Once Upon a Christmas Wedding

by Scarlett Scott

  “A highwayman!” Lizzie suggested, although it was rather muffled because her cousins’ arm was squeezing her middle as he held her aloft.

  Andrew considered this and asked, “Why would a highway man come into an inn? Do most highway men not rob on the highway?”

  Edward’s brows pinched together. “I rather could not say. I have not known many highwaymen. Have you Ned?”

  Ned blinked with confusion saying, “I do not think so, sir.”

  “No,” Edward shook his head. “It will have to be something else.”

  “What about the door? Perhaps Ned hit his head when he came back into the room?” Andrew suggested.

  Ned scowled.

  “Jack is not near the door. Your idea is not any better than mine was,” Lizzie said with an air of superiority. “Edward, put me down! I cannot breathe!”

  “You would not be talking if you could not breathe,” he muttered, but did put Lizzie back on her feet. “Do you promise not to run? I am faster and stronger than you are.”

  “You are a bully is what you are!” Lizzie’s face was rather flushed from her time hanging sideways, but she was no worse for wear.

  “We cannot just leave him here on the floor.” Andrew pointed out. “Let us get him transferred to a bed upstairs.”

  Ned shook his head. “It will not do. I only have the three rooms. One is to let; you gentlemen have the second and Miss Rotherford and her maid are in the third.”

  Andrew groaned. “Take him to our room, we shall have to make do.”

  Edward nodded with a pinched expression on his face. Neither one of them wanted to share a bed. Andrew tossed and turned all night and Edward kicked in his sleep!

  The brother’s helped Ned gather up the handsome Viscount, and then they began to carry him to the stairs. Unfortunately for Jack they misjudged the width of the door and managed to knock his right shoulder into the frame.

  As they approached the narrow stairs it took them three times to try and work Jack’s lifeless body up the staircase.

  “You know if he does not wake up, we will not have a problem,” Andrew said conversationally.

  Lizzie gasped as she followed the crew up the stairs. “You cannot kill him!”

  Andrew nearly dropped the Viscount. “Who said anything about killing him? Goodness Lizzie, the things that go through your head.”

  Edward exchanged a look with Andrew, no words were said but Lizzie caught their glance and it did nothing to soothe her frail nerves.

  Jack was tossed onto one of the narrow beds with his tight-fitting coat and boots still on. The group of them leaned their heads to the side almost as if they were daring the Viscount to open his eyes.

  “You have to fix this, Edward,” Lizzie hissed.

  “I have everything under control,” Edward retorted.

  Just as Andrew added, “Why are we whispering?”

  Why indeed?

  Chapter 7

  Jack awakened with a massive headache. It took him a moment to remember where he was. The surroundings were not familiar and if he didn’t know better, he would swear that he was still in his travelling clothes.

  Prying his eyes fully open he saw that indeed he was still dressed. In point of fact, his boots were still on!

  Why did his head hurt so badly?

  It didn’t take long to discover the throbbing of his head was in rhythm with his heartbeat. With a groan, Jack turned his head to discover more about his surroundings. It was only seconds before he received the fright of his life. With a jerk of his body he recoiled as his gaze came in contact with three men sitting on the opposite bed.

  “What the devil?” he expostulated.

  It was Edward and Andrew Rotherford, as well as an older man of the serving class. Suddenly pieces of the night before starting swimming around his head. But for the life of him he couldn’t piece it all together.

  “How did I get here?” Jack demanded.

  Edward answered for the group. “You came last night on your horse, Satan.”

  Jack clenched his teeth. Of course, he rode here on his bloody horse, he remembered coming in search of Lizzie.

  Lizzie! Where was she? He was injured and confused, that meant she had to be near.

  “Where is she?” Jack demanded.

  “Who?” Andrew asked in all innocence.

  If Jack felt better, he would have punched the younger man just because of his impertinence.

  “You bloody well know who!”

  “You should not curse,” Andrew tsk-tsked. “Old Ned here will be shocked.”

  Ned shot Andrew a curious stare but was smart enough to keep his mouth shut.

  Jack moved to sit, but quickly surmised that he had been strapped to the bed. “What is the meaning of this?”

  Andrew shrugged. “Lizzie insisted that we could not kill you. Honestly, Jack, I think the chit still cares for you. Even after all of these years—I have not the foggiest notion why.”

  “Could you explain to me why I am tied to this bed?” Jack asked in clipped tones.

  “That is easy,” Edward drawled. “We could not have Lizzie running away in the middle of a snowstorm, and we could not have you calling the magistrate on Old Ned. So, the only option we had was to immobilise you until we were certain of your allegiance.”

  “It is a good thing that I am restrained, gentlemen. Because if I was not the three of you would be saying your last prayers.” Jack could barely contain his rage.

  “You see,” Andrew pointed at him triumphantly. “I told you he would be like that. Did I not? He has that look about him.”

  “Untie me at once!” Jack thundered, and then after a small moment of reflection he added, “What blasted look?”

  There was a small knock on the door and then it began to open. Everyone turned to see who would dare try and enter the lion’s den.

  Lizzie, looking pale and beautiful, stood hesitantly on the threshold. Her eyes didn’t meet Jack’s much to his disappointment. He had forgotten how small she was; how delicate her features were. In his mind, she had always been larger than life. This woman looked almost fragile—beautiful.

  Jack felt some of his anger slip away.

  With determination not to look at him, Lizzie asked Edward, “Is everything alright in here? The guest’s downstairs have been asking questions.”

  Ned shot out of his seat. “I will just go and send them on their way. Beg pardon, Miss.”

  As he attempted to bow and leave the room Lizzie was pushed further inside. Her familiar smell of lavender wafted over to him. It reminded Jack of lazy afternoons fishing with his friends. Her scent would betray her hiding place long before they saw her lurking behind a tree.

  Jack moved to sit but was once again reminded that he was strapped to the bed.

  “Lizzie, you need to tell them to untie me,” Jack said in a soothing tone that in the past had her melting in his hand. He couldn’t help but shoot a smirk at Andrew and Edward. Lizzie had never failed to do his wishes. No matter what he wanted she had always done her best to see it fulfilled.

  It’s funny, Jack had never really thought about that before. He had always been too wrapped up avoiding her blatant overtures of love.

  Well, it didn’t matter now, Lizzie would set him free and he would box those two idiots’ ears for daring to tie him up.

  “I am afraid that I cannot help you, Jack.”

  The smirk fell from his face. “I beg your pardon?”

  “I cannot untie you,” she said in a louder voice, straightening her spine.

  Anger rushed through him. Jack remembered coming to the inn in search of her. Only her two idiot cousins wouldn’t let him see her and then. Blast! Why did his head hurt so badly?

  Think!

  Jack had drunk something to get warm, he clearly remembered that, and then the room began to spin.

  The drink.

  “You poisoned me!” he accused the cousins.

  Lizzie took a step back. “I did not.”

>   “Those two reprobates?” Jack spat.

  “It does not really matter,” Lizzie insisted nervously.

  Her cheeks were bright with colour and she looked rather fetching. Or she would if she hadn’t poisoned him. “How long do you intend to keep me here? My parents are expecting me for Christmas.”

  Lizzie bit her lip. It was almost as if he could see the wheels turning in her head.

  “Not long,” she said with more bravado than she felt. “If you would have stayed home and accepted my refusal none of this would have happened.”

  Jack’s jaw dropped with disbelief. “Are you trying to indicate that this was my fault?”

  Lizzie huffed. “Clearly, it is your fault, I am not indicating anything.”

  His eyes nearly bulged as he barked out an incredulous laugh. “You are mad!”

  Lizzie stamped her foot in anger. “And you are tied to a bed. So, who here holds all the cards? Speaking of cards…”

  As her voice trailed off Jack got a sinking suspicion that she knew about the bet. His gut clenched, surely not.

  “It is amazing what can happen when one holds a full house, is it not? Why, if someone were to lose to such a hand, they would be required to pay up immediately. They might be forced to do something they deem rather terrible.”

  Blazing hell—she knew.

  “Listen, Lizzie, I can explain.” Jack began, but honestly, he couldn’t explain. Sweat began to bead on his brow and he couldn’t wipe it away. There really was nothing he could say that would make the situation better. He had wagered with a lady’s future in the balance. It was unpardonable and they both knew it.

  “I am waiting,” Lizzie said with deadly calm that Jack was not accustomed to.

  He gulped, “Well… you see…”

  Lizzie turned on her heel and matched past her cousins saying, “I should have let you kill him last night. I liked him better when he was unconscious.”

  Edward laughed as Andrew turned to Jack and winked, “Looks like you will be staying a while.”

  Chapter 8

  Lizzie bit her lip in concentration as she tried to determine the best move for her chess piece. Never one for the game as a rule, Lizzie had consented to play with Jack as long as he promised to behave himself with his hands freed.

  At first, Jack was simply grateful to not be lying in that blasted bed. However, bacon-brained this situation seemed to be; Jack knew that Lizzie didn’t have any true malice behind her actions.

  It was in the way she would glance at him from time to time underneath her sooty long lashes. It was in the faint blushes she would give him when their eyes would chance to meet. But most importantly, it was in the way that she doted on him, despite the fact that he was to be her prisoner.

  She had stayed by his side for the majority of the day, behaving more like a nurse than a warden. Whatever Lizzie was, there were a few things that she was decidedly not. First, she didn’t have a cruel bone in her body. Second, she was terrible at chess, he was having a devil of a time not trapping her into checkmate.

  “Are you certain you wish to move there?” Jack’s eyes sparkled with something that had Lizzie’s chest tightening.

  Her bottom lip was plump and swollen from the amount of time it had spent between her teeth.

  “No!” she hurriedly moved to protect her queen. “Of course not. I shall just move here.”

  Lizzie’s maid sat in the corner with a book and Edward and Andrew had forgone the wayward couple and chosen instead to haunt the taproom.

  “Was it as terrible as your sister said?” Jack asked softly.

  Lizzie hurriedly glanced up, a worried expression on her face. “Whatever do you mean?”

  Jack sighed, knowing that this conversation had to happen, and yet he hated to lose the tender friendship they were developing. “Did you not have a season because you did not wish to, or because we were already engaged?”

  Lizzie flushed, and internally vowed to strangle her sister first chance she got. “Ellie is overdramatic. I had no wish to go to London.”

  The lines between Jack’s blue eyes furrowed slightly. “You used to speak of when you would take London by storm. I can remember countless hours in the fields or trying to fish at the stream while you prattled on.”

  “I was a child then,” Lizzie snapped, eyes flashing.

  “What changed between Lizzie the child and the woman I see here?”

  Jack’s question was softly spoken, almost hesitant as if he worried about what the answer would be.

  Lizzie shook her head. There wasn’t a snowballs chance in July that she would relay to him the teasing and bullying she had received from some of the girls in the neighbourhood. Men could be quite obtuse when it came to female gossip.

  Lizzie abruptly stood. “Would you care for some water? I find that I am tired, we can finish this game in the morning.”

  Jack scowled and tried to stand alongside her but sadly she had insisted he remain tied to the chair. It was probably for the best, Jack thought with ill-humour. Because if he were free, Jack would toss the chit over his shoulder and be done with this nonsense.

  “Lizzie do not leave,” he hated to beg, but found that he enjoyed being with her. “Please stay.”

  Lizzie blew out a long breath before turning back toward him and nodding once. “For a few more minutes, at least.”

  “We do not have to play chess. We could talk about literature or the arts?”

  Lizzie raised a brow. “Are you a fan of literature? Do you read Wordsworth or Keats?”

  Jack hadn’t suspected that the tables would be turned on him so quickly. The truth was that he had read some of the poet’s work, but he wasn’t interested in flowery poetry.

  Lizzie’s lips twitched in the barest hint of a smile.

  Jack felt his heart go thundering inside of his chest. She really was lovely, he thought to himself.

  Ruefully, Jack admitted the truth, “They are not my favourite. But I have come across something that has caught my attention. Have you heard of Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus?”

  Lizzie’s expression perked up immediately. “I have only read the first instalment. Tell me, have you read all three?”

  Soon they fell into a spirited debate on the merits of alchemist’s experiments and the morality of animating a sapient creature. Jack couldn’t remember a time when he had felt more alive and engaged in another individual. Lizzie presented a fresh and intelligent point of view.

  Talk went from books to the people they knew, and it eventually even touched the political tensions of the time. Jack was shocked to see that Lizzie was very well read, and despite the fact that she hadn’t had a season, she was more up to date than several of his peers.

  It was hours later, after the maid had fallen asleep and Ned had shooed Edward and Andrew upstairs, that they found Jack and Lizzie still talking.

  Edward motioned for his brother to be silent and they watched the couple for a while. The brother’s exchanged a knowing glance. Because whether Jack or Lizzie realised it or not, they were starting to fall in love.

  Chapter 9

  “Lizzie is fast asleep; we can now speak freely.” Edward and Andrew took up the high wing backed chairs in Ned’s best parlour. Across from them, Jack was sitting rather rigidly, almost as if he were awaiting his sentence.

  “You know,” Andrew said conversationally. “I always thought you were a bright individual, Cavendish. But the way you have endeavoured to go about this courtship with our cousin. Well, it is damned havey-cavey, and I do not mind saying so. I have half a notion to continue our journey to London.”

  Jack sat even straighter on his perch as he interjected, “Now see here! I know that I have been a fool. I did not recognize the jewel that was right in front of me. I have every right to your sensor and can only beg your forgiveness for past deeds. However, I do want to do right by her. I have learned my lesson, I assure you.”

  Edward snorted. “You are far from atoning for your sin
s, Cavendish. That being said, it is Lizzie who has to decide if she will have you. Like it or not, society will have a field day if after all of these years the engagement is broken.”

  Jack felt a sense of relief, it sounded to him like Edward wasn’t opposed to helping him. The next part wouldn’t be so easy. He had to convince Lizzie’s cousins to help him. Jack had formulated a plan.

  “What I am about to propose might sound crazy. But I feel that in order to get back on an even playing field, I need to sweep Lizzie off her feet.” Jack began cautiously.

  Andrew sat forward. “We are all ears.”

  As Jack began to describe his intentions Edward began to laugh.

  “I say, you two deserve each other! Never have I heard such nonsense before in my life. It is a regular Drury Lane drama.”

  Andrew, the one that Jack really worried about, didn’t speak for quite some time. When he did his voice was devoid of emotion.

  “So, you are proposing to abduct Lizzie and somehow woo her in the coach ride back to Mangrove Manor. Do you realise that in a day’s ride you are cutting it very close? Knowing my cousin, she is likely to ignore you the entire time.”

  Jack’s brows pulled together. “I had not thought of that.”

  “And what of the estimable Martin?” Edward added. “I cannot see any romance being kindled with that kill-joy in tow.”

  Martin, however fine a lady’s maid, didn’t tolerate nonsense of any kind.

  “There is nothing for it,” Andrew added.

  Jack felt his spirits begin to lower. “Surely there is still a way?”

  Andrew smiled. “There is always a way to what you truly desire. However, the route may be different than what you planned. Meaning if you do not set out for home, but head toward another destination, you will get more time with Lizzie and you will have the same distance back again.”

  Jack brightened. “That is a brilliant idea! But where shall we go? I do not want to take her to London, that would only cause a scandal.”