All for the Heiress (10 page)

Her giddiness was about as short lived as the fire. The leftover log was consumed alarmingly fast, the twigs turned to ash even faster. The peat log struggled valiantly to warm the shanty but even with Shane’s bag stuffed into the window hole, many of the cracks in the walls were as wide as her wrist and the cold wind whipped through relentlessly. She wrapped herself in the blanket and curled up on the floor as close to the fire as she could without taking up all the valuable warm space. Shane lay in a ball a few feet away, his coat pulled up over his head, only his nose and a few wisps of ginger hair peeking out. No matter how she tried, she couldn’t get comfortable and grunted every time she tried a new position on the hard ground.

“It’s freezing.” Mel tried to burrow into herself for warmth. The thin, scratchy blanket seemed to make her colder the tighter she wrapped herself in it. “Have you ever been so cold in your life?” she asked him, having not heard a peep in a few minutes and fearing he was dead.

“Oi, ye idiot, come here. I canna stand to hear your complaining anymore.” He tossed his own blanket and coat over top of her and pulled her right up next to him, wrapping his arms around her.

She was too stiff with cold to kick him or thrash away straight off, and he was, in fact, deliciously warm. Slowly, she began to relax, and her teeth stopped chattering. As soon as she felt safe from imminent death, she began to feel a bit embarrassed having his arms around her. Her knees were drawn up uncomfortably, but if she straightened them, the entire length of her body would be pressed against his. If she rolled over, they’d be spooning! Now she was too warm, and her legs were definitely starting to cramp. Bloody hell.

She felt infinitely worse that he wasn’t the least flustered. Of course he’d slept with loads of girls— she stopped that line of thought in a hurry and got herself under control. He wasn’t flustered because he was merely trying to keep them from turning to ice. He certainly wasn’t attracted to her. Insanely, she wondered why he wasn’t. What was so wrong with her? Oh, God, why did she care if Shane found her attractive or not? She was being a ninny and had to stop before her legs fell completely asleep.

“This is just for survival,” she whispered, slowly straightening her legs.

“Ah, that’s better. Your knee was in my ribcage.” He slung one of his legs over her hip and she punched him in the kidney, heart racing at the feel of his powerful thigh. “Agh, that hurt,” he said, rubbing his side. “Did they teach ye in nursing school how to inflict the most pain on a person?”

“Aye, it was called anatomy class. And I got top marks. So, either stop being stupid or learn to protect your soft bits better.”

With a low laugh, he slid his leg back to where it belonged, but inched closer to her. “The wind is hitting my back through these flimsy walls,” he said, tugging the blanket tighter around them and tucking her head under his chin.

“This place should be ashamed to be standing at all,” Mel muttered, tilting her head back. She would be damned before she rested her cheek against his damn, muscular chest. Damn him.

“Aye, it’s a poor excuse for a structure, to be sure,” he said sleepily.

The arm that had been holding her snugly, slid to rest on her waist. She tried to let his soft, rhythmic breathing lull her to sleep, but his proximity kept her awake. As if he were electrified and a wrong move could give her a grievous shock, she held herself so that she remained close enough for warmth but didn’t touch him.

“Mel, your chin is jabbing me something awful, can ye not just rest your head?”

He moved his hand from her waist to the back of her head, and with a string of silent curses, she nestled her cheek against his shoulder. Then swore to herself some more when it was really comfortable and nice. Before he’d cuddled up with her, she’d felt a bit scared as well as cold, but now she felt snug and safe. Her nose brushed against his neck. How did he possibly smell good after all they’d been through? He smelled like hay and rain and saddle leather. Odd ripples of discomfort coursed through her and she half wanted to curl her fingers into his clothes and pull herself closer, and half wanted to punch him again. There was no way she could possibly sleep with all this inner turmoil. She was definitely warm now, hot even. He stroked her hair, down her arm, and let his hand drop to her side once more.

“Night,” he whispered.

Right near her ear. She was in hell.

Evie stood back and looked at her precious fat baby bursting out of his tuxedo, and working up a mighty howl about being forced into it. She scooped him up and held him in front of the mirror, bouncing him up and down to distract him. He looked shocked to see himself in such finery and leaned forward to slap his hands against the glass.

“You look brilliant, wee man. Now be sweet for a bit while mummy gets changed.”

She put him in his toy strewn play corner and hurriedly whipped on the knee length cream lace dress, contorting to get the zipper all the way up, then turned back to the mirror with a critical eye. She’d already done her hair in a luxurious loose pile of curls with a few subtly sparkling pins, and except for extra mascara and a deeper shade of lipgloss, she looked normal. Better than normal, but she’d managed to stick to the simplicity she’d set out for, and not gone overboard. For the first time in her life, she couldn’t find fault with her appearance. Not even her slightly protruding bump could mar her happiness.

“Don’t cry, dummy,” she told herself, not wanting to ruin her makeup, but feeling almost overwhelmed with emotions.

Her phone buzzed and she answered it with a tormented wail. “We’re not supposed to speak to each other yet.”

Sam snickered. “That’s one hundred percent inaccurate. I already spent the night on Leo’s manky couch to appease you, let me at least hear your voice.”

“Getting cold feet?” she teased, but felt a dip in her stomach nonetheless.

“Just wanted to check on you, how are your feet?”

“Toasty,” she assured him. She wiggled her newly pedicured toes in the strappy heels, deciding to change into her fuzzy winter boots until she got to the church. She was already going to freeze half to death for the sake of beauty, may as well be comfortable as long as possible.

“Listen, I’m here already, and we got bumped back a half hour, so you have a bit of time. I guess we can’t see each other?”

She smiled at the hopeful sound in his voice, then latched onto what he’d said. “What do you mean, we got bumped?”

“Apparently someone else is getting married before us.”

Her gossip radar began pinging like mad. “Who? We’d know if it was someone in the village, surely? Is it tourists?”

The town was so charmingly quaint, and the church being nearly a thousand years old was a draw for some tourists to have both planned and impromptu weddings.

“I don’t know, Ev,” he said. “I didn’t ask.”

She huffed at his oversight, dying to know who it was. “I’ll leave right now. We can see who it is.” Her curiosity took over her insistence they at least follow the one tradition of not seeing each other before the ceremony. Even if it wasn’t a juicy tale worth repeating to Piper, she wanted to catch a glimpse of another happy couple on their big day. Her pregnancy hormones demanded it.

“Bloodthirsty gossip,” he said. “I’m glad you’re coming early, though, so hurry up. But drive safe.”

“Yep.” She went to click off the call, and smiled at the phone. “I love you.” She heard him laugh as she ended the call.

By the time she got to the church, Magnus was in a rage, his fists curled and face red from howling. When she took him out of his carseat, he tore out a chunk of her hair, dislodging her careful pin placement. She hugged and bounced him as a river of drool poured out of his mouth and down the front of her dress. Sam jogged outside to help, getting the pain medication for his gums from the diaper bag. After his aching gums were swabbed and Evie handed him his teething toy, he settled into fitful grunts peppered with an occasional whimper.

“You look amazing,” Sam said, staring at her wide eyed as he patted Mags.

She laughed and smoothed her bedraggled hair, then moved in to kiss him. “Oh, we’re so backwards. I can’t believe we’re seeing each other and now I kissed you.” She shivered in her light dress.

He hustled her into the church vestibule, where they staked out the window to view the arrival of the mystery couple.

“I think at this point the rules are all moot,” he said, tipping his chin to Mags, then giving her belly a quick rub. “I’m too happy to care.”

Evie beamed at him, taking in his dark, perfectly fitted suit, his usually wayward hair all neat and tidy like a schoolboy on picture day. She reached out and mussed him a little, unable to contain her face-breaking smile.

“You look so handsome,” she said. “And look at Mags, isn’t he a little star?” She noticed that he’d lost one of his shoes, but knew he’d had them both when they set out. “I think he dropped a shoe during the tussle outside.” She held out her hand to halt Sam from getting up. “No, stay put, he’s content where he is. I’ll just pop out and look for it.”

She poked around outside the car and was about to check his carseat when a silver Mercedes pulled in and she ducked down, feeling like an idiot. So, the mystery couple was rich. Wait a damn minute, she recognized that car. She poked her head up to see a small high-heeled foot touch the ground. A giant kilted man hurried to help her out.

Lachlan and Piper looked absolutely stunning, and her heart nearly stopped. Had they somehow found out about her and Sam? That Father Branaghan. Even a priest couldn’t be trusted to keep his trap shut in Castle on Hill. Evie noticed Piper held an odd bouquet with a big bow wrapped around it, and squinted to get a better look. Why was she holding a bouquet? It hit her all at once that Piper and Lachlan weren’t here to surprise them, they were the mystery couple.

“What in the hell?” Evie stood up and raced over to them. “Wait, are those turnips?”

Piper stopped dead and stood frozen, holding up her absurd bouquet in a defensive posture. “God, Evie, you scared me. What are you doing here?” She looked accusingly at Lachlan. “Did Father Branaghan talk?”

Lachlan looked confused for a moment, then narrowed his eyes at Evie. “Ye look lovely, Evelyn.”

“Holy crap, you do look lovely!” Piper waved her bouquet. “Why are you wearing—” She staggered back and leaned against the car. “You’re secretly getting married, aren’t you?” Her face crumpled and she looked even smaller than normal.

Evie felt a stab of guilt, compounded when Sam came out in his suit, holding Mags in his tuxedo. There was no way she could pretend she’d gone crazy, put on a weather inappropriate lace dress, and randomly decided to take a tour of the church. Still, the fact that Piper wasn’t there as a guest proved she was doing the same thing. She was getting married in secret without her! Evie burst into tears.

“You’re one to talk,” she said, choking on a sob. “Your dress is perfect, it’s just what I would have picked for you, if I’d known you were picking a wedding dress.”

Sam grabbed Lachlan’s arm. “What do we do?” he asked in a low voice.

Evie wished she had something to throw at them. He’d started her down this road of deceit, and Lachlan was probably behind Piper’s treachery as well. Wedding-hating men.

“Let’s let them work it out,” Lachlan said, backing toward the safety of the church at Evie’s glare.

She and Piper remained outside, each staring in horror at the other.

“If you hated planning the wedding so much, why didn’t you tell me?” Piper asked in a tiny voice. “I thought you wanted a big wedding.”

“I did. I do, this is just—” Evie swung from guilt back to outrage. “What’s your excuse? You never even started planning anything to run away from. This is completely out of left field.”

Piper squirmed. “I was kind of pre-running away from the planning. I couldn’t face having to do it all again, and you know Lachlan. It really bothers him that we’re still living out of wedlock.”

“If
you
 hated the planning so much, you should have told
me
.” Evie stamped her foot and Piper hung her head. “I thought you enjoyed it. I thought it was, you know, a distraction.”

Piper rolled her eyes. “You have to stop worrying about me going off the deep end. Those days are over, I swear. We were going to have a ceremony for everyone after yours. This was just for us. I’m sorry, but Lachlan …”

Evie could see she wasn’t blaming Lachlan, but had wanted them to have something special that was just theirs, and recognized she’d wanted the exact thing for her and Sam. She and Piper had been as close as sisters for so long, it felt like a betrayal to do something so important without the other, but they had new family allegiances now. She’d chosen to put Sam first without hesitation, she could hardly blame Piper for doing the same.

“I’m sorry, too. I really do want the big fancy wedding. You know you’re helping fulfill all my stupid dreams with the carriages and bird cages and Disney themed photo sessions.”

“You and Sam nailed it as Ariel and Prince Eric, by the way.”

“Oh my gosh, your idea to have Mags dressed as Sebastian was brilliant. Even Sam had to admit it.” Evie sighed and wiped her nose. “What’s with your bouquet?”

Piper laughed and held out her bouquet, which was indeed a bundle of turnips with sprigs of parsley and baby’s breath. It actually looked pretty, in a farm-chic way.