“What have you done, you old fool?” Jonathan asked and, for the first time, a cool anger crept into his voice. “How do you think this will end for you, hmm? Are you going to kill us all, too? Me? Andrew? Evelyn? Do you really think you’ll walk away from the mass murder of agents of the Crown and an earl and countess to boot?”
“I don’t like your tone, Jonathan.” Piers scowled.
“I don’t like your plan, old timer,” Jonathan retorted.
Piers’ face flushed with anger. “Stand aside and nobody else has to die,” He said now.
“You’ll let Gabby go?”
“No, I’ll kill Gabby,” he answered as though this was the most natural thing in the world.
“Over my dead body,” Jonathan growled.
Piers sighed as though he were terribly hard done by. “If you insist, I’ll kill you too.”
Jonathan laughed again. “You’ll try.”
“You’re surrounded, Jon,” Piers spat, and his eyes were gleaming with that insane fire they’d held before. “You are willing to die? For all of you to die? For one little French bitch who ruined my life?” He finished on a screech and cocked the pistol in his hand.
Everything happened in such a rush, Gabby barely knew what was going on.
She saw that Piers was preparing to shoot Jonathan, so she stepped out from behind him, dagger raised.
The sound of another gunshot exploded around her, then another, and another, and for a split second, she thought she was too late and that Piers had pulled the trigger, but he hadn’t.
He looked round in consternation before swinging his eyes back to where she and Jonathan stood side by side.
His aim switched suddenly to her head, and Gabby saw the bloodlust in his eye.
She watched with a strange sort of detachment, as though time had slowed down. His finger started to compress the trigger on the loaded gun.
As though caught in a nightmare, she watched the evil, triumphant grin spread across his face.
But before he got a shot off, something tugged at her hand, and in the next second, Piers’ eyes widened in shock before he slumped forward then fell to the ground with a sickening thud.
JONATHAN WATCHED AS the last of life drained from Piers’ body.
Gabby’s dagger, which Jonathan had grabbed and thrown straight at Piers’ black heart, was buried in that black organ, and it seemed fitting to Jonathan that it should be her dagger that ended this all.
Piers Casings.
The man who had mentored him, watched over him, taught him.
And, ultimately, betrayed him.
Jonathan didn’t have time to sort through his feelings right now. He didn’t even have time to fully appreciate the fact that with Piers dead, Gabby was safe.
Not while they were still surrounded by Piers’ men.
He grabbed Gabrielle’s hand and swiftly moved to the back of the carriage in order to help Andrew fend off the rest of their attackers.
However, what he saw stopped him in his tracks.
One footman was writhing on the ground in obvious agony, clutching his shoulder. The other three were corralled at the back of the carriage, and, standing over them, weapons cocked, were Andrew and Lucas Townsend.
Evelyn held the reins of two extra horses. The others, Jonathan assumed, had bolted.
Jonathan took in the picture in front of him in silence.
“Is it done?” The question came from Andrew, his tone grim.
Jonathan looked around once more then glanced back to where Piers lay on the cold, hard ground. Finally, he looked at Gabby, pale-faced, no doubt from shock.
And it hit him.
It was done.
Gabrielle was free.
Suddenly, his mood lifted, and though he would mourn for the Piers he thought he had known, nothing could have dampened his happiness. Smiling at the only woman who had ever held his heart, he turned back to Andrew, feeling more at peace than he had in years.
“It’s done,” he confirmed.
CHAPTER THIRTY
“ARE YOU READY?”
Gabrielle turned at the sound of Lucas’ voice from the doorway.
She was standing in her large suite of rooms in Jonathan’s home, which was mercifully not far from the small village church where she was about to marry her beloved.
Had anyone told her six months ago that she would be marrying Jonathan Spencer, the man she had thought was lost to her forever, she would have believed them fit for Bedlam. Yet, here she stood in a gown of finest ivory silk, a French-lace veil covering her sable hair, and she felt more ready for this than anything before in her life.
“I am.” She smiled in response to Lucas’ question. “Just one more thing to fetch. Can you hold these?”
Gabby held out the bouquet of sweet-smelling pink roses, tied with an ivory ribbon to match her gown.
Lucas frowned at them for a moment as though he wasn’t sure quite what to do with them, but after a pause he took them gently, as though expecting them to break into a million pieces as soon as he touched them.
Gabby walked to the small table in the corner of the room and snatched up her trusty dagger before lifting one leg onto a stool and proceeding to stash the weapon into a holster hidden beneath her wedding gown.
“Gabby, what on earth are you doing?” Lucas asked in astonishment.
Gabby finished her ministrations before standing and shaking out her gown then turned to him with an eyebrow raised.
“I’m French, Lucas,” she said matter-of-factly. “Do you know what they do to brides in France, hmm?” She took Lucas’ silence as her cue to continue. “They attack her, that’s what.”
“What? Why?” Lucas exclaimed.
Gabby sighed, impatient to get outside to the carriage that would bring her, Lucas, and Evelyn to the church. Andrew was there already with Jonathan. Anna had kindly gone ahead too, so that she could watch over William.
“Because,” she explained now as she walked over to him, retrieved her bouquet, and thrust her arm through his in order to hurry him along, “it is an old and silly tradition in France, where taking a piece of the bride’s gown is good luck. And,” she continued wickedly, “the only one I want removing pieces of this gown is my husband.”
Lucas looked satisfyingly uncomfortable as they left her bedchamber and proceeded down the staircase.
“Well, we are in England,” he said now, “and I am quite sure that you are safe from attack, whether it be for luck or not. I hardly think you need to wield a weapon in a church.”
Gabby was unrepentant. “I’d rather not take any chances,” she said mutinously.
They stepped outside into the blazing sun. It seemed fitting that the weather would be so sunny and warm. It was the most beautiful day in the world.
The birds singing and cloudless blue sky lifted Gabby’s heart. Finally, she was going to have what she had wanted for years: a beautiful, peaceful life with the man she adored.
They climbed into the back of the waiting carriage. Evelyn, who had met them in the entrance hall, looking lovely in pale pink satin, helped Gabrielle to settle into a seat beside her, and Lucas sat opposite them.
At last they were off.
“Thank you for agreeing to walk me down the aisle, Lucas. It means the world to me.” Gabrielle smiled up into the handsome face of her old friend.
It had taken some convincing and no small amount of female manipulation before Lucas agreed to even attend the wedding, let alone be in it.
He and Jonathan had very nearly become friends since their run-in with Piers several weeks ago.
At first, Jonathan had been suspicious of Lucas’ presence at the scene. But after Lucas confessed that he’d been suspicious of Piers for quite some time, convincing them that was the reason he’d been around so much when he first brought Gabby to England, Jonathan seemed to warm to him.
Lucas had explained that since it was only his gut instinct that had told him Piers wasn’t to be trusted, there was n
o point in mentioning it to anyone else. With Piers’ standing in the Home Office, nobody would have believed him.
When Jonathan had arrived in Norfolk, Lucas had assumed it would have been safe to leave Gabby and not keep such a close eye on things. He’d rushed back to London to look further into Piers’ background and the circumstances surrounding Gabby’s attack.
Piers had never liked him, and Lucas had been worried that he would try to pin the attacks on him. He’d never guessed, he told them all when they’d come back to Town, that he would try to blame Jonathan. It had been pure coincidence that Lucas had stopped by headquarters when Jonathan’s escape had been discovered.
Lucas had decided to travel to Norfolk to see what was going on and, mercifully, had come upon them on the road.
“I would not have missed your wedding for the world, Gabby,” Lucas answered with a smile.
“My wedding,” Gabby repeated the words, relishing the sound of them. “I cannot believe I am actually about to be married.”
She laughed with all the carefree joy she was finally able to feel.
Her whole life lay ahead of her.
And it began with the man who was now awaiting her in the small chapel in this sleepy English town.
It wasn’t Paris, with its dangerous assignments and debauched lifestyle.
It wasn’t London with its soirees and intrigues.
No, it was a small village of no consequence to anyone who didn’t know about it, and their life here would be quiet and peaceful and uneventful.
And nothing sounded more heavenly.
EPILOGUE
“I CANNOT BELIEVE your husband has left you alone long enough for us to be able to have this conversation. He hasn’t left your side since we arrived at the church,” Lucas quipped.
“I know.” Gabby grinned, loving how attentive Jonathan had been. “There was an issue with the wine, I believe. Anna needed him.”
As soon as Lucas stiffened, Gabby felt like clamping a hand over her mouth. Of course, the damage had already been done.
Though she still had no idea what had gone on between Lucas and Jonathan’s sister, it was obviously a painful subject for them both.
Gabrielle already loved Anna and could honestly say she had never met a kinder, more beautiful soul in her life. Yet, Lucas seemed to despise the woman. It was most odd.
And as for Anna, Gabby had mentioned Lucas once to the lady, but after Anna’s cheeks had paled significantly, she hadn’t brought him up again. In fact, she’d been dreadfully worried about Lucas being here today, but Jonathan had assured her that everything would be well.
And it had been, but only because Lucas and Anna had studiously avoided each other all day.
Gabby looked up at her friend now, shocked to see anguish in his navy blue eyes. Before she could ask him anything, however, he stiffened further still, and Gabby saw her husband and the subject of Lucas’ clear distress come back into the room.
Jonathan’s eyes scanned the crowd, and as soon as they landed on her, the amber flared to fiery light.
Gabby’s skin prickled at the look he gave her as he stalked toward her.
Dear Lord, how she loved him.
And he was hers.
Anna, looking resplendent in ice-blue silk walked with him, distractedly looking at the footmen carrying trays of champagne through the room full of guests. She looked up as she reached them, however, and Gabby saw her eyes, the same unusual colour as Jonathan’s, widen in surprise and something else. Joy?
“Captain Townsend,” Anna spoke softly. “It is good to see you again.”
For a moment, Gabby thought Lucas would ignore the lady altogether. Jonathan obviously thought so too, as the arm he had round Gabby’s waist tightened almost painfully.
“And you, Mrs. Grant,” Lucas finally answered though his tone was so dead, so formal, he may have been talking to a stranger.
Before any other conversation could be conducted, Lucas turned to Gabrielle and Jonathan. “I must take my leave. My ship sails to the Americas in less than a week, and I have much to do to prepare. Thank you for inviting me.”
With a general bow in the direction of all three of them, Lucas swept from the room, leaving behind a tense silence.
Anna’s cheeks flushed red, and Gabby thought she might cry, but with a mumbled excuse, she turned and fled the room before Gabby could check that she was well.
“I’ll kill him,” Jonathan growled.
Gabby rolled her eyes. “You do not even know what happened, Jonathan.”
“I don’t need to,” he retorted.
“Hmm. So, you intend to spend our wedding night hunting down men to kill, do you?”
The change in Jonathan at Gabby’s words was instantaneous. He went from angry, overprotective brother to seductive rake in a flash.
Gabby’s heart sped at the look he gave her.
Jonathan leaned closer and whispered in Gabby’s ear exactly what he intended to spend their wedding night doing.
His whisper, his breath tickling the sensitive skin of her ear, the heat from his body pressed so closely to her own, all made Gabby dizzy with desire.
She reached out and gripped the lapels of his superfine, whimpering as a wave of intense need wracked her body.
Jonathan straightened back up, the smug smile letting her know that he knew exactly what he’d done to her.
“You are scandalous,” she threw at him, though her voice still trembled.
“Not scandalous, sweetheart,” he said with a wicked smile, “just desperately in love.”
Her heart melted at his words.
“You really do not mind a life free from assignments?” she teased, knowing that he was just as eager as she to start a new, quiet life together. “Free from excitement and daring adventure?”
“Well,” he answered with a wicked grin, “I won’t have time for assignments, since I shall have to dedicate all of my time to pleasing my wife.” He reached out a hand and trailed a finger along the sweetheart collar of her wedding gown, eliciting a gasp of shocked pleasure from Gabby.
“And I believe in doing so, I shall have all the excitement I can handle,” he drawled, his voice along with his hand causing her very blood to hum with excitement.
“And as for daring adventure,” he whispered, drawing her close, pulling her toward an alcove, hiding them from the people milling round them, “well, my love, you are all the adventure I need. So you see…” His speech was interspersed now with tiny, sinful kisses along her jawline as his mouth made its way to her ear. “…loving you is just about all the daring I can handle. And it’s all I’ll ever want, for the rest of my days.”
His lips finally captured her own in a searing kiss, and Gabby decided living with Jonathan and what he did to her was just about all she could handle, too.
And all she would ever want, for the rest of her days.
The End.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
NADINE MILLARD is a writer hailing from Dublin, Ireland. Before writing historical romance, Nadine worked in law and has a degree in legal studies. She now divides her time between raising her three beautiful children, writing and hiding her online shopping addiction from her long suffering husband, Larry.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
AS ALWAYS, my biggest thanks go to my wonderful readers, family and friends who allow me to take this amazing journey. I appreciate you all and the continued support. To everyone involved in Blue Tulip Publishing; thank you for your patience and for helping me to grow as a writer. Last but certainly not least, my thanks to my wonderful husband Larry who has supported me more than I could ever say, and given me my beautiful children.
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