“I have a friend who can legally marry us,” Ben said. “Well, he’s not really a friend, I guess, because I can’t really hang out with him. Mother would never approve. Anyway, he got ordained as some kind of holy man or shaman or something a few years back just on a lark. He’s legal, though.” He looked her in the eyes. “That’s if you don’t mind. We can have a big wedding to renew our vows when the timing is better. Right now, we don’t have the time or the opportunity. Is that all right with you?”
Abbie had never been one of those women who cared about a big wedding. It wasn’t the Day that mattered to her. It was what it stood for, and the time after that day was what really mattered. “That’s fine with me. I understand the time constraints and…other concerns.”
“You are fantastic!” Ben said and kissed her on the cheek while walking, almost tripping over himself.
“Just pay attention to the trail,” she said. “The last thing we need is you falling over the edge, bouncing down the slope, and going into the river.”
“I can rent a place where we can live, though I still haven’t figured out how the logistics will work at first. I mean,”—he scrubbed his fingers through his hair—“I’m not sure when or how to break it to Mother. She’s still set on me marrying Penelope. Ugh. I’m not really sure what she’ll do when she finds out about you. I do know that I want to be married before breaking it to her. She has ways of getting what she wants.”
“It’s better to wait at least a few weeks, I think,” Abigail said. “It’ll give me a chance to give notice and find a job.” As she said it, a lump formed in her throat. It felt like she was starting their relationship, their marriage, with deception. “Ben, there are some things I need to tell you about.”
“There are things I need to tell you about, too.” His phone chimed, and he pulled it out of his pocket. “Damn! It’s my mother.” He looked at Abbie, his expression pained, and then he silenced the phone and put it back in his pocket. “So, let’s talk about these things—” The phone rang again.
Abigail took Ben’s hand. “Go ahead and answer it. I appreciate you being polite and not taking the call, but she’ll just keep on calling you.”
He sighed and took the phone out again, answering it. “Hello? Yes. No. I’m in Yellowstone trying to clear my head. Yes, I know. Yes. All right. Bye.”
He turned toward her, his mouth set in a frown. “She needs me to come back home right away. Something about a tailor and some suits for some special occasion. I’m sorry, Abbie.”
Abigail hugged him and gave him a quick kiss on the mouth. “It’s fine. I understand. Once you’re mine, though, she is going to take a back seat, so help me.”
He smiled at her. “Definitely. I wouldn’t have it any other way. Let’s figure out a time and place to talk about those other things and to figure out the schedule for us getting married.” His smile grew wider. “We’re actually going to get married.”
Her face split into a smile to match his. “We are. Now get going before you get in trouble.”
Ben pulled her close, kissed her thoroughly, leaving her breathless, and then headed toward his car. “Thank you, Abbie.” She didn’t ask what the thanks were for but headed toward her own car to make the long drive back home.
It took two more meetings to finally get everything set up for the marriage. With the limited amount of time they had and all the preparations to make, there wasn’t time to talk about the other things Abbie wanted to talk about. She was anxious to confess to him what she was doing at the estate and who she really was, yet when there never seemed to be time to discuss it, it was almost a relief. Still, her conscience bothered her.
She decided that the real reason she hesitated was the small chance he was complicit in his mother’s wrongdoing. It would break her heart if he was, but more, it could put her in mortal danger. Even thinking that made her feel guilty, too. He couldn’t be part of it. He just couldn’t.
They agreed she could give notice after they got married. They would pretend nothing had changed, continuing their normal routines, until they were able to get a better handle on what they would do, where they would go. They simply didn’t have the time to do all that first. If Margaret Huntsman found out before they were actually married, she would do something to prevent it. They had to get it done as soon as possible. They set a date two weeks from their last “logistics meeting.”
“I rented us a house in Cody,” Ben told her as they shared a final kiss and were getting ready to leave in their separate cars. “I prepaid the rent for a year, in cash. That should give us time to figure things out.”
“You know, this isn’t the typical romantic wedding story,” Abbie said. “All this sneaking around makes me feel guilty, and I haven’t done anything wrong.”
Ben took her hand and kissed it. “I know, Abbie, and I’m sorry. It’s just the situation with my mother and the stupid engagement to Penelope and all that. Once we get married and settle into a routine, I’ll make it up to you. I promise.”
She eyed him as if weighing him and his motives. “Okay, but you have a lot to make up for. I hope you’re prepared to do what it takes.”
“I am, Abbie.” He pulled her into a kiss and then released her. “I so am.”
“You better be. For a few weeks, I can go and stay at our house on the weekends, at least until I have given my notice and leave the estate. Will you be able to spend the weekends with me?”
“Absolutely,” he said. “My mother is used to me being gone during the weekends, so it won’t be suspicious at all. We’ll make it work.”
She smiled at him. “I know we will.” Looking at her watch, she sighed. “We better get going.” She ran her fingers through his hair—she loved doing that—and kissed him one last time before walking toward her car. She stopped, turned around, and came back to him as he was standing there watching her. “I…I love you, you know. I just wanted to tell you that.”
His gorgeous blue eyes went liquid and he pulled her into a hug. “Oh, Abbie, I’ve been wanting to hear that for so long. I am totally, incurably, outrageously, head over heels in love with you.” He kissed her.
“Sure, try to one-up me,” she said, sticking her tongue out at him and then laughing. “I’ll see you around.”
“You definitely will,” he said.
Chapter 25
Friday afternoon, as Abbie was finishing up her work, she pondered what she would do. She seemed to be spending a lot of time doing that lately.
I can’t just leave them ignorant of what I am doing, she thought. I have to tell them, and sooner is better than later. But what if they try to talk me out of it? What if they forbid me to go through with it? At least I’d have a resolution and then I wouldn’t be so torn.
She argued with herself for hours and finally came to the conclusion that she had to go home and tell her father, at least. She felt guilty in abandoning her mission, but down deep, she thought it was the right thing to do. Didn’t he tell her himself that love was worth sacrifice? She did believe that, but then why did she feel like she was being irresponsible?
Still arguing with herself, her stomach tied in knots over it, she left early the next morning to drive to her home. It was the longest five hours of her life.
“Abbie!” her father said as she showed up in his study. He rushed to her to pull her into a hug. “Twice in a month’s time. What’s the occasion?”
He must have felt her tense because he released his embrace, grabbed her shoulders and moved her to arm’s length, studying her face. “What’s wrong?”
“Oh, Papa,” she said. Her eyes welled up, but she was determined not to cry. “I have to tell you something, something I am hoping won’t disappoint you.”
“Disappoint me?” he said. “Never. Come on, let’s sit, and you can tell me all about it.” He led her to the leather sofa and drew her down to sit next to him. He turned his body to face her.
Abbie looked into his gentle eyes, but that made her feel worse. She dro
pped her gaze, watched her hands fidgeting in front of her. There was nothing else to do but just rush through and get it out. She could sort out the details after the initial surprise.
“I’m getting married,” she said. She looked up to watch for her father’s response. There was none. He sat, relaxed, just as before, looking into her eyes.
“…to Margaret Huntsman’s son.”
Landon Henderson sat exactly as he had been. Nothing changed. Nothing. He was waiting for her to continue.
She didn’t.
After a full minute of silence, he spoke. “Do you love him?”
“Yes,” she said without a pause. “I do.”
Her father’s face finally showed some expression. He smiled. Smiled!
“Then that’s what you should be doing, isn’t it?”
“It means I will have to abort the mission, obviously,” she said.
“Yes.”
“It will be difficult or impossible to get another operative in there without arousing suspicion.”
“You’re right.”
“I’ll be joined in wedlock to the son of our greatest enemy, the woman responsible for Mother’s death.”
“I understand that,” he said. “Abbie, in the grand scheme of things, the effects of what you are doing on the mission are insignificant.”
Abbie looked at him, mouth hanging open. “What…” she cleared her throat, “what do you mean?”
Her father took her hands in his and kissed them. “Abbie, your mother and I always told you to trust your heart but to use your mind to make sure of things. Finding a person with whom you want to spend the rest of your life is one of the most important things you can ever do. These other things, they pale in significance. We’ll get by without a spy inside the estate.
“We also do not judge one person by another person’s deeds. What matters is that you are choosing to live life. In all important things, there is sacrifice.”
“But,” she said, “I’m abandoning an important mission. I am being unreliable.”
“Abbie, Abbie, don’t you understand? If you were to stay there and not marry the man you love, would you be able to do your job effectively? Would you be a good operative?”
“No, I guess not.”
“Then the mission is already compromised—through no fault of your own—so you can take that part right out of the equation. Like I said, we can get by without an internal spy. It was always a slim chance that you’d be able to find anything important, anyway. Margaret is too cunning to allow even her staff to find incriminating evidence. We gave it a shot, but it was just about time to pull you out of there, anyway. As you leave, maybe you can take a piece or two of evidence. It won’t matter if they miss it. At worst, they’ll think you’re a thief.
“So you see, you really have nothing to be ashamed of, but you have everything to look forward to.”
Abigail looked at her father, eyes and mouth wide. Then she charged him and wrapped him in a rib-bruising hug. “I love you,” she said.
“I love you, too, honey. I don’t suppose the wedding is going to be normal in the sense that there will be guests or anything?”
Abbie could feel her face getting hot. “No. With everything going on with Margaret and the sham engagement she’s trying to force on Ben, we’re just going to go and do it. We do plan on having a wedding to renew our vows once things cool down, though.”
Landon sighed. “I guess that’ll have to do.” He smiled widely at his daughter. “I hope you will be happy, Abbie. Keeping a marriage good is a lot of work.”
“I’ll work hard for it, Papa. We’ll be happy. At least, we will once all this craziness with Ben’s mother is over.”
Abigail talked with her father for several more hours before going to her room. As she drifted off to sleep, she thought over what she and Landon had talked about. She was happy that he was so supportive. She wished her mother could be here to share it all with her. She knew her mother would love Ben. But now she knew something else, too. She knew that her mother would be supportive of her decision, not just because she loved Abigail but because she believed in love itself. Her father made her see that. Smiling, she drifted off to sleep.
While Abbie was off doing whatever she was doing for the day, Ben had gone to Yellowstone, as he always did when he wanted some alone time to think. The habit had been ingrained in him early. He and his father used to go to the park and just relax, spending time together and, more importantly, spending it away from the world and all its problems and stresses. Building an empire as his father did from scratch was more than a full-time job. It was an all-consuming project that left little time for anything else. His father worked hard, harder than Ben had ever seen anyone else work, but he occasionally needed some quiet time to decompress. Even as a child, Ben knew how special those times his father shared with him were.
He missed his father. Hank Mason would have loved Abbie. A smile spread across Ben’s face as he looked out over Artists Point, all its colors dazzling in the morning sun.
It was such a contrast, the relationship between Ben and his mother and the one he shared with his father. He had read about the special bond between boys and their mothers, but he had never felt it. They just didn’t connect. Maybe it was because she was so aloof. The part that bothered him was that he didn’t even really want a close relationship with her. That embarrassed him and made him feel like a jerk, but it was true. You didn’t get to pick your family, but if you did, he wouldn’t have picked Margaret Huntsman. That might make him a horrible son, but he couldn’t help it.
He did try to be a dutiful son, though. He hoped that once everything settled down, she would accept Abigail. In the meantime, she would be angry and vindictive. He fully expected her to cut off all his money and to do whatever she could to make his life miserable. He had planned on it, in fact. He prepaid the small home he and Abbie would live in, he had socked away a little money for emergencies, and he had spent a good deal of time trying to figure out how she would act against him so that he could counteract what she did. It all made him nervous, but it would not deter him. He would see this through.
He almost couldn’t believe it himself. He was going to get married…and by his choice. There was something about Abigail right from the first time he had met her, something that told him she would be important. Little did he know that she would become the most important thing. Important enough to give up the family fortune for. He hoped he had not misjudged her. If she was at all attached to material things, she would be upset that they would have no money.
That started him wondering. What was her family like? What did her father and mother do for work? Did they have money? Were they comfortable or just making ends meet? He had never asked her. He never really had the time and opportunity to talk about things like that. He hoped that would change soon. He wanted to know everything about her.
There were less than two weeks left until the wedding. He hesitated to even call it a wedding. It was just going to be him, Abbie, Lucas—as a witness—and the guy marrying them. Regardless, it was the most important day of his life so far. He would go over everything one more time to make sure it would go without a hitch. He couldn’t let his mother ruin this.
He reached into his pocket for his phone. Whenever he started to feel stressed, he looked at the pictures he had taken of Abbie. That always calmed him down. He patted his front pocket, then his back pocket, then all his others. Damn. He had left his phone at home. He couldn’t remember the last time he had done that. Well, he would just have to pull up the thousand pictures of her in his mind. He closed his eyes and saw those gorgeous blue orbs of hers looking at him. He sighed, leaned back against the bench, and enjoyed the show.
Chapter 26
Abigail went about her work with half a mind. Less than two weeks until the secret marriage ceremony Ben had arranged. She still couldn’t believe it was happening. While it was romantic, she wasn’t thrilled about having to do it in secret. It would be okay
, though. They could do a big formal ceremony once all the heat died down. If it ever did.
Ben was feeling his nerves, she thought. To be honest with herself, she was feeling them, too. He had been almost aloof lately, preoccupied with all the arrangements and constantly looking over his shoulder, afraid his mother would find out and stop it. He had even made a few comments that were totally unlike him, slightly derogatory things he said in passing about “little people” and the poor. Just a little while longer and the stress of waiting would be over. They would be legally married, and then there was nothing Margaret could do.
But that wasn’t true. The woman could have Abbie killed. She had done it before. That was the reason Abbie was here to begin with. She would have to have a conversation with Ben to tell him about that. She had not had a chance to tell him all she wanted to. They had so little time alone together.
She could picture it now. They would be sitting by the fireplace, cozy in each other’s arms and she would casually mention it. “Ben, did you know that your mother is a murderer and that she has killed several people that I know of, including my own mother?” Yeah, sure. It would happen exactly like that.
“Abigail,” a woman’s voice said, breaking her from her daydreams. “Can I speak with you for a minute?”
Abbie turned to find Arianna Cox standing next to her. With her tanned skin, brown eyes, and dark hair, she was a visual opposite of Abbie. A smile played across her face, but it wasn’t sincere. They’d hardly spoken since Abbie called Arianna down that day, the first week on the job.
“Arianna,” she said. “Of course, what is it?”
The other woman took a breath and steeled herself to speak. Abigail noticed something odd about how she did it, as if she had been practicing looking like she was nervous. What was she up to?
“I just want to let you know I have noticed your…interactions…with Master Mason. I have seen how you look at him and how he looks at you. I know you’re planning to be with him.”
Water & Flame (Witches of the Elements Series Book 1) Page 15
