Page 27

A S SOON AS THE GUARDS anchored the balloon, Bash scooped Evie into his arms and hopped out of the basket, smiling to the next couple in line.

Evie laughed softly and pushed against his chest. “Set me down, good sir.”

“If I must.”

She smiled up at him shyly. “I’m afraid you must.”

He did so, and her breath caught.

He grasped her elbow, drawing her toward him. She had not trembled once in the balloon. “Vivienne? Whatever is the matter? You are as pale as a candle.”

“I should have known better.” She gripped his hand and hauled him toward the trees. “Why oh why did I let my curiosity win again!”

He peered out from the trunk, but Evie yanked him back by his coat.

She groaned into her hands. “This is a disaster.”

He grasped her hands, gently tugging them from her face. “If you do not tell me this instant what has you so upset, I will go mad.”

She stared across the gardens. He followed her gaze toward the man in a canary waistcoat who was downing a glass of flip. She ground her teeth.

“Vivienne.” He fairly groaned. “Tell me who and what someone has done so I can remedy whatever is bringing you such distress.”

“Sir Josiah Montgomery is in attendance tonight. H-he is the man my stepbrother wishes me to wed.”

His gut twisted. So, this is the fellow that she was forced to flee. He could not risk revealing how much he knew about her past—things only the highwayman knew. “I see. Is he the fellow in the canary waistcoat and matching cravat by the refreshment table near the dining booths? You are certain?”

She sighed. “He has lost a stone or two since I’ve last seen him, but I am certain.

He looks harder, as if he has been training.

It’s strange. The man enjoys his food and the company of his ladybird too much to be found in the fencing hall.

” She shook her head. “Perhaps my flight pushed him to work his anger out with a rapier.” She plastered her hands to her cheeks, groaning. “What am I going to do?”

His ladybird. He gritted his teeth against the urge to break the fellow’s nose for forcing Vivienne to flee her home to avoid a match with him. Bash rested his hand on hers. “You are not alone anymore.”

She looked up at him, her eyes impossibly wide. “No?”

“As your husband, I offer you my protection—my name.”

A haunting whisper of a smile was her answer. “If only you could, Sebastian, but without us actually being bound together, there is little you can do.”

He frowned. “You doubt my ability to protect you?” All of England was ablaze with talk of the golden-haired highwayman who had robbed Sir Thomas. Would she feel safer in his company if she knew she was with her Bash once more?

“It is not that. With the banns being read and the news of my union to Sir Josiah, and our timeline being off, Sir Josiah will not be assuaged until he speaks with the clergyman who bound us in matrimony and sees the certificate of marriage. And if there is no proof and Sir Josiah decides to take me to Gretna Green against my will … all this will have been for naught.”

Heat exploded in his chest at the thought of any man touching his Evie. “If he so much as dares to look at you, I’ll show him what a man really is.” His fists curled.

She rested her hands on his fist, uncurling it and lifting his knuckles to her lips in an unexpected gentling gesture. “And risk your position beside the Prince Regent? I will not ask you to sacrifice so much for me.”

He could not pause to think of the tenderness with which she spoke to him—as if she were bidding him farewell forever. “It would not come to blows. My word as a nobleman should suffice for a gentleman of his standing.”

“He may be one in title, but a gentleman he is not.” She shook her head. “He has gambling debts and has been desperate for a marriage ever since Muriel threw him over.”

“He was engaged to the friend you mentioned?”

She nodded. “Even if you and I proposed we had a secret marriage these three years, nothing could convince him or my stepbrother. Our lie is about to become public. We should have never let it go so far.”

Her hand actually quaked in his. This woman had ridden in a hot-air balloon, been captured by a highwayman, faced down rogues, and raced into the night without fear, but she was brought to trembling before this weasel?

How she must have suffered under her family to be brought to such a state.

He turned her to him, echoing her tenderness in lifting her hands to his lips.

He would not see this woman he loved taken down by a man such as Sir Josiah.

Not while he had breath in his lungs. “Listen well. I will not see you married to him.”

She laughed. “You have no power, Sir Sebastian. Sir Josiah will see my reputation ruined and send word to my stepbrother, who will force me into a marriage with Sir Josiah to redeem this disgrace that I have brought upon the family.”

“I have the power of my name and, should that fail, my fists.” And if you allow it, a marriage and all that I own—though it is not much.

“Some things cannot be cured by fists.”

“Well, it’s worth a shot to his jaw to see if it can be.” He grasped her shoulders, desperate to see the fear in her eyes banished. “But if it comes down to it, I will marry you in an instant.”

“Sebastian,” she whispered, her voice trembling.

What had he said? Was she so against the idea of having him as her husband? Even if she didn’t love him as he loved her, he would do anything to see her protected. “I know you want your freedom, but lawfully having my name is the way for you to possess that freedom.”

“And it would spare Grandmother Larkby’s heart. We would have to tell her all though.” She pressed her hand to her cheek once more. “But what of the dates of the certificate? People will know.”

He sighed. “That is where the truth will have to be revealed if questioned by your stepbrother—after the certificate of marriage is in hand to make an honorable match out of us both. Society will talk.” He lifted her chin in his hand.

“However, they will eventually forget, especially when the Prince Regent takes the throne with me standing behind him. No one will dare to speak ill of you when we have the ear of the king.”

“You would do this for me?”

“This and more.”

“Why?”

He bowed, his forehead meeting hers. He closed his eyes, breathing in her delicate scent of lavender.

I love you and your harebrained ways—the way your beautiful mind spins the most obscure phrase into a story all its own.

How you love with all your heart—loving a woman who has been my world and going so far as to consider wedding me to spare her heartache.

But he did not dare voice his heart, not yet anyway, when she might misconstrue his words as those coming from a knight in shining armor with only the thought of rescuing a damsel. She was no damsel in distress, but he wanted more than anything to be her knight. “You know why, my lady.”

Her lashes fluttered, her lips parting with an answer, when Sir Josiah loomed. She started, wrapping her hand tighter about Bash’s arm.

The smug lift of the man’s lips sent a jolt of agitation through Bash. “My dear Vivienne, I have found you at last. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that you were proclaiming yourself to be married when I know our banns were read only weeks ago.”

“Gretna Green has saved many a reluctant bride from a poor union.” Bash bowed his head.

As Bash’s rank dictated, Sir Josiah bowed from his waist, albeit reluctantly.

“And I am called Lady Larkby now.”

“Yes, but you see, my dear Vivienne, the word is that Lady Larkby has been writing for years and, therefore, has been married to Sir Sebastian for years. You have only been with this man for a short while and, therefore, I must assume he has only pretended to wed you to get you into his bed.”

Evie’s jaw slackened.

“I know this must come as the gravest of shocks to you, but your marriage is counterfeit, as he is married to the authoress,” Sir Josiah interjected. “However, I will forgive your haste and wed you at once, for I am most eager to become your husband and make an honorable woman out of you.”

Bash had never been one to be shoved about. He gently tucked Evie closer to him. “You are mistaken. There is no other Lady Larkby but Vivienne.” That much was true. “They are one and the same.”

Sir Josiah’s brows rose. He crossed his arms, appraising him. “Indeed? Then you do not mind giving me the name of the vicar who wed you, along with the certificate that I shall have authenticated before I can consider the matter closed.”

“How dare you. Might I remind you that I am a knight to the Prince Regent himself? He takes me at my word, and it is more than sufficient for the likes of you.”

“The likes of me?” He snorted. “I am a nobleman and a wronged fiancé with excellent swordsmanship.”

Evie, at last, recovered her voice. “Are you challenging a Yeoman of the Guard to a duel? Such an unwise move. But what else should I expect from a man with a considerable gambling debt to a dangerous man? It has made you desperate, and it shows.”

His cheeks puffed, reddening along with his neck.

“Muriel had no right to disclose such a matter to you, and you certainly should’ve had the wits to keep it to yourself.

” He returned his attention to Bash. “If you do not produce the certificate, I shall have you sued, Sir Sebastian, for damaging my fiancée’s good name. ”

Bash narrowed his gaze. “Then by all means, I shall send for the certificate.”

“You do not have it with you?” He grinned, looping his thumbs in his waistcoat and rocking back on his heels. “I suspected as much.”

“I serve the Prince Regent. I must leave places at a moment’s notice.

No, I do not have the signed certificate with me,” Bash spat back.

“Shall you check with the marquess and the marchioness to see if they carried their certificate of marriage with them this night? Or perhaps another newlywed couple?”