"Don't come any closer," Chet said.
"You might as well give it up," Zac said. "You're not going anywhere. If you harm one hair on her head, I'll kill you."
"I've got a gun."
"I've got two of them," Zac said, pulling the pistols out of his pockets. Zac started walking toward Lily. "Let her go."
"Stay where you are."
"Give it up, Chet," Zac said, his pace never slowing. "You can't win."
"Let me have him," Monty said. He'd come around the west side of the building.
"I'm the best marksman in the family," Hen said, approaching from the opposite side. "I can pick him off any time you say the word."
Finding himself suddenly facing three men with guns, and all escape on land cut off, Chet looked wild eyed. He struggled to drag Lily into a boat pulled up on the shore, but he couldn't control her and hold on to his pistol.
"Come on, Chet," Zac said, only a few yards away now. "I admire a good bluff, but you're bucking an unbeatable hand. You've sometimes been an unwise gambler, but you've never been a stupid one."
"Get in the boat," Chet said to Lily. "Get in, or I'll shoot Zac."
Zac started forward.
"Don't bother," a voice said from somewhere above them. "I can still shoot the pips out of a playing card. I guess that's good enough to hit a coward's back."
It was George. He was on the pier, about ten feet above their heads.
Chet whipped around, loosening his hold on Lily. She broke away and fell to the ground. Chet swung around, horrified to find himself exposed to the aim of four guns. Blind fury flared in his eyes, and he swung his pistol toward Lily.
A fusillade of gunfire filled the air, and Chet Lee sank to the ground, his body riddled with bullets.
* * * * *
"He came into the bride's room just after Dodie and Julie left," Lily told Zac as they traveled back to the church. "I was playing cards to keep from being so nervous. I had dealt only one when he cornered me."
"The Jack of spades."
"I couldn't think what to do. No one would hear my screams over the organ. I knocked the other cards on the floor hoping you'd figure out what I meant."
"I call that very good thinking. So was falling down. But I'm afraid it's muddied your gown."
"I don't care about my gown as long as you meant what you said."
"You mean the part where I shouted I love you?"
Lily smiled shyly. "Yes, that's the part."
"I meant every word of it," Zac said. "I had to be crazy not to figure it out before."
"Are you sure?" Lily asked. "I mean, are you really sure?"
"Maybe this will help convince you."
When Lily emerged from Zac's embrace, slightly more rumpled, she sighed and leaned back against the seat cushions.
"We'll have to call off the wedding. I've ruined my dress."
Panic held Zac in its iron grip. After getting this far, they couldn't stop now. "Nobody will notice."
"Of course they will," Lily said, pointing to a huge stain. "Besides, I imagine everyone will have left by now."
With a terrible sinking feeling, Zac realized he was going to have to share with Lily the secret he'd hope to take to his grave. If he let the wedding be cancelled now, he'd never arrange another one without telling everybody what he had done. Lily might not kill him -- he hoped she wouldn't -- but he knew his brothers would. He guessed he was going to find out if she really loved him after all.
"I've got a confession to make," he said. "Please don't say anything until I'm finished."
"Is it that awful?" Lily asked.
"Worse. We're not married."
"What?"
"We're not married. I had Windy Dumbarton perform the ceremony and fill out all the papers but not register them. I didn't believe you would want to stay married to a gambler," he said, rushing ahead. "I was sure after a few days you'd change your mind. As long as the marriage wasn't official, all we had to do was pretend it never happened."
He lowered his head. He was afraid she might hit him and he wouldn't see the blow coming, but he couldn't stand to look into her eyes and make such a confession.
"But I knew almost from the beginning it wouldn't work, that I didn't want it to work that way. I tried to stay away from you. Only you started talking about making a baby, and I couldn't help myself. I tried to find Windy, but I couldn't. I've worn myself ragged and a Pinkerton besides. I've been in places I hope never to see again, but the damned man has disappeared off the face of the earth.
"I can't tell you how sorry I am for what I did. It's been driving me crazy for weeks. It would serve me right if you never spoke to me again. But I love you. If you left me now, I'd have to follow you around for the rest of my life."
He looked up. Lily glared at him.
"I'd make a sorry spectacle waiting at doors, hanging around outside your rooming house, following your cab, haunting where you worked. You'd be embarrassed. It would upset my family, too. I'd probably take to drink."
Lily didn't say anything, but she must have been really angry. She was shaking.
"Besides, I don't know how I can explain it to your father and Hezekiah. I think they'd probably kill me before you got the chance."
Lily dumbfounded him by laughing.
Zac was confused, relieved, and slightly irritated. "It's not funny. I've nearly gone crazy looking for that damned Windy, worrying you'd find out and never speak to me again. I racked my brains for a whole week to come up with an excuse to have a second wedding."
Lily stopped laughing. "Do you really want to marry me again?"
"Of course I do. Do you think I'd go through all this if I didn't? This time when I make all those promises, I want to mean them."
"You don't have to do it again if you don't want to. We're really married."
"No, we're not. I just explained."
"Windy gave me the marriage papers. He said he was immigrating to Australia and had to give them to somebody. He registered them before he left. I've got the marriage certificate, all properly signed and sealed."
Zac felt as though the air had been knocked out of him. He'd been driving himself crazy for nothing. He was married. Lily wasn't going to leave him. His family wasn't going to disown him. He was going to come out of this with a whole skin.
Dodie always said he led a charmed life.
"I've got a confession of my own to make," Lily said. "I should have told you earlier, but I didn't know how you'd take it."
Zac didn't like confessions. They did funny things to the pit of his stomach.
"We're going to have a baby," Lily said.
Zac wasn't certain he could take any more shocks. "You mean we . . . all those times . . . are you sure?"
Lily nodded.
A sudden thought came to Zac, and he felt his stomach take another of those nasty dives. "You aren't staying with me just because of the baby, are you? I mean, if you weren't going to have a baby, you wouldn't want a divorce, would you?"
"I'd never want to leave you for any reason. I was only afraid if I stayed, I'd keep you from finding somebody you could really love. I know we did it all wrong, but you're not sorry, are you?"
"No. Being in love is great. It's just getting there that's hell."
* * * * *
The guests were still in the church when the bridal party returned. The general feeling was that no one wanted to miss the ending of this bizarre afternoon. No society bride had been kidnaped before. One matron was overheard to say she hoped it wouldn't become the fashion.
They did the wedding all over again just like the first time except for a few changes. The front pew on the bride's side was occupied by the bride's mother and brothers. Her mother cried. Her brothers looked uncomfortable.
Someone had managed to obtain a new supply of rose petals. The flower girls were delighted.
The bride entered on cue, her train faultlessly managed by eleven handsome young Randolphs. She was given away by her father who was
heard to say later as he accepted his second glass of champagne at a sumptuous reception at the Palace Hotel that they generally managed these things without so much fuss back in Salem.
The groom was impeccably attired. The bride's gown was snagged in places and muddy, but no one seemed to care, least of all the groom. Despite the unexpected contretemps, he seemed to be in the best of spirits. However, now and then he would suddenly frown and start muttering about shipwrecks on windy deserted islands inhabited by cannibals. One guest asked the bride how there could be headhunters on a deserted island.
The bride just smiled.
About the Author
Leigh Greenwood is the award-winning author of over fifty books, many of which have appeared on the USA Today bestseller list. Leigh lives in Charlotte, North Carolina. Please visit his website at http://www.leigh-greenwood.com/ .
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