Devil Takes A Bride by Gaelen Foley

Author:Gaelen Foley
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780345494108
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2006-04-24T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

TWELVE

“This is a bad idea!” Ben whispered as he helped Dev carry the ladder across the moonlit commons when they returned to the school late that night.

“I don’t recall you offering a better suggestion,” he replied through gritted teeth.

“Woo her!”

“No, Ben. Forget it. I offered her my title, my name, half my fortune. She spat on it.”

“But—”

“Trust me, Ben—she brought it on herself.”

“But to kidnap her? She’ll hate you for this!”

“That, I am told, is a normal condition of marriage. At least then I’ll have my money.”

“This is not what your aunt intended.”

Dev scowled at him; then his gaze homed in on the third-story window above the mulberry tree, which he had determined by a bit of spying earlier this evening was the location of the young harpy’s room. He narrowed his eyes as he noticed a flickering glow in the window through the curtains. Their billowing movement told him the casement was open, an excellent development.

The rest of the school’s windows were dark.

“Light. She’s awake,” Ben whispered.

Busy little ant. Probably working on her thrice-damned translations. Dev knitted his eyebrows, standing square-jawed and determined in the moonlight.

“What if she hears us?”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“If she screams, we’ll have to run.”

“She won’t be doing any screaming.” Casting him a piratelike glance, Dev held up the clean silk handkerchief he had brought along to use for a gag. “Come on. Over the fence. Don’t use the gate. It squeaks.” He rested his end of the ladder atop the waist-high fence that girded the school’s front garden, then braced one hand on the rail and sprang over it. He silently pulled the ladder over the fence while Ben followed him.

He lifted his finger to his lips, reminding Ben to be silent; then both men carried the ladder over to the building and gingerly rested it against the redbrick wall.

Perfect. It reached up to within three feet of her chamber window. As an added advantage, the mulberry tree would provide some cover if anyone should come along.

Dev ignored the fact that he could go to jail for what he was about to do, never mind the certain challenge from her precious Knight brothers. He was headed for debtors’ prison as it was, and besides, he was a full-blooded member of the wicked Horse and Chariot Club. Bride-stealing was par for the course.

Moreover, the stubborn wench left him no choice. When his bribes and strategems hadn’t worked, he had offered to marry her in earnest, the first such offer he’d made in his life; he did not take kindly to being turned down. He could grovel, of course, but there was only one problem: Devil Strathmore did not grovel. The wind soughed through the mulberry tree and riffled through his loose shirtsleeves and his hair.

With a resolute nod to Ben, he stepped up onto the ladder and began to climb. Full of confidence, he grasped the smooth wood rails, rising quickly, his footing on the rungs firm and sure. His pulse raced as he mounted higher toward his reluctant bride.

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