A Hathaway Wedding by Lisa Kleypas

Author:Lisa Kleypas [Kleypas, Lisa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: regency, Romance, Fiction, Historical Romance
Publisher: Lisa Kleypas
Published: 2009-10-02T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Four

A summer storm assailed Hampshire the night before Win and Merripen’s wedding, lashing Stony Cross with rain and high winds that damaged homes and brought down trees. Thankfully there were no reports of injury to any of the village residents, and the morning rose bright and clear.

Win awoke with the vague memory of Kev having left her some time after midnight, so as not to risk the bad luck of seeing his bride on the wedding morning. My superstitious Rom, she thought with a drowsy smile, curling her arms around the pillow he had used.

“Good morning, dear,” came Amelia’s cheerful voice.

“Good morning.” Win sat up and yawned. “It’s my wedding day! I thought it would never arrive.”

“Oh, it’s here,” Amelia said wryly, coming into the room. She was wearing a ruffled white dressing-robe and carrying a cup of tea. She gave the tea to Win and sat carefully on the edge of the mattress.

“Have you been up and about for long?” Win asked.

“Nearly a half-hour. And I have a great deal of news to report.”

Win’s fine brows lifted. “Are we having any of the bad luck that Kev was worried about?”

“To start with, Beatrix awoke with a head-cold, quite a snifter. I think she must have gone out to the barn during the storm to see if her owl was all right. She tracked in a cartload of mud and water, and the housekeeper is annoyed.”

“Poor Bea,” Win said in concern, lifting the tea cup to her lips.

“There’s more. The vicar sent a boy from the village this morning to tell us that a tree fell onto the room of the church and knocked part of it in. And the rain poured into the chancel and main sanctuary.”

“Oh no.” Win frowned. Perhaps Kev’s forebodings had been right, after all.

“Does that mean we’ll have to put the wedding off?”

“Were the bridegroom anyone other than Merripen, I would say yes. But he’s being stubborn. Cam and Leo are talking with him downstairs.”

They were both silent for a moment, listening intently.

“I don’t hear any shouting,” Win said.

“Merripen is being very calm, actually. But I think he’s covertly planning to murder someone. He told me to come help you dress—he says there will be a wedding.

Somehow. Somewhere.”

“Very well.” Smiling, Win took another swallow of tea. “I know better than to doubt him.”

Having accompanied the errand boy to town, the Hathaways’ brother Leo assessed the damage to the church and spoke to the vicar. Immediately upon returning to Ramsay House, Leo went to confer with Cam and Kev. Leo was a tall, blue-eyed scoundrel, articulate under pressure, perpetually irreverent. He was also a master at bending rules and slipping around regulations. If there were any way to push the wedding through, Leo would find it.

“No chance of a ceremony inside the church,” he reported to Kev and Cam as they gathered in the main parlor. “It’s a sodding mess.”

“We’ll get married on the church steps, then,” Kev said.

“Impossible, I’m afraid.” Leo looked rueful. “According

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