man doesn't dip his spoon and give his gravy."

  "Don't be vulgar."

  "You're the one being vulgar, Sarah. I made love with you, and you liked it. You loved it. Saying you didn't is the lie."

  "I'm not lying," she insisted, a sob in her voice. "I'm trying to tell you my deepest feelings, my deepest fears, and you aren't listening. You're laughing at me."

  "That's because your fears and feelings are so damned insulting!" Anger blazed, but deep within himself, Nick felt a core of cold, bitter hurt. He halfway suspected if he looked down, he'd see a knife buried in his chest. "In saying you are not woman enough for me, you're telling me I am not man enough for you."

  "No, Nick."

  "You don't trust me to be man enough to show you you're a woman. You claim to love me, but you don't believe in me."

  "That's not true."

  "Then prove it. I dare you. Here. Now. Lord Lovesick has graciously provided
a mattress. Let's throw him and the skunks out of here and put it to use. I'll make you scream your pleasure, Lady Weston. Damned if I won't."

  Tears spilled down her cheeks, and she wrapped her arms around herself "No, Nick. Don't."

  God, he felt like crying himself. His chest heaved with the force of the breaths he took. He clenched his jaw, glared at his wife. Felt ill.

  "Come to think of it, perhaps you're right," he said, his voice furiously flat "Perhaps you're not enough woman for me. A woman worthy of the love I am aching to give her would be willing to follow me into fire, much less the marriage bed. Perhaps you've been right all along. Perhaps we're not suited. Perhaps we should see this annulment done and you should just go back to Texas."

  Unable to look at her any longer, he turned away and attempted to force his attention back to Lord Chambers and the problem he presented the Crown. He'd covered half the distance between where he'd left Sarah and where Chambers sat tied, when he heard the surprising sound of his sister Aurora's happy shout. "Here they are, Mrs. McBride. In here. Nick has found her!"

  After that, chaos reigned.

  The entire Texas contingent and Nick's sisters streamed into the warehouse. Shouts and screeches of joy echoed through the building as the females reunited with hugs and dances, laughter and giggles. Nick observed the exchange with a bittersweet ache in his heart and wondered about the circumstances that allowed the women to be here in the warehouse district rather than safely at home.

  Charlotte ran to him, wrapped her arms around his waist, and gave him a big hug. "Thank you, Nick. We were all so scared. We love her so much."

  "I know, sweetheart," he said, the words catching in his throat. "I know."

  The McBride brothers approached and began firing questions like bullets. Sarah wandered over to provide some of the answers about what had happened to her since leaving Weston House that morning. With a brotherly arm draped around Charlotte's shoulders, and making a point not to look at his wife, Nick added some of the details Sarah skipped. As a result, he only vaguely listened when Aurora went courting calamity.

  "Oh, look. Some awful person has caged this funny-looking cat and her kittens. Isn't that awful? I don't believe in caging animals, and a mama and her kittens... that just makes me so angry!"

  From that moment on, time slowed to a crawl. His arms fell away from Charlotte as he turned in time to see his youngest sister throw back the blanket covering the skunk cage and kneel down. He heard Emma McBride shout, "No!" even as Aurora unlatched the door.

  "Aurora, no! Get away!" Nick called, shoving his elder sister toward the McBride men and stepping forward as the mama skunk snapped at Aurora, who pulled her hand back just in time.

  "Skunk!" Maribeth McBride yelled, darting for the exit.

  "Oh, hell. You're getting married in a week," Tye McBride said as he pushed Charlotte out the warehouse door.

  Nick stood at the doorway, his gaze on the skunk as he circled his hand in the air, motioning for the ladies to hurry. But Melanie and Aurora, unfamiliar with the ugliness that awaited them, were slow to follow the McBride females as they darted toward the exit.

  "Aurora, Melanie! Run. Now!"

  English ladies to the end, the girls walked briskly instead.

  Sarah muttered something and started toward them, but Jenny grabbed her hand as she flew past, tugging her friend along with her. Trace McBride followed his wife outside.

  Seconds passed like minutes as Nick, with a growing sense of doom, watched his sisters bring up the rear. Their hesitation had cost them. "It's too late," Nick muttered as the mama skunk stomped her feet.

  The skunk's tail came up.

  "Damnation."

  She sprayed.

  The acrid stink of skunk musk filled the air along with Aurora's and Melanie's screams.

  Now they ran. They ran and screamed and choked and screamed some more until Aurora paused just long enough to bend over and vomit.

  "Damnation," Nick repeated. "Today has not been my day."

  He stepped back inside the warehouse to help his miserable, frightened sisters. Almost immediately his eyes began to burn. His skin tingled, and curses as nasty as stench in the air tumbled off his tongue.

  This was all that cursed Chambers's fault. He turned his head to glare at the cause of all this trouble, and despite his disgust with the man, Nick couldn't help but wince. Chambers was rolling on the floor, groaning. He'd caught a direct hit of the foamy yellow spray.

  "Oh, my eyes hurt," Melanie moaned as Nick hurried her and Aurora outside. "They burn."

  The others waiting outside took a big step back, then circled around Nick and the girls, taking position upwind. Aurora sniffled. "My eyes burn, too. And my skin. Am I going blind? Is my skin going to turn black as though it's been on fire?"

  "No. You'll be all right in time," Nick said. "I promise."

  "I think I'm going to be sick again," Aurora sobbed. "What was that animal?"

  "They're skunks. That odor is their defense."

  "It's all over me!" Melanie wailed, pulling away from Nick and brushing at her sleeves, her bodice, her skirt. "Get it off me. I need it off. I'm going to jump in the river."

  "Yeew," observed Emma McBride, covering her mouth and nose. "Wouldn't that compound the problem?"

  "I think it's in their hair." Maribeth McBride leaned toward her mother and lowered her voice. "They won't have to shave their heads, will they?"

  Nick winced, and Aurora and Melanie gasped, their hands flying to their heads. "No!"

  The howls rose another octave.

  "No, you won't need to shave your heads," Sarah said, her face locked in a grimace as she stepped forward—just a little—and took charge. "We'll get you home and out of these clothes. I've heard a number of different treatments for skunk odor. We'll use them all. Now, we'll need separate transportation home for those of us who were inside, and those who made it out. Trace, would you find us an open-air wagon? Buy it if you must Jenny, if you and Claire would take the girls home in our coach and ask Mrs. Higgins to send someone for tomato juice—lots of it, carbolic soap, vinegar, ammonia. Can you think of anything else?"

  Claire nodded. "I've also heard a mixture of hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, and soap is quite effective in neutralizing this particular odor. You apply it in a paste while it still bubbles."

  Tye McBride squeezed his wife's shoulder, then called out to Melanie and Aurora as he left to retrieve the coach. "Don't worry, girls, we'll get rid of the smell. It simply takes a little time."

  "How much time?" Melanie asked.

  Trace offered a comforting smile as he, too, departed. "Oh, only a week or so."

  "A week!" all the girls exclaimed. "It can't last a week. Charlotte's wedding is in a week."

  Now even the clean-smelling females were wailing and moaning. Nick wanted to cover his ears with his hands. Instead, he tried to comfort his stinky sisters. Sarah, he was glad to see, looked after Charlotte.

  In the midst of this turmoil, Jenny McBride motioned toward the warehouse and brought up another smelly subject. "Nick, you do realize we still have a bit of a problem in there, don't you?"

  Nick did know, he'd simply been trying not to think about it.

  Jenny continued, "What are you going to do about Lord Chambers?"

  Overhearing the question, Sarah stiffened, and her gaze whipped around to meet his. Damn her whisky eyes, he thought. Damned if she wasn't still pleading for the bastard. Nick's stomach took a nauseated roll that had nothing to do with the skunk spray.

  Nick turned his face toward the wind in hopes of soothing the burning discomfort in his eyes. In the periphery of his vision, he saw Sarah give Charlotte one more hug before releasing her. She then turned toward Nick, swallowed hard, and squared her shoulders. "Nick? Please let Trevor go. I would say that under the circumstances, he has been justly punished."

  "I'll cut him loose," Nick replied, grimly addressing Jenny McBride instead of his wife. He couldn't talk to her now. He jus
t couldn't. "He can wait until after the girls are settled, though, and the warehouse has aired out a bit. He brought this trouble on himself."

  "I won't argue that," Jenny said, her worried gaze shifting between Nick and Sarah.

  Moments later, Tye McBride arrived with the coach. His family and Charlotte climbed inside. One foot on the step, Sarah turned to look at him, a dozen different questions in her sad and somber eyes.

  Nick's answer was to turn away.

  The stinging in his eyes grew worse and he blinked rapidly, blaming it on the skunk musk, as the coach rattled off Turning his attention to a wretched Aurora and a miserable Melanie, he attempted to console them until Trace arrived with transportation.

  "A refuse wagon?" Aurora wailed.

  Melanie moaned. "If anyone sees us, I'll die!"

  With three daughters of his own, Trace was well prepared. He tossed a pair of blankets from the front of the wagon into the back. "You can use these to hide yourself No one will know it's you under there, and I won't let anyone stop us."

  Aurora held the blanket like a lifeline until a worrisome thought occurred. "What if someone tries to dump trash in the wagon?"

  "Trace will run them down," Nick assured her. "Right, McBride?"

  "I'll squash them flat."

  "Good," Melanie declared. Sniffing and releasing an occasional sob, the two girls climbed into the back of the wagon and pulled the blankets over their heads.

  "Speaking of squashing flat," Trace said to Nick from a safe distance upwind. "What are you planning to do about Chambers?"

  Nick closed his eyes and shook his head. "I have half of Scotland Yard out looking for him. I can't simply send them a note saying never mind. I expect Lord Kimball or one of his men to arrive at any moment now. I thought I'd turn Chambers over with a recommendation to give him a bar of carbolic soap and help him find his way aboard the Hampstead. It sails tonight." He paused a moment, then added, "Sarah was right. His punishment has been fitting."

  The Texan nodded, then glanced toward the warehouse. "What about the skunks?"

  Yet another subject he'd tried to avoid. Nick sighed wearily. "I can't leave them to run free, can I?"

  "I shouldn't think so."