Married By Midnight

by Julianne MacLean

  The doctor glanced up. “I’m sure you had your reasons. You’re young. Sometimes it’s necessary to fly the coop and expand your horizons. Learn about the world. It all becomes a part of your life experience and later those experiences shape your future.” He put his scope back into his medical bag.

  Garrett watched him with growing interest. “How long have you been a medical man, if you don’t mind my asking?”

  “Quite a long time. Since before you were born.”

  “Did you always know you wanted to be a man of science?”

  The doctor sat down in the chair on the opposite side of the bed. “Most of my life, yes, though my father wanted me to join the army or navy. He felt it was beneath me to enter the medical profession.”

  “Who is your father?” Garrett asked, realizing he knew very little about Dr. Thomas.

  “Viscount Bradley. He’s dead now. My elder brother inherited the title, so at least now I am permitted back home to visit.”

  Garrett’s eyebrows lifted. “Your father cut you off?”

  “Yes, when I didn’t do what he wanted. He cut me out of his will entirely and we never spoke again.” Those familiar eyes met Garrett’s. “Which is why you have done the right thing by coming home. I will always wonder if perhaps my own estrangement with my father could have been resolved if I had made the effort. I would sleep better now if it had been.”

  Garrett considered all this. “If you could go back, would you do things differently and join the army instead? Do you regret your choices?”

  Dr. Thomas lowered his gaze. “Certain choices, yes, but not that one. I was never cut out for war. I have no desire to be anywhere near flying bullets—sent or received.”

  Garrett chuckled. “I cannot blame you. And I envy your ability to restore health to someone who is sick or dying.”

  They sat in silence for a while.

  “What will you do with yourself, Lord Garrett, when you have your inheritance? I understand you will receive a settlement on your wedding day. The duchess tells me you plan to return to Greece.”

  Garrett sighed. “That was my intention when I returned home, but now I find I am not as eager to leave as I thought I would be.”

  “I am sure your mother would be pleased to hear that. She’s missed you.”

  Garrett met the doctor’s steady gaze and found himself growing more curious about this man by the minute. “How long have you known my mother?”

  “A long time.”

  Garrett paused. “Are you married? Do you have children?”

  He cleared his throat. “Sadly I was never fortunate enough to become a husband, which has been my own loss in this life, to be sure. Lady Anne is lovely,” he added. “You are a very lucky man.”

  Garrett thanked the doctor for his assistance, then excused himself from his company—for after talking to Dr. Thomas and again, sensing something disconcertingly familiar in him, Garrett had a question of the utmost importance to ask his mother.

  * * *

  “I agree he is an excellent physician,” Adelaide said as she poured Garrett a cup of tea. “Much better than the one who came before him. That useless man refused to recognize that anything was wrong. He said only what your father wanted him to say.”

  “I’m not surprised,” Garrett replied. “Father was always a very intimidating man.” He leaned forward and set the cup and saucer down on the table. “There is another reason I am here, however. I have a question about Dr. Thomas.”

  Without meeting his gaze, Adelaide stirred her own tea and set the tiny spoon down in the saucer with a delicate clink.

  “How long have you known him?” Garrett asked.

  She rose from her chair and walked to the window where she briefly looked out, then turned to face Garrett. “A long time.”

  Somehow he could sense she knew what he had come here to ask, and that a secret was about to unfold itself.

  “What do you want to know, exactly?” she asked.

  “Everything. I want to know why Charlotte and I are...” He paused and took a breath. “I want to know what happened all those years ago. Most of all, I want to know if my suspicions are correct.”

  Adelaide cleared her throat. “Tell me Garrett. What are your suspicions?”

  He went to join her at the window. “When I saw Dr. Thomas walk toward me in the courtyard, it reminded me of Charlotte who ran out to meet me as I arrived home. Some expressions... His eyes are so like hers. And mine.

  “Mother.” Garrett paused and looked directly into her eyes. “Is the man who is caring for your husband at this very moment my real father? Or am I the second person in this house to go mad this Christmas?”

  Chapter Twelve

  Anne turned to look at her reflection in the cheval glass and glanced uneasily at Charlotte. “It’s beautiful, but are you sure you do not mind?”

  Charlotte smiled, but there was moisture in her eyes as she fastened the pearl buttons at the back of the gown, a gown designed for her own wedding day. Charlotte had confessed to Anne the night before that her fiancé—the great love of her life—had died tragically before they were married.

  “I am sure,” she replied. “Look, it fits you perfectly, and someone needs to wear it so it doesn’t simply collect dust for the next dozen years.”

  “Perhaps you might wish to wear it yourself one day?” Anne suggested.

  Charlotte shook her head somberly. “No. If I ever marry, I will want a different dress.”

  While Charlotte worked on the buttons, Anne continued to study her reflection and felt strangely as if she were watching herself move through a dream. One month ago she would never have believed she would be fitted for a wedding gown today.

  It was all a charade, of course, and very soon she would begin a new life that did not involve Garrett at all.

  “You look stunning,” Charlotte said as she fastened the last button. “Now you need jewelry... Pearls, I think. Yes, that’s what this needs.” She crossed to her dressing table and withdrew a blue velvet box from the bottom drawer. “These will do perfectly.” She returned to close the clasp around Anne’s neck.

  Anne couldn’t find words to describe her emotions. Everything was so perfect. Now. “You are too kind, Charlotte. Honestly...”

  Charlotte grinned conspiratorially. “Mark my words, he will fall over backwards when he sees you in the chapel. He won’t want to leave. He’ll be yours forever.”

  Anne gathered the heavy silk skirt in her hands and turned away from the cheval glass to face Charlotte. “That is very romantic, but you mustn’t say such things. You know the situation.” She picked up the train and walked to the chair to sit down.

  “I do, but I also know a perfect match when I see one, and I truly believe you and my brother are destined to be together. Why else would all this be happening?”

  Anne looked down and ran a finger over the fine silk bodice—an excuse not to look Charlotte in the eye. “I would prefer not to entertain such hopes. I have signed an agreement and I mean to fulfill my obligations.”

  Charlotte sat down, too. “Entertain such hopes? So you are hopeful. You do care for him? Please tell me. I consider you my friend. I want to know what you are feeling.”

  Oh, God... Anne kicked herself sternly. She should have chosen her words more carefully. Yet at the same time she feared she might burst if she didn’t soon confess her feelings to someone.

  “Yes, I do care for him,” she said, “but like you, I’ve had my heart broken. Garrett has been clear on the matter. He does not wish to be a married man. He wants his freedom and does not want a partner in life.”

  “But if he did want that, would you accept him?”

  “He doesn’t.”

  “But if he did,” she pressed. “If he declared himself madly in love with you and told you he couldn’t live another day without you, and got down on both knees to beg you to stay and be his true wife, would you not be the happiest woman alive?”

  A tiny ember of hope spa
rked within her at the prospect, and she felt her lips curl into a smile. “I think I would die of happiness,” she confessed.

  Charlotte’s whole face lit up like a sky full of exploding fireworks. “I knew it,” she said with a grin.

  Anne did not feel quite so jubilant, however, for it was not a dream she dared believe in. She had been disappointed once before by a man who abandoned her for money, and after the scandal, she’d had no choice but to forsake the idea of an honest marriage for herself.

  And Garrett—having just tragically lost a fiancée—seemed so very unattainable.

  “Please, Charlotte,” she said, “Do not encourage me in this. I do not wish to pursue something I cannot have.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  “No, but I know what I feel, and I fear I am headed for disaster if I imagine a fairy tale ending. I am afraid to believe it. Promise me you will help me keep a clear head.”

  Charlotte regarded her with reluctance.

  “Promise me,” Anne insisted, “or I will take this gown off immediately and wear the old rag I was wearing when I arrived.”

  Charlotte drew back in horror. “Good heavens, we cannot have that."

  “No, we certainly cannot.” Anne lifted the hem and looked down at her stockinged feet. “I will need shoes to go with this. And gloves. Can you help?”

  “Of course.” Charlotte went to hunt through her wardrobe, while Anne exhaled heavily with a growing angst that was beginning to weigh very heavily upon her heart.

  * * *

  Garrett followed his mother back to the sofa and urged her to sit down, for she had gone white as a sheet.

  “It’s been a very trying day,” she said. “First your father disappears, now this question from you.”

  “I only want to know the truth. I already know I am not legitimate, but we have never talked openly about it. Now that I am home, I need to understand.”

  She clasped his hand. “Of course you do, and I do not wish to keep anything from you. What would be the point now that your father is so ill? He will never come back to us like he once was.”

  Her voice trembled and Garrett squeezed her hand. “Tell me what happened all those years ago.”

  His mother sat back in her chair. “I will come straight to the point. Your intuition is correct...about Dr. Thomas.”

  For a long moment Garrett said nothing.

  “Does Charlotte know?”

  Adelaide nodded. “Yes. Like you, she suspected the truth when she met him. He has been coming to the palace since the spring, not long after Devon returned from America. Dr. Thomas is the most brilliant physician in London, and we all wanted the very best for your father.”

  “Why didn’t Charlotte tell me?” Garrett was surprised by this, for she was his twin—but he supposed he deserved to be kept outside the circle. He had abandoned her and the rest of his family by choice.

  “She would have told you eventually, I’m sure...when the time was right.”

  Garrett massaged his temples and tried to absorb all of this. “Is he your lover?”

  “Good heavens, no,” he mother firmly replied. “He is a friend to me now. Nothing more.”

  Garrett frowned. “Does he know I am his son?”

  “Yes.”

  Garrett recalled the moment he dropped to his knees in the Great Hall and Dr. Thomas arrived and took the duke from his arms, and then continued to carry him upstairs. In his mind, Garrett also went over their conversation a short while ago.

  Garrett admired the man’s intelligence and kindness, but this was not easy to accept.

  “It’s important for you to know something,” Adelaide said. “What happened between Dr. Thomas and me was not a brief, torrid affair. I was very young, to be sure, but I loved him and I still love him, though now it is a quieter sort of love.” She stood up and held out her hand. “Let us go for a walk outside in the fresh winter air. If I am going to tell you everything, Garrett, I must start at the beginning.”

  He took hold of her hand and rose to his feet.

  * * *

  A short while before it was time to dress for dinner, Anne was resting in her bed, fighting to clear her mind of Garrett, when a knock sounded at her door.

  She rose to answer it and found herself staring at the very face she was working so hard to forget.

  He wore his heavy overcoat and was turning his hat over in his hands. His cheeks were flushed and vibrant from the chill of the outdoors. “May I come in?”

  “Of course,” she replied without hesitating, and stepped aside.

  He entered and set his hat down on a chair, removed his coat and wasted no time before beginning to explain the reason for his visit.

  “I learned something today,” he said. “Something my brothers do not know—at least not yet—and since we are legally betrothed I feel you have a right to know.”

  There was something rather alarming in his voice, as if it were an emergency of some sort. With a pang of concern, she gestured toward the chairs in front of the fire. He went to sit down and warmed his hands while Anne took a seat across from him. “Should I send for tea, or something stronger?”

  He shook his head. Then he lounged back in the chair and ran a hand through his thick golden hair.

  Heaven help her, it was not easy to focus on the matter at hand when he was sprawled in the chair looking like a beautiful lion and all she wanted to do was lunge forward and rip his waistcoat open, slide her hands up under his shirt, and press her lips to his chest.

  Anne cleared her throat. “What happened?”

  He let out a sigh. “Sometimes I wonder if there are certain things in life that one is better off not knowing.”

  “What do you mean?”

  He reached for both her hands and held them. “I just spoke to my mother and learned the identity of my real father.”

  A log shifted on the grate and sparks flew up the chimney. Anne regarded him thoughtfully.

  “That’s good news, isn’t it?” she said. “Or perhaps you’re trying to tell me it’s not. What happened between them? Who is it? Are you at liberty to tell me?”

  “Believe it or not,” he replied, “it is someone you have met. Someone who knows my father quite intimately.” He paused, then shook his head again, as if he could not believe it himself.

  “Is it Dr. Thomas?” she asked.

  His eyes lifted. “Is it that obvious? Was I a fool not to see it sooner?”

  “Of course not. He is the only person I have met who seems a likely candidate.” She waited for Garrett to say something more, but he continued to rub the pads of his thumbs over her palms.

  “Are they together now?” she asked. “Are they lovers?”

  “She assures me they are just friends, but she also confessed that she does still love him and that he was the man she wanted to marry from a very young age.”

  “What else did she tell you about it?”

  He inhaled deeply. “She explained that they were raised in the same county, and he was the son of a viscount. Her father seemed agreeable to the match until the illustrious Duke of Pembroke set eyes on her in a London ballroom and decided he had to have her as his duchess. He immediately made an offer and her father demanded that she accept. She felt duty-bound to obey, meanwhile Dr. Thomas was being strong-armed to join the army.” Garrett bowed his head. “It seems the whole world was against them. Dr. Thomas later defied his father and went to medical school instead, was disowned and disinherited, so any hopes my mother clung to—that her own father might change his mind and allow her to marry the great love of her life—were lost. They were separated for almost ten years, but she never quite got over him.”

  “Then what happened?”

  “After providing three heirs to the Pembroke dukedom, she was abandoned by her husband in all ways. He resided in London, took an endless string of mistresses, and she was left to endure the humiliation of his indiscretions and excessive drinking. Eventually there came a night when she could
n’t endure it any longer and she left him. Mother says she saddled a horse and rode hard to reach Dr. Thomas, who promised to help her escape the life that had been so cruelly forced upon her. She was going to ask the duke for a divorce, but it never came to that. After a week away from Pembroke, she missed her boys—my three older brothers—and knew the duke would never let her see them again if she divorced him. So she left Dr. Thomas and returned home. Nine months later she gave birth to Charlotte and me.”

  “My word,” Anne said, leaning back in her chair. “Did the duke know the truth?”

  Garrett nodded. “Yes, and he accepted us as his own only to avoid a scandal. As for Dr. Thomas, he was quite devastated when she returned to Pembroke, determined to be a faithful wife. Consequently he never married. Since he couldn’t be with the woman he loved, he devoted his life to the study of medicine and the human brain. At one time, she needed his help when I was very ill as a child, and he managed my care. I vaguely remember certain details about his kindness. Then last spring—to help the very man who stole her away from him—he was steadfast in his duties to help the duke. Mother said he has been a godsend, and I confess, I must agree.”

  Anne closed her eyes, raised Garrett’s hand to her lips and kissed it. “Oh, my darling. What will you do? Have you told Dr. Thomas that you know the truth?”

  Silence. No response.

  When she opened her eyes, Garrett was watching her mouth. Her heart began to race as he slowly, gently stroked his thumb across her chin and along the line of her jaw. His eyes glimmered with desire.

  She wanted so badly to be practical about this man, but every time he touched her, or simply looked at her as he was looking at her now, she melted into a puddle of intense yearning.

  Garrett sat forward on the edge of his chair and cupped her face in his hands. His lips touched hers in a soft, brush-like stroke of teasing allure. The sizzling heat of his lips caused a spark of electricity to explode in her veins and shoot all the way down to her toes. She was easily enticed out of her chair and before she realized it, Garrett was easing her down onto the soft mattress and covering her body with his own.