Bride's Necklace by Kat Martin

Author:Kat Martin
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance, Mystery, Suspense
ISBN: 9781426865398
Publisher: Mira
Published: 2005-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Claire shifted on the carriage seat and slowly came awake. She straightened as she realized she was snuggled against Lord Percy’s shoulder, one of his arms keeping her in place as she slept. They were on their way to Gretna Green, just over the Scottish border. Never in a thousand years would she have believed she would soon be married to a man she barely knew.

Embarrassed, she scrambled to sit up, and he hurriedly released her.

“Forgive me,” he said. “I was just…I wanted you to get some sleep.”

Claire looked into his pale blue eyes and read the concern there, along with the fatigue. “What about you? You’ve been riding as long as I have.”

Percy shook his head. His hair was a darker blond than her own, the color of gold, like pirate treasure. “I am fine. I dozed a bit while you were asleep.”

He had told her to call him Percy. She thought that she should, since she was going to be his wife.

Wife. A little tremor ran through her. She barely understood what that meant. As a girl, she had imagined becoming a bride one day—sometime in the far distant future. But the day had somehow arrived and she felt like a leaf in the wind, with nothing of substance to cling to.

She tried hard not to be afraid.

She wished Tory were there. Tory would explain the things a wife must do, tell her what Percival Chezwick would expect of her.

At least her sister was safe. And Claire thought that Tory really did care for the earl. Claire had seen the way her sister looked at him. There was something special in that look, something Claire had never seen in her sister’s eyes before. And the earl would take care of her, keep her safe from Lord Harwood.

“Claire?”

She blinked up at the man beside her and reined in her wandering thoughts. Her future husband was certainly handsome enough, tall and spare, with gentle blue eyes, his golden hair parted neatly in the middle.

“My lord?”

“It’s just Percy, remember?”

She flushed. “Oh course…Percy.”

“I asked if you are hungry. We have traveled all night. There is a village just ahead. I should think you would be ready to rest and perhaps break your fast.”

The color deepened in her cheeks. She fidgeted on the seat. It had been hours since their last stop. She needed badly to attend herself.

“Thank you, yes. I am quite hungry. I appreciate your thoughtfulness…Percy.”

He nodded, rapped on the roof of the carriage. It was a plush conveyance, made for long journeys, pulled by four sturdy bay horses. Percy had told her his eldest brother, the earl of Louden, had lent him the rig when he had learned his youngest sibling intended to elope— with their father’s blessing, of course.

“We’ll have a proper wedding when we get home,” Percy had promised, but Claire didn’t want a big wedding. In truth, she didn’t want a wedding at all. But Lord Brant had explained she must marry Lord Percy so that she and Tory would be safe from the baron, and she trusted the earl to tell her the truth.

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