“Where are we going?”
“The church,” came his curt answer.
The church? So the man wasn’t waiting.
“That would mean you have a special license.”
“Correct.”
Her jaw nearly dropped. So this had been planned.
“You truly are mad,” she whispered. “Do you hear yourself? You think I’ll simply walk into a church and say vows with you because you’ve hauled me into a carriage?”
His eyes gleamed with something dark—hunger, yes, but desperation too. “No. I think you’ll marry me because you won’t have a choice. By the time anyone finds us, it will be too late.”
“You know nothing about me if you think I care about scandal. My mother won’t allow a kidnapping to put me in a bad light.”
“True. She won’t.”
Why was he so smug?
He knows something I don’t.
Maddie narrowed her eyes.
She was no longer a virtuous lady.
“Oh, I know. You care for your friends. You care for your place in their hearts. And you care forhim.”
He was right on all scores.
“They will never think badly of me, and I would rather be ruined, fully and publicly ruined, than marry a man who tricks and traps his way into a woman’s life against her consent.”
“You say that now, but once we are wed,and the fury fades, you’ll come to see I was right. That we were always meant to be.”
“Always meant to be?” she repeated, nearly choking on it. “Why don’t you turn this carriage straight to Bedlam? That is where you are meant to be!”
His mouth tightened.
She leaned forward, anger blazing now, pressing on, “You don’t want me. Not me. You wantedownership.You wanted to win.”
“Winning is everything,” Paisley said tightly.
Silence stretched taut between them, thick as molasses. Maddie felt her chest rise and fall, breath shallow but steady.
She couldn’t talk this man down. But no matter.
He would not win.
And she needed to remain calm for what was to come.
Not that she knew what yet, but she could feel it in her bones.
This kidnapping was just the start.
“Enjoy this moment,” she said softly. “Because they are coming, Paisley. And when they do, they won’t bring flowers or cheer.”
No, they would bring wrath.
