Page 54

Chapter Thirty-Five

Z eke’s lungs burned like he breathed fire. He hadn’t run this hard, this far, since his days at university. Why hadn’t he wanted to venture into town on horseback? Something about covering better ground by foot. Ha.

He pressed on, full tilt, keeping the gray stone church in his sights like a lodestar. If he was too late, even by a minute, James might decide to rid himself of both Hastings.

He couldn’t be too late.

One final switchback, and at last he pounded up the church steps. He grasped the cold metal handle of the massive oak door and threw it open.

Cool, musty air greeted him. He moved inside the dark stained narthex and the heavy door swung closed behind him, engulfing him in deep quiet. Swallowing back the sick feeling in his gut, he rounded the partitioned wall.

Scores of empty wooden pews flanked either side of a narrow center aisle, leading toward a lighted nave—and Kitty. She stood beside James before the raised altar, facing a robed priest.

She was alive, thank God. The rest he could handle.

“Stop!” he yelled, his voice echoing off the vaulted ceilings of the church.

Three sets of eyes turned toward him as he charged down the aisle.

“Father, this woman is being coerced,” Zeke told the officiator, moving down the aisle. He shifted his focus to James. “Move away from her, James.” He held out his arm, beckoning Kitty. “Come away from him, love.”

Ashen-faced, Kitty stared back at him with sorrow-filled eyes.

Seemingly at a loss for words, the priest glanced between Kitty, James, and Zeke.

Garrick suffered no such fate. “You have no business here, Thurgood. The lady’s made her choice. She neither wants nor needs your interference. She’s agreed to marry me of her own volition. Ask her.”

Zeke skidded to halt, his gaze settling on Kitty.

He could see she’d been crying. More disturbing was the a silent plea for understanding that hung in the air between them as surely as if she’d spoken the words aloud. She intended to go through with it.

The hell she would. “Kitty, no—”

“If you please.” The priest, looking gravely displeased, held up a hand. “Lady Hastings, are you being coerced into accepting Lord James as your husband?”

Kitty turned to the priest. “No.”

Zeke barely heard her hushed response.

She looked at him. “I’m sorry, Zeke. I have to. Garrick’s given me no choice.”

Zeke edged closer to the small throng at the altar. “No, you don’t. The title James dangled before your brother in exchange for your hand is nothing but a fabrication. Collin still holds sole claim to the barony.”

“I’m losing patience, Kitty. Tell your lover to leave. Now.” James shifted, placing himself between Kitty and Zeke. He reached for her arm.

Stumbling back, she evaded his grasp. “Why would he lie? To what end?”

Zeke stifled a frustrated curse. He needed Kitty safely away from James. But in typical Kitty fashion, she required the facts or she wasn’t going anywhere. Stubborn, loyal, beautiful fool.

He took a fortifying breath. “His original plan was to keep everyone in the dark long enough to marry you. Once your brother returned from the dead, however, James adjusted said plan to include killing off your brother, then marrying you, or marrying you, then killing off your brother. Either way, marriage to you, the sole survivor of your line, was key from the start, because it’s the only way he’d ever accede to the Maidstone title. Isn’t that right, James?”

Kitty lifted her hand to her throat. “He told me he’d kill Collin if I didn’t marry him.”

Zeke didn’t have the heart to tell her James may well have succeeded in carrying out that particular threat.

The priest lifted his hands, palms up. “Perhaps we should continue after the three of you have resolved matters.”

“There’s no resolution needed, Father. We’re ready to proceed,” James gritted out, the veins in his neck protruding. He grabbed her arm, anchoring her in place. “Kitty, remember what I told you.”

She stared, unblinking, at James.

“Kitty,” Zeke began, sounding desperate to his own ears—but he didn’t care.

She held up her free hand, silencing him. “You’ll kill Collin if I do marry you, Garrick.” Twisting her arm from James’s grasp, she fisted up her skirts and started toward Zeke.

“No!” James cried. In a flash, he rounded on Kitty, crooking one arm around her neck, the other around her waist.

Zeke’s blood turned to ice in an instant.

James held a knife to kitty’s throat. It glinted in the shafts of light pouring in through the tall stained glass windows. He shifted backwards, glancing between Zeke and the priest with wild eyes. “Stay back.”

Kitty wrestled against his hold, trying to wedge her arms free as her slippered feet tried in vain to dig in to the polished floor boards.

“Kitty, don’t fight him.” Zeke’s voice cracked. He held his breath, transfixed by the short blade. If she continued to struggle, she would get herself killed right before his eyes.

For once, she obeyed.

“Oh, dear,” the priest murmured.

“Move,” James commanded Zeke. “Far into the pew, or I’ll slice her throat, I swear.”

Zeke lifted his hands and backed into the first row he reached.

“I win, Thurgood,” James bellowed and, with his quarry in tow, headed for the church doors.

Zeke wanted to roar as bloodlust practically blinded him. Instead he forced himself to speak in a calm, deliberate tone. “James, the game is up. You’re a wanted man. Leave Kitty out of this. She’ll only hold you back.”

He laughed like a crazy man. “Wanted? For what? Manhandling my soon-to-be wife?”

No. I’ll handle that infraction on my own. “Try attempted murder. We found Hastings. Or didn’t you wonder how I knew where to look for you? Bad luck by the way. It looks like he’ll survive.” For Kitty’s sake, Zeke hoped he so.

Kitty’s eyes bulged as she took in Zeke’s words. She struggled anew—then winced as James’ blade nicked her skin.

“Stupid wench, now see what you’ve made me do,” James ground out.

Zeke gripped the backs of the benches on either side of him so hard he wondered that the wood didn’t splinter in his bare hands. “I’ll kill you,” he said in a low voice.

“You won’t find me, Thurgoood.” James passed the last pew. A few more steps and he’d round the partition. Once he reached the church doors, he’d escape.

James paused, flicked a glance over his shoulder into the narthex, then shot a smug look of triumph at Zeke. With a furious looking Kitty in tow, he disappeared.

His throat so tight he couldn’t have swallowed a drop of spit, Zeke leaped into the aisle, then charged, his boots slamming into the floor panels like guns exploding.

A very female, bloodcurdling scream drowned out the noise. Then came a loud crash and one agonized wail, in rapid succession.

“Kitty!” He heard his own anguished cry as he dove around the partition into the church entrance. He skidded to a screeching halt, nearly plowing into Kitty in the process.

She stood, chest heaving, staring down at her cousin.

James lay in a heap at her feet. Shards of potter's clay littered the area, with pieces clinging to his hair and clothing. He appeared…wet?

The door to the church swung open. Caden appeared in the doorway just as the priest joined the fray.

“Did I miss anything?” A broad grin split Caden’s face. “Lady, you are a sight for sore eyes.” He swung her into his arms, holding her so her feet dangled off the ground.

Kitty gave a little cry and wrapped her arms around Caden’s neck. The next thing Zeke knew she was sobbing into the front of his brother’s shirt. He didn’t know what he wanted to do first. Kill James if he wasn’t already dead, punch his brother, or kiss away every track of every tear Kitty cried.

Behind him the priest spoke. “Is that the holy water urn?”

Kitty’s tears abruptly halted, and she shot the priest a look of innocence that would have done an angel proud.

Zeke grinned, despite the harrowing ordeal he had just suffered through.

Sniffling, Kitty wriggled out of Caden’s arms. “Sorry, Father. I didn’t know what else to do. He couldn’t get the door open without loosening his grip on me, and the basin was the only means of defense I could conceive. I did say a prayer before I hit him with it.”

After a moment of stunned silence, Zeke and Caden exploded with laughter.

“I say, what have I missed?” Randall asked, his head craning in from the open doorway. “My lady!”

Zeke curtailed his humor enough to grab Kitty’s hand before yet another man engulfed her in his arms. He met Randall’s eye. “Hastings?”

“Patched up and, according to the doctor, one lucky man. His vitals somehow escaped the knife, although he would have bled out if we hadn’t stumbled upon him.”

Kitty chirped in alarm and glared down at James.

Zeke wrapped one arm around her slender waist, anchoring her to him and offering what comfort he could. “Where is he?” he asked Randall.

“Resting in his room at the inn—under watch.”

“Zeke, you must take me to him.” Stark terror filled her eyes. She hadn’t looked half as frightened when her own neck was on the line.

He’d expect no less.

“A hansom is waiting,” Randall told him.

“Good man. Caden?”

His brother sighed. “By all means, I’ll handle this mess, too.”

***

Sitting beside Zeke in the street hackney as it made for the inn, Kitty gazed at Zeke's hard profile. A muscle ticked in his jaw. Considering the days’ events, she could understand him being upset. She just wished she knew which things precisely bothered him.

One thing she did know. He was her hero, utterly and completely, and she loved and trusted him with every fiber of her being. She reached up to cup his cheek, urging him to meet her eyes. “I knew you’d come for me, Zeke,” she said softly.

He jerked a nod. “Right. You knew I’d come, and what? Witness your ceremony? You were going to marry him, Kitty.” Hurt and betrayal swirled in his eyes.

“Not by choice,” she said, willing him to understand. “Can’t you see I had no other option?”