“Jack,” Nick said, taking his brother by the shoulder, “we have to fix this. I’ll check on the priest. Maybe he’s come around.”
When Ashley followed Nick back into the blacksmith’s shop, Jack turned to look at his new bride. “You want to go try and rouse the priest?”
She shook her head. “No. Do you?”
Jack looked at her for a long moment. He couldn’t have orchestrated this muddle in a hundred years, and yet, while it was happening, he hadn’t stopped it. He’d known this would ruin him, and yet he’d stood silently, allowing the priest to marry him to the wrong woman. And he had a feeling Maddie had seen what was happening and allowed it to go on as well.
He took her hand. “I say, let the priest sleep it off. Come on.”
He pulled her into a run, leaving the blacksmith shop, her irate father, and Nick and Ashley behind.
MADDIE COULDN’T FATHOM where Jack could be taking her. They’d left the small town of Gretna, with its cozy inns and houses, and were once again trudging over a dark road. Actually, it was barely a road. She doubted a carriage could have even traversed the small, muddy trail. She supposed that was why Jack had chosen it.
He was moving quickly, his hand clamped firmly around hers, forcing her to keep up.
Or perhaps he just wanted to be certain she stayed by his side. He hadn’t broken contact with her since they’d left the blacksmith shop.
Maddie shook her head. The exhaustion was playing tricks on her mind. Jack did not want to keep touching her. He did it out of necessity or because he had forgotten he still held her—not because he wanted to.
He had wanted Ashley.
And she had wanted Mr. Dover.
Oh, Mr. Dover—
She focused on breathing deeply and moving her leaden legs, refusing to think of her lost fiancé. She would never stave off the tears if she thought of him. Or of poor Ashley, left with the wayward Lord Nicholas. Ashley must hate her for running off. And Maddie didn’t blame her. She was a horrible friend.
And the worst part was that whenever she looked at Lord Blackthorne, she didn’t care. She was glad he was hers and not Ashley’s.
That was, until she remembered that he was all wrong for her.
Maddie’s legs finally buckled and she tugged on Jack’s hand. “I have . . . to stop,” she panted. “I’m too . . . tired.”
“We can’t stop here,” he told her, looking impatiently from her to the road. “We need to put more distance between us and your father.”
Maddie shook her head. “I don’t care. I don’t care if he catches us. I’ll collapse if we don’t stop.”
Jack stepped before her, cupped her face in his hands, and Maddie couldn’t keep her eyes from closing and from enjoying the feel of his warm flesh against her chilled face. “Maddie, if we just go a bit farther, we’ll arrive at a town. We can stay at an inn. You can have a bath and a meal. You don’t want our wedding night to take place along the road, do you?”
Her eyes popped open. Wedding night? But he couldn’t possibly be thinking of—
Oh, Lord. He probably was. He was a man. And she was his wife now.
He was right that she would have preferred a cozy inn to a patch of brush beside the road, but she was simply too tired. She could barely stand.
“I can’t, Jack,” she told him. “I want to go on, but I simply can’t.”
He took her hands. “I have another idea. Can you walk, or do I need to carry you?”
Maddie preferred to collapse right where she was, but she agreed to walk. She couldn’t make Jack carry her, after all. The difficult part was getting her legs to cooperate, but with supreme effort she lifted one foot and then the other.
Her eyes were on the ground as she concentrated on making her feet continue to move. Consequently, she plowed into Jack when he stopped. She stumbled, but he caught her around the waist. Despite the fact that her body was numb and weary, she felt her skin tingle where he touched her.
“Careful,” he said, and she wanted to heed the warning.
The problem was, she didn’t know whether she should watch her step or her new husband. Both might prove dangerous.
“Stay here,” he ordered. “I’ll be back in a moment.”
