The Wildcatter by Peggy Nicholson

Author:Peggy Nicholson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2002-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

EVER AFTER in Risa’s memory, her wedding would be a cascade of bright images and sounds and piercing emotions. A ceremony seen through the lens of a kaleidoscope, some gigantic hand rotating the flashing patterns:

Jules catching her by the waist at the top of the stairs and murmuring into her ear, “The next pretty thing you see will be a Jules Hansen original. Hope you love it, sweetie!”

“W—what?”

But already Jules and Lara were preceding her down the curving flight, stepping in time to the achingly beautiful strains of Pachelbel’s Canon in D played by Belle’s string quartet. The staircase gave directly onto the big room that stretched half the length of the house. The floor below was a sea of smiling faces as the guests swung in their rows of chairs to watch the procession.

Joe Wiggly and Jake Houseman flanked the newel posts—offered elbows in solemn gallantry to the maids of honor, then escorted them down the aisle toward the altar at the end of the room.

The altar! Risa dared not look that far; let her just make it down the stairs without tripping over her heels and making a total fool of herself and—oh, God—Miguel must be there already, watching her, and what could he be thinking? Was he happy? Regretful? Terrified as she was?

And what was Tess doing there at the bottom of the steps, peering out from behind Ben? Gesturing at her frantically. Shaping words silently, then scowling in frustration when Risa didn’t understand.

Whatever it was she wanted, Belle pounced on her from behind, whirled her around and gave her fanny an emphatic smack, sending her scampering down the aisle. As flower girl, Tess should have followed close behind the maids of honor.

But too late now. Resentment plain in every line of her skinny little body, she stomped down the path between the chairs. Remembering her basket of rose petals halfway to the altar, she hurled handfuls at the chuckling guests. She reached her goal, then let out an audible yelp as Lara snatched her and wheeled her into place.

But somehow Risa had reached the bottom of the stairs upright, and there was Ben, offering her his arm, his craggy face creased in what might have been the first uncritical smile he’d ever bestowed upon her. It stopped her cold for a moment, as she looked up at this beaming stranger. Daddy? If only he’d approved of her like that before today!

But it was too late to go back and fix the past; she was sweeping into her future, into a new and happier life. Ben’s fingers were clamped over hers where they rested on his sleeve, as if she might be thinking about bolting if he didn’t prevent her.

For the first time she’d dared to gaze to the end of the room, and there stood a man before the altar, a big, hard man in a black tuxedo, and from that moment on she had eyes for no one else. Oh, Miguel. Do you really

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