The Accidental Bride by Jane Walsh

Author:Jane Walsh [Walsh, Jane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Published: 2023-05-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

It was nearing dusk, and the raucous celebration from the inn’s taproom wafted into Thea’s room through the open window. It seemed to have been ongoing since Charles had entered with his beaming bride and shouted that he would purchase a whole barrel of ale if there were folks enough to drink it. His jubilation was clear, as was Lady Edith’s. Thea had told him she would speak with him the next morning and had spent the rest of the day walking through the quiet village streets to clear her head. She had returned half an hour ago to find dinner in progress, which she decided against joining in favor of the peace and quiet of an empty bedchamber.

They had lost.

Eight days of worry and stress and aches and pains had gotten her nowhere, and now she faced another week on a return journey so that she may confess all to her parents and end up with nothing.

Despite what she had said to Grace earlier in the journey, she would never be able to convince Charles that he wasn’t truly wedded to Lady Edith if only he would agree to keep everything quiet. Not when he had cried it aloud so the whole of Gretna Green could hear.

But also because it wasn’t the right thing to do.

She had flouted society’s stuffy rules in the past. But what harm had it done anyone to take a lover when she pleased, or to entertain friends in her own home at any hour of the night? It didn’t mean that she had no moral code, though this would have been its greatest test. She would have done a great many things to secure Westhill Grange.

Grace had been right that night. If Charles abandoned Lady Edith after the ceremony, he truly would be a cad of the first water.

The thought gave her an uncomfortable feeling.

For Thea, too, had spoken words over the anvil this morning, and she couldn’t deny that they had sparked something within her.

She had looked over at Grace, tall and pale with the morning sun streaming over her brown hair, her eyes wide and worried, with a ring on her finger and a pretty yellow ribbon binding her to Thea—and a voice deep inside had whispered mine.

Mine.

Of course, it had been loud inside the smithy with so many people talking at once. She couldn’t be sure what she had heard.

There was no denying how she had felt, though. Staring at Grace while the world tipped on its axis and Charles married Lady Edith, she had felt…whole. This person had believed in her. Trusted in her. Even in their mutual defeat, Grace stood next to her and clung to her hand instead of fleeing and leaving her behind to reap what she had sowed.

No one had ever stayed before.

Instead of a spark, Thea worried that it was a seed that had been planted inside. A seed, nurtured carefully enough, could grow into something unexpected. Something grand.

Something, however, that she had no desire to examine or measure.

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