“Jared, you’re crazy! You can’t just—”
“He actually called his wife to come see the videos as well. She said the same thing. Without you, Emma,
Lady Valiant
will never be everything it could. Angelica Robards said your portrayal of Lady Aislinn had Oscar written all over it. And Barry would be a fool if he didn’t move heaven and earth to get you back.”
Emma’s head reeled, her hands trembled. “They really…they thought…”
“He’ll be calling you tomorrow. Would have called sooner but I convinced him to let me tell you—about the true story, about you playing the part. You will, won’t you? Bring Lady Aislinn to life? My lady? And yours?”
“But Davey—the publicity—”
“Doesn’t matter a damn. The boy is dying for you to come back to the castle and so is the rest of the town. If Feeny and his like want to stalk you, they’re going to find it rough-going around Craigmorrigan. Snib alone ought to scare them to death. The man’s got a mean pair of collies to sic on them.”
Emma tried hard to believe what Jared said was true. To star in
Lady Valiant.
To go back to the castle…it seemed like a miracle.
But it still couldn’t wipe away the things that separated her from the man she loved. Because of who she was. What that might cost anyone near her.
Jared grasped her shoulders, looked down into her face, his beautiful mouth tender with love for her. “Just think about Lady Aislinn and her knight. They had so many battles to fight, Emma. But in the end what really mattered was only that they fought them together.”
Panic jolted through her, mingled with desperate longing. She’d made up her mind for the best, she reminded herself ruthlessly. What was best for Jared. For the children they’d never have. But it hurt. God, it hurt. “I’m sorry, Jared,” she choked out. “I can’t…”
“Don’t tell me you can’t,” he said fiercely. “I don’t believe it.” He cupped her face in his big, warm hands, his eyes bright with love for her. “There’s nothing on this earth you can’t do if you put your mind to it. Get a sword to my throat. Make me want…”
“I want, too,” Emma cried. “But wanting something doesn’t mean we can have it.”
“Tell that to the little girl who won’t let me sleep at night. The one brandishing a wooden waster while I’m teaching her to sword fight. Tell that to the little lad with your eyes who knows his mum will be there to open the gift he made her come Christmas morning. Tell that to my heart, Emma, where those babies you made me want so badly already live.” His eyes shone, bright with tears. “Damn it, woman, marry me out of mercy if nothing else! They’re half McDaniel, you know. They’ll give me no peace!”
Emma stared at him, the desperate need plain on his face, so many shadows vanquished at last. What had it cost him to risk what he feared most…to challenge his darkest demons for her? For children that might never be. Love…She’d heard it bite through his husky Scottish burr. He loved them already. Just as she did.
Emma brushed a stray leaf from his hair, imagining him facing down the Captain, determined to love her. Such courage deserved honesty, whether it terrified her or not.
“They’ve been busy, those babies,” she confessed. “They’ve been haunting me, too. But I thought…my life…it’s still so complicated.”
“I don’t care,” he started to argue. She laid her fingers over his mouth, a gesture so familiar, so right, his breath warm and moist and infinitely precious feathering against her.
“I do care. I’ve had time to think about what I really want, Jared. I’m going to try doing live theater.”
“
After
you star in
Lady Valiant,
” Jared cut in, the dent showing in his brow.
She couldn’t help grinning, he looked so determined. “Right. After,” she said. “Theater is what I really wanted all along. I was going to head to New York tomorrow, audition for a show on Broadway, but London…London has some of the best theater in the world.”
Jared closed his eyes, caught her hand, kissing her fingers. “We could winter there, in the city. Maybe I could get a grant to work with the British Museum. And in the summer, we could go wherever we wanted, excavate sites together. Unless you want to keep doing films once the world sees what you can do in
Lady Valiant.
Then we’ll work it out somehow. I won’t have you giving up part of yourself for me.”
The words filled Emma with hopes she hardly dared hold. “And I’ll be pestering you on dig sites until I’m eighty. Asking you questions. Dressing up in medieval costumes.”
“And I’ll be stripping them off you whenever I get the chance.”
She sobered suddenly. “Jared, I can’t promise there won’t be men like Feeny in the future. But in theater I won’t be as high-profile as on the screen.”
“It won’t matter a damn which way you choose to go with your career. Feeny and his kind trade on tragedy and scandal. And we’ll be so happy there will be no heartbreak for them to find.”
“We can’t know that. What life might bring.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Jared said fiercely. “We’ll always know what’s real, Emma. My love for you. Your love for me. We don’t need a Scottish fairy flag or a wedding dress sewn in your Civil War to bless our future. We’ll have all the magic we need in each other. Best of all, we know we’d both rather die than surrender. You and I can keep the dragons at bay.”
Emma felt fear melt. What else could it do in the face of such a valiant knight?
“I already convinced your grandfather I mean what I say,” Jared insisted. “I’m not leaving without you.”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah. And this whole marriage thing—I’ll even fight you for it. Me and you. A couple of swords. If I win, you marry me.”
“I don’t know, Butler.” Emma’s lips warmed into a smile. “You’ve lost to me before.”
“Not this time, lady. This time I know what I’m fighting for.” He glowered at her, his fierce warrior’s face.
“Marry me!”
“All right. I surrender.” Emma slid into his arms, laughing. “You win.”
“No.” Jared’s mouth found hers in a kiss fierce with love, sweetened by awe, his quest achieved at last. “This time we both win. Forever.”
Emma melted against him, slid her hands under his sweater, felt the hot, hair-roughened warmth of his skin. She kissed him with hope, with faith, believing in miracles, the way she had when she was ten. Before she sneaked through the broken place in March Winds’ picket fence and her life began to brim with people who loved her.
“Listen, Emma, there’s one more thing we need to discuss. The whole flight over here I’ve been thinking…”
“About what?”
“About what I’d do with you once I got you into that gazebo. That’s where I’d hoped to do my ‘rough wooing’ if it came to that. You know. Throw you over my shoulder, ravish you until you swear your undying love and all that.”
“You hardly have to go to that much trouble, Butler. I thought we already did that—the swearing and all.”
“I know, but I got kind of turned on by the idea. Unfortunately, the gazebo’s a little crowded at the moment with your grandfather and Captain out there.”
“Captain!” Emma exclaimed.
“Oh, no. I never should have mentioned the damned dog. I don’t mind the two of you having a tender reunion after I’m done with you. But until then—” He frowned, the dent in his forehead delighting Emma to her soul. “Maybe I could bribe the two Captains to get lost. A few dog treats, an opportunity to get in a lovely fistfight. I could get that lad I saw driving the tractor a mile back to come and call them both fluffies. That should keep them busy.”
A cacophony of noise erupted in the kitchen, a racket of familiar voices and furry Captain’s eager bark making Emma’s heart well up with gratitude for all the treasures she’d found. Her mother and Jake. Cousins Will and Amy and little Deirdre Skye. Uncle Cade’s gruff affection. Aunt Finn always trying to make peace in the raucous clan. But it seemed that peace in the McDaniel family was once more in short supply. Hope’s high-pitched voice pierced right through the other sounds.
“Grampy said that bad man came who made my sister cry! I’m going to kick him right in the—”
The last words were muffled, doubtless by the nearest grown-up’s hand. Deirdre Stone’s admonition echoed up the landing. “You’re supposed to be a ballerina today.”
“I’m not a ballerina!” Hope exclaimed fiercely. “I’m Red Riding Hood and my daddy’s the big bad wolf. And there’s not anybody we can’t beat! We’re McDaniels, right, Daddy?”
“Some of us are.” Jake’s laugh echoed up the stairs. “Almost makes me feel sorry for this Butler guy. Almost.”
Emma leaned back in Jared’s arms and flashed him a devilish grin. “Looks like it’s time you meet the rest of my family.”
Jared winked at her, the castle’s magic sparkling in his eyes. “I can’t wait.”
ISBN: 978-1-4268-0087-0
THE WEDDING DRESS
Copyright © 2007 by Kim Ostrom Bush
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario M3B 3K9, Canada.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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