“Consult with your solicitor. I will speak to my father. He would not have come all this way simply to return home. He will be angling for something. This is not just an act of malice. It is part of a strategy.”
Marcus’ head came up, eyes fierce. “You will not go near him. I forbid it. He has already attempted to kidnap you once.”
“I will make sure we meet somewhere public…”
“Here. It must be here. And with Beveridge as witness,” Marcus replied.
“Very well. We will discover what he wishes to gain from all of this. Perhaps he is looking for compensation?”
Marcus scoffed. “Then I’ll pay the blackguard off.”
Then a thought seemed to occur to him. Slowly, he took Selina’s hands in his own. He looked up at her with wide eyes.
“We cannot be married in a church. Not according to how the law dictates it must be done. But we can be married in the eyes of god. Of some gods anyway.”
As he spoke, his voice was becoming more excited. Selina frowned, leaning forward, and tucking a stray lock of hair behind his ear from where it had slipped over his eyes.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“Do you think that our ancestors got married in a church with the permission of a priest? I mean our distant ancestors,” Marcus said excitedly, “in Cumbria, there were people living for centuries before the time of Christ. They did not need a church or chapel. They did not need licenses or the permission of a priest. They were bound together in the eyes of their gods in nature.”
He stood, tightening his grip on her hands to pull her to her feet. He was laughing and Selina couldn’t help but laugh as well, carried along by his enthusiasm.
“Are you saying that we should go into the hills and get married in a wood?” she asked
“Why the hell not!” Marcus exclaimed, “I have spent five years trying to reaccustom myself to polite society, I will not spend the next fifty if it means I cannot have you. It does not matter what the law says. We will know that we are bound together. You will be my wife in the eyes of this land. Come on!”
“But Marcus!” Selina protested as she ran across the room with him, “we will still be stung with scandal. The ton will not recognize our marriage. Your family name will be dragged through the mud!”
“We will not tell them. No one will know,” Marcus said.
He skidded to a halt at the door of the study, turning to face Selina.
“I know this is impulsive and half-cocked. It does not solve the problem our marriage was supposed to. I don’t care about any of that. I just need to know when I wake tomorrow that we are man and wife. Will you do it?”
“Of course!” Selina cried, tears coming to her eyes, but they were tears of happiness.
This was wild and adventuresome, it was out of character for the Arthur that she knew but not for the Marcus that she had come to love. She felt glad that she had reached Valebridge to find an impostor. She was glad that she had gone in search of Arthur and found Marcus. They ran from the study, Marcus bellowing for Beveridge. The startled butler appeared as they skidded into the Great Hall from the Long Walk.
“Overcoats and hats, two horses saddled, and a pair of breeches for Selina. Quickly man! Quickly!” Marcus barked.
“Your Grace! It is dark outside. You are going riding in the dark?” Beveridge said in helpless confusion.
“A very good point. Lanterns as well,” Marcus ordered, clapping his hands together once.
When Beveridge remained stock still, he barked. “Hurry!”
Beveridge jumped and hurried away as quickly as he could. Within half an hour they were walking two horses from the stables, lanterns held on poles lighting the way before them.
CHAPTER28
The night air was chill about them, but to Marcus, it was fresh and invigorating. He knew that this was a plan born out of pure madness, but he did not care. The idea of being married to Selina had become a fixation to the point of monomania when he had realized, while hopelessly pacing the study, that he was only prevented from marrying Selina according to the strictures and conventions of society. Well, that society could not stop them from loving each other. Could not stop them behaving as man and wife. But it was not enough for him to be Selina’s lover, for them to act the part of a married couple. Something within him wanted more than that. The memory had come back to him of the stone circle in Cumbria that had been his haunt since childhood.
He had found it alone, amongst the trees, and long forgotten by all. The stones were ancient and mossy, half buried, the shape they delineated almost impossible to detect. But once the young Marcus had discovered it, he could not help but think of it as a place of great power. For the boy he had been, it was a sanctuary on the night he had stumbled upon it, a place where he could leave behind his reality of being exiled by a family who had not loved him. Leave behind his troubles and his worries, if only for just a night.
I do not need to believe in the so-called societal rules that dictated my ancestors and my father’s ideologies. I believe in the smallness of human institutions and the rules of so-called society. I believe in myself and I believe in Selina. We will be married in a place just as ancient as that unnamed stone circle in Cumbria, in the eyes of a God far older than the institutions of today.
“Do you have somewhere in mind?” Selina whispered as they followed a track across a dark hillside.
