“You said yourself it was a sound decision. Coercion was the last thing in our heads. We’re not looking to gain an enemy for an in-law. We want Kendra to be happy.” He pivoted on a heel, heading for the door. “And you, of course.”
“But you made it sound—”
“Good evening, Amberley. Sleep well,” he said and left.
For the second time that day, Trick found himself wondering what had happened. He was embarking on a new life, his ship about to sail for ports unknown.
For a man accustomed to being in charge, this was not an auspicious start.
Eight
“THANK YOU,Jane.” Kendra smiled at her kindly, plain-faced maid and put a hand to her carefully coiffed hair. “You did a lovely job.”
Even if it was for nothing, she added silently.
As Jane left, Kendra crossed her bedchamber with a sigh. Pushing the drapes aside, she gazed out the diamond-paned window. In Cainewood’s quadrangle below, her “betrothed” chatted with her three brothers and a clergyman—or someone dressed like one, anyway.
“No, poppet.” Her sister-in-law, Amy, disentangled her eleven-month-old’s hands from her ebony tresses and set the baby on her unsteady feet. Jewel had just started walking last week. “Kendra. They’re waiting.”
“I can see that.” Letting the curtain drop, she focused on Amy. “But what they’re waitingfor, I can only imagine. To laugh their heads off at me, I’m thinking.”
“Laugh?” In a rustle of dusky rose satin, Caithren came close and tweaked one of Kendra’s long curls into place. “Why would they laugh?”
“This has to be a jest. Very well done, I must admit, but there isn’t a chance they’ll make me go through with it.”
“No, Jewel, don’t eat that.” Amy took an ivory comb from her daughter’s mouth and set it back on the dressing table. “I’m not too sure they’d joke about this.”
Kendra brushed at the silver tissue underskirt that gleamed from beneath the split front of the blue silk gown she had dressed in for her “wedding.” “It’s so like them to make me get all ready, isn’t it? Their idea of justice, having found me in a seemingly compromising position. But they won’t actually make me wed a highwayman.”
“I don’t think he’s just a highwayman, Kendra.” Cait’s hazel eyes looked concerned. “He must be suitable. Jason seemed dead serious to me.”
“He’s serious about scaring me, making me come to a decision. This will be called off at the last minute, at which point Jason will expect me to happily choose one of the other men who has offered. As for Trick beingjusta highwayman, I couldn’t say. I don’t know the first thing about him.”
“But you like him, aye?”
“He’s…interesting.” A vast understatement. Kendra only hoped her sisters-in-law wouldn’t ask for elaboration.
“I like the way you sayinteresting.” Amy’s grin was too knowing for Kendra’s comfort. “Sometimes we find love in unexpected places.” Her fine features softened as she doubtless considered her own unconventional marriage, that of a shopgirl and a nobleman.
“Aye, she’s right.” Cait nodded her agreement. “If you’d told me I’d ever be in love with a man and living inEngland”—despite her love for both Jason and their home, she pronounced the word with a mild distaste—“I’d have said you were sodie-heid for certain.” Her gaze narrowed at the puzzled look on Amy’s face. “Featherbrained,” she added in translation.
Inwardly, Kendra sighed. While it was true she yearned for the kind of happiness both her sisters-in-law had found, she didn’t think she would find it in a sham marriage to a highwayman. No matter how much she burned for his kiss or fancied herself in love.
“Up,” Jewel demanded, providing a welcome distraction as she toddled over to her mother.
Amy perched her on one violet-taffeta-clad hip. “Did you know Colin called on Trick last night? He offered him a chance to back out of this arrangement, but he turned it down.”
“Or so Colin told you.” Could the amber highwayman actually want her? She didn’t think so, and she knew for sure that the little leap of excitement she felt was all wrong. “If Colin did call on him, I’m sure it was to plot this absurd, elaborate ruse. Colin is nothing if not the ultimate prankster.”
“Maybe you’re right, and this wedding is naught but a jest. But just in case”—Cait held out a silver coin—“you’ll want to put this in your shoe.”
“There she goes with her superstitions.” An indulgent smile curving her lips, Kendra took the coin and tucked it into one high-heeled satin slipper. “What other old wives’ tales might you be worrying about?”
“I’ve never said I believe it, mind you, but you know what they say. Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue…”
“This gown fills three of those requirements. Old, borrowed, and blue.” There’d been no time to have a wedding dress made, so Kendra was wearing Cait’s. She brushed again at the shimmering silk skirts. “I always wanted to wear green for my wedding.”
“I’ve told you, you wouldn’t want to do that,” Cait admonished. “Green is the choice of the fairies.”
