Chapter Nineteen
The train whistle blew, marking their departure in three minutes. Amelia was wearing a dress she’d borrowed from Lady Ruby after sleeping in the grandest house she’d ever encountered. Lady Ruby sat next to her, having volunteered to serve as their second witness. Nicholas and Jasper were nowhere to be seen.
“Perhaps we should disembark. We can always take a later train when they get here.”
“They’ll be here,” Amelia promised. There was no sweat on her palms. No lurching of her heart. He was going to make it.
Lady Ruby patted her hand. “I admire your faith, but reliability isn’t one of my brother’s more prevalent charms.”
“He’s never let me down and neither has Nicholas.”
Their first-class compartment descended into uncomfortable silence. The whistle sounded again. One minute.
Where was he?
“Honestly, Amelia, I’m all for getting out of town, especially with my Atherton troubles, but perhaps we should wait on the platform, just in case.”
“They’ll make it. They promised they would.”
The train wheels chugged into motion.
“Too late now,” Ruby muttered, pulling a book from her reticle.
Amelia’s heart fell. Something must have happened. Oh God. What if they’d been hurt? What if they had a run-in with Embry and—
The door to their compartment lurched open. The view of the hall was blocked by a pair of unfairly wide shoulders, and the compartment filled with the smell of coffee and citrus. Amelia’s vision blurred with relieved tears. He’d made it. Nothing awful had happened to him. He was all right and they were on their way to be married and she would spend the rest of her life blissfully married to her best friend.
“Sorry we’re late,” Nicholas said, breathing heavily. “Montrose was watching us like a hawk. We had to make a dash for it at the last minute so he wouldn’t suspect.”
“Move in or move over, Wakefield. It’s undignified for me to be loitering out here in the hallway.”
Nicholas rolled his eyes, taking the seat next to Amelia. “Are you crying?”
She shook her head. It was all right now—he was here. Embry hadn’t stopped him. The universe hadn’t played any cruel jokes during the night. Amelia wiped at her eyes. “Just something in my eye.”
He squeezed her hand as Jasper slid in, taking the seat next to Lady Ruby. She put her book down and stared at him in disgust. “You smell abhorrent.”
“I smell like I had an excellent time,” Jasper countered. “Not to mention a great deal of adventure.”
“You were right,” Nicholas told Amelia. “Montrose showed up at Jasper’s and Philip’s, with a constable and everything.”
“No!” Amelia gasped.
Nick nodded. “Turned both houses upside down. Philip is livid. I think it’s safe to say he’s firmly on your side now.”
“Well that’s something.” Embry had finally done her a favor—accidentally.
“They turned your house over?” Lady Ruby asked her brother.
“Indeed, they did.”
“I’m sure Grandmother will have a field day with that. Storming the heir’s house like he’s a common criminal.”
“For once, I welcome her righteous indignation.”
They all watched out the windows as the train left London behind. No men in uniforms chased after it. There was no unexpected stop on the edge of the city, just a smooth beginning to a long journey north. They all breathed a sigh of relief.
Except Jasper. “God, I’m starving. Ruby, did you bring anything to eat?”
“I am not dining anywhere near this odor you are currently producing.”
“Then let’s walk the train and eat. We can trail it behind us.” Jasper’s unsubtle glance at Nick and Amelia silenced her objection.
“Fine,” Lady Ruby said. “But you’re carrying the hamper.”
Nicholas watched the door slide closed, blocking out his view of the De Vere siblings. As soon as they were gone, he leaned over and pressed his forehead to Amelia’s. The entire night while he’d been pretending to carouse with Jasper, he’d been panicking inside. Logically, he knew Montrose wouldn’t assault the house of a duke, but illogically Nick kept imagining Montrose dragging Amelia out by her hair, never to be heard from again. It made it extremely easy to appear desolate.
“You made it,” she whispered.
“I would have had to be dead to miss this train.”
Amelia shivered. “I thought maybe you were, when the engine started moving without you.”
He hated that he’d made her worry. He covered her hands with his. “Even then, I’d have tried to get here.”
She nodded, grinning. “I know.”
Nicholas kissed the tip of her nose. Nothing could have kept him from her—nothing. “I have something for you.” He pulled out the packet of letters he’d written her while he was away on the continent.
Amelia’s smile lit up the compartment. “Where did you get those?”
“I went back for them. It’s not all of them. I’ll get the rest later, but they belong to you and I wanted you to have at least some of them.”
“You didn’t need to do that.”
“I did. They’ve been delayed far too long.” He handed them over. “Besides, it’s a long way to Gretna Green. I thought you might need something to entertain you.”
She unsealed the top one of the stack. “Entertaining, are they?”
“Some of them.”
He watched her while she read. The flush in her cheeks. The widening of her smile. At one point, she lifted her hand to her mouth and her eyes teared up. It was so much better than sending them. He got to see the effect his words had on her.
When she opened one a third of the way down the stack, Nicholas recognized it and snatched it back. “Not that one.”
“Why not?” She leaned over him, trying to grab it back.
“I was…erm…missing you quite a lot, that day.”
Her frown was adorable. “Surely you missed me in all of them.”
“Yes, but in that one I was a bit more—” Nicholas coughed. “Graphic. About the way I missed you.”
Amelia’s eyes went wide as saucers. In a quicker move than he’d ever seen her make, she snatched the letter from his hand and scrambled to the far side of the bench.
“Don’t—” It was no use. Her mouth was already forming into an o of shock. Then it softened, her lower lip getting trapped between her teeth.
He cleared his throat. “I told you.”
“Nicholas Wakefield,” Amelia whispered. She returned to his side, sliding next to him until there was no space between them. Her fingertips brushed across the rough weave of his trousers. “Read it to me.”
Someone could walk in on them. The porter could come. Ruby and Jasper could come back at any moment.
Mia’s lips found the sensitive space beneath his ear. She grabbed his hand, sliding it under her skirts. “Read it to me.”
Bloody hell. He took the page from her, clearing his throat. “Today I saw a tree that looked like ours. I imagined pressing you against it and hauling your skirts up until you were bare in front of me and begging me to touch you.”
She spread her legs, pushing fabric out of the way without hesitation. He brushed her center, finding her already damp. Amelia’s hand closed over his arousal, squeezing.
“Amelia,” he groaned.
“Touch me. Now.”
She was everything he ever wanted. The reality of her was so much better than the fantasy. Nick poised his fingers at her entrance, testing her. Her approval came in the form of a moan.
“Ahem,” Jasper’s voice came from the other side of the door.
They both froze.
“While I have no difficulty sharing the compartment with you while you carry on like that,” Jasper announced, “it is unlikely my sister will be similarly open-minded.”
The mirror Ruby had managed to procure reflected Amelia’s image back at her. She didn’t look like herself. She looked so much more elegant. She looked like a woman with confidence and backbone. A woman who had taken control of her life.
“You’re a miracle worker,” she told the maid Lady Ruby had brought along for both of them.
“Hardly, miss. All I did was pin your hair.”
They’d arrived in Gretna well after dark, having been delayed when the train let them off in Manchester to try to locate her father. If he had still been in Manchester, they’d been unable to find him. Amelia hoped he’d gone home. She’d also hoped to find some time alone with Nicholas to finish what they’d started on the train, but they had all been so tired when they finally stopped traveling. She’d gone straight to bed and not woken up until breakfast was brought in on a tray and it was time to get ready.
Now here she was, in a dress borrowed from Ruby and the slippers Julia had sent her with, looking like a princess in ivory silk and pearls. The maid had somehow managed to arrange her hair in a way that made her neck look longer and her cheekbones higher. A tear slipped down Amelia’s cheek.
Lady Ruby’s concerned face appeared over her shoulder. “What’s wrong, Amelia?”
“I wish my sister was here. And my parents.” Even her mother, though Amelia wouldn’t be ready to forgive Lady Bishop for a long while. Still, it was strange to be doing something so important without her family.
Ruby reached down, squeezing her gloved fingers. “It’s hard. Sometimes I think that’s half of why I haven’t accepted anyone. My parents will never be able to give me away.”
Amelia squeezed back. She couldn’t imagine losing both of her parents. “This is going to sound odd, but will you remember everything and write it down? My sister will want to know all the details and I never explain well enough for her.”
“Your sister sounds a bit like my brother,” Ruby teased. “And yes, I will.”
Amelia nodded. “I think I’m ready, then.” She gave herself one more look in the mirror and took a deep breath. Nicholas was waiting for her.
February was dismal, especially this far north, but the forge fire in the blacksmith’s shop made the air comfortably warm. Nicholas stood beside the anvil with Jasper, waiting for Amelia to appear. He should have been nervous, but instead he was strangely calm. He’d been waiting for Amelia his whole life. Waiting for her notice him. To love him back. Now he knew that she’d loved him the entire time, and it made him feel like he could fly. This was the last time they would ever be apart. This wait was easy.
On him, at least. Jasper was handling it with significantly less grace.
“What is taking so damned long?” Jasper demanded, pacing. “Did they go all the way back to London to get ready?”
“Be patient.”
“I can’t. It’s not in my nature. How can you be? Aren’t you eager to get married?”
“Yes.” More than he could ever explain, but he was also eager to savor this moment. He didn’t want to be pacing in a frenzy when Amelia walked through the door and took the last, final steps to becoming his wife. When she’d announce to the world and God that she wanted him as much as he wanted her.
“Well, you don’t show it.”
“Even so.”
There was a commotion outside. Nicholas heard Lady Ruby say, “You look radiant.”
And then Amelia was there, and she was all he could see. Sound died out. Temperature faded away. Even the crackling fire disappeared.
She was a vision in ivory. Everything about her etched itself in his memory and Nicholas knew he would remember her like this for the rest of their lives—glowing from within, holding a bouquet of purple heather, walking toward him like the answer to every prayer he’d ever made.
She ducked her head at his attention, but looked back up through her lashes. There was a wicked tilt to her smile that made Nicholas’s heartbeat speed up. What had he done to deserve this woman? She came to stand beside him, and he took her hand.
The blacksmith stood in front of them. “Are ye ready?”
“We are,” Nicholas said.
Amelia nodded.
“Then say the words,” the blacksmith instructed.
Nicholas turned to Amelia. He held both her hands. “I, Nicholas Clarence Wakefield, take you, Amelia Marie Bishop, as my wife, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”
She had tears in her eyes and a smile like the rising sun when he was finished.
Then it was her turn. She took a deep breath. Nicholas squeezed her palms.
“I, Amelia Marie Bishop, take you, Nicholas Clarence Wakefield, as my husband, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”
“Under the ancient rights and laws of Scotland yer now man and wife,” the blacksmith bellowed.
With the clang of the anvil, Nicholas’s entire life clicked into place. He’d been accepted to Lincoln’s Inn. Amelia was his wife. Neither his parents or Montrose could separate them now. He was the luckiest man on earth.
Next to him, Amelia was being smothered in embraces.
“Kindly give me my wife back, you brigand.” Nicholas extricated his bride from Jasper’s grasp. He pulled her close, leaning down until their noses touched.
“You’re my husband.” She was grinning like a lunatic.
“You’re my wife.” God, it felt good to say.
Amelia pulled his head down. He kissed her with everything he had—every last bit of love he planned to shower her with for the rest of their lives. When he finished, they were both flushed and breathless.
“Well,” Lady Ruby said, breaking the silence. “I think Jasper and I should be going.”
“Going? We have to celebrate!” Jasper took a half step toward the inn’s taproom.
“We have to get out of their way so they can enjoy the benefits of marriage. I wrote to Clementina and she was delighted at the idea of having us stay with her at Drumond Castle.”
Jasper stared flatly at his sister. “After that mad dash from London, you expect me to spend another hundred-some odd miles in a carriage?”
“Not only do I expect.” Ruby stared down her nose back at him. “I insist.”
The ensuing De Vere staring contest heated the room by another ten degrees.
“Fine,” Jasper declared, relenting. “But I’m going to be terrible company.”
“I expect nothing less.” Lady Ruby kissed Amelia’s cheeks, wishing her well. “If you need us, we’ll be in Crieff.”
“Thank you. For everything,” Amelia said, hugging her in return.
They all walked back to the Inn, where Lady Ruby forced a grumbling Jasper into the already hitched carriage. They said their good-byes and it pulled away in a puff of road dust. Suddenly Nicholas and Amelia were alone. Married. Far away from anyone and anything that had any claim on them.
Nicholas put his lips next to Amelia’s ear. “I’ll race you upstairs.”