The Wedding Dress

by Kimberly Cates

  “Don’t you think I want to?” Jared snapped. “But I can’t leave until the site closes down for the winter and Davey is back on his feet. And even if I do, she may not have me. She’s dead stubborn and she thinks…”

  “Thinks she’s ruined yer life, almost killed that boy. Well, from where I’m sittin’, looks to me like she’s waked ye up from one o’those fairy spells, where a man spends his whole life asleep. I don’t know what the devil she sees in ye—scurvy Butler that ye are—but yer a fool if ye don’t go fetch her.”

  “What am I supposed to do if she won’t change her mind?”

  “A stout highland lad like yerself? Fling ’er over yer shoulder and drag her back here if ye must. Tie ’er to yer bed an’ get a child in her. That’s the way our ancestors did it. A rough wooing.”

  “Right, man. That’s a fine idea. I’ll just march up to her home, grab her by the hair and haul her off right under her family’s noses.”

  “Can’t see a problem with it. The lass’ll probably be so happy t’ see ye, she’ll beat ye to the bed, once she gets over the mad of it. No man would ever force that prime little ewe to do anything she didn’t want to. And she wants ye, Butler. God help her. On that ye can depend.”

  Jared stared at the old man who had been his enemy for so long. “Why are you here? Doing this for me?”

  “Not doin’ it fer a thievin’ Butler. Doin’ it fer her.” Snib scuffed the floor with the toe of his boot. “Can’t seem to help meself. The damned woman swallowed a worm.”

  Jared chuckled wanly.

  “Gets a man’s attention, that does. An’ she did even worse before she flew off in that fancy plane.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Made me promise I’d look in on ye. And then…” Snib shook his head in wonder, his false teeth rattling. “Kissed me, square on the mouth she did, an’ told me I was a gentleman. Snodgrass Begood MacMurray, a gentleman!”

  Jared laughed out loud.

  “Gives a man somethin’ to aspire to, that McDaniel filly does. More grit in her than sense.”

  “That’s the truth.”

  Snib patted the bundle again, raining dirt all over the desk. “Tell her this is her wedding present. From me. If yer man enough to win her.”

  Snib spun on his worn-down heel and stalked out the door. Paused to glare back at Captain, who was busily sniffing at the contents on Jared’s desk. “I’ll still shoot that devil of a dog if he comes on my land. Guess I just can’t shoot you. Can’t have our Emma picking buckshot out of your arse.”

  Jared listened as Snib’s truck fired up and the old man drove away. He peered down at the bundle, remembering the day Emma had clasped his hand through the hole in the stone that was supposed to bind true hearts forever. Was it possible, just possible that Craigmorrigan had some magic left…for them?

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  JARED PULLED HIS RENTAL car into the gravel driveway and looked up at the Civil War era house looming against the horizon. Destination by default. He wasn’t even sure the family would be here at the moment. But he knew eventually at least one of the McDaniels would have to show up at the bed-and-breakfast Emma’s mother and aunt ran.

  He remembered the way Emma’s face had shone when she talked about how much her family loved this place with its vast kitchen and treasure-trove attic, its welcoming veranda and the stained-glass window with a peacock displaying jewel-toned feathers. Emma’s smile had warmed with affection as she’d spoken of the ghost she’d believed in as a little girl. But Emma’s eyes, those beautiful dark banished fairy eyes, had shone even brighter as she’d shared the memories she and her mother had made from the time Emma was ten, the six years they’d lived in the private section of the house.

  He scanned the grounds. The driveway was empty, late-September breezes riffled the white lace curtains at the open front windows. The garden to the right of the house welled up with fall hues. Jared saw the white gingerbread trim and the wooden spire atop what must be the gazebo where Emma had tried unsuccessfully to seduce Drew Lawson, the fool. Jared wouldn’t give a damn if the whole world caught an eyeful today—if Emma would only let him love her.

  He slid out of the car seat, nabbing Captain’s leash just in time as the little dog jettisoned himself out of the car. Looping Captain’s leash over his wrist, he concentrated on avoiding the terrier dodging under his feet while he popped open the trunk and extracted the crate he’d hand-carried all the way from Scotland to L.A. and then to Illinois. The “wedding gift” Snib had sent to the Yank lass who’d eaten a worm, toasting the Bruce and Bannockburn.

  Jared’s chest still swelled with wonder every time he thought of what marvels the crate held. A gift that would stun Emma, amaze her. And maybe, please God, maybe give her faith in the power of love and hope enough to change her mind. Trust in loving. In trying. In a dramatic triumph she’d surrendered and a future she didn’t believe they could have.

  And just where would that future be? his old doubts mocked him. I don’t know, he answered himself. At least coming here was a start. Seeing her world for the first time—a place that might have jumped right out of the pages of the Mark Twain books he’d read as a boy—he wondered at the courage Emma had shown, facing him down at the castle. He was the outsider here. He hoped when he entered the world that was hers, he’d show half the resourcefulness she had.

  Jared started toward the front door, but Captain would have none of it, the terrier straining so hard on his leash that Jared feared he’d drop the crate. Grimacing, Jared surrendered to the hardheaded animal, letting Captain tug him toward the rhododendron bush that marked the entry to the garden. The back door would do as well as the front, he figured. At that moment Captain wrenched his head right out of his collar.

  Jared swore as the terrier darted off. A curse erupted from the vicinity of the gazebo, a man of about ninety emerging from beyond the white gingerbread rail. He brandished a garden spade at the yapping dog.

  “Back to your own yard, you little fluffy! There’ll be no digging in Finn’s rose beds on my watch!”

  The dog stood his ground.

  “Not your fault, poor little bugger,” Spade Man groused. “When I find the moron who owns you I’ll take it out on his hide!”

  “He’s Emma’s dog.”

  The old man looked up, impaling Jared with a vivid blue gaze designed to peel away layers and unearth what a man was made of inside. “Emma’s?” the old man repeated. Good Lord—was that a gold hoop glinting in his left ear?

  “That’s right.” Jared stepped to the wrought iron table where a glass of some kind of fizzy drink sat, ice cubes melting in the sun. He slid the crate onto the table. “At least, he used to be her dog. She left him behind for me.”

  “Left him where?”

  “In Scotland.”

  Razor-sharp intellect burned lines in the old man’s leathery face. “You the man who stood by and let my grandbaby eat a worm?”

  Bloody hell. Jared should have guessed he was face to face with Emma’s legendary grandfather. The man was hefting the shovel in his hands as if it were an M-16 and he was trying to figure out where to spear Jared with the bayonet. But damned if Jared was going to back down.

  “Nobody could make that woman do anything she doesn’t want to!” He grabbed Captain and refastened his collar, then tied the leash to the nearest table leg, well out of the old man’s range. “If you don’t know that about Emma, you don’t know her very well at all.”

  Captain McDaniel rocked back on his heels. “Oh, I know her plenty. Right down to her stubborn little toes. What the hell are you doing here?”

  Jared’s chin bumped up a notch. Why not say it right out loud? “I’ve come to marry her.”

  “Didn’t they teach you to read in that fancy university you went to?” Captain McDaniel’s scowl could have leveled a city like a nuclear blast. “She won’t have you. She said she made her feelings clear in that letter she wrote.”

  “I don’t care what sh
e wrote.” Jared stared the old man down. “I’m not leaving here without her.”

  The Captain guffawed in disdain. “Emma made up her mind she won’t see you. What are you going to do? You and that fluffy little dog you’ve got there going to howl outside her window?” The terrier showed his teeth in his most convincing I’m-not-scared-of-you growl.

  “Show a little respect,” Jared said. “She named this fluffy little dog after you.”

  “Did she?” Captain McDaniel eyed the scruffy rat of a terrier with new interest, then turned his attention to the wooden crate. “What’s that thing you’ve got scratching up my paint job on the table?”

  Jared crossed his arms over his chest. “It’s for Emma.”

  Without so much as a by-your-leave, the old man set his spade aside and wrestled the top off the box. He tossed the lid to the ground. The terrier dodged under the table with an offended yelp.

  “Ratty old canvas and a bunch of dirt?” McDaniel complained. “Some gift to bring to a woman. Ever hear of flowers or candy over there in Scotland?” He poked the oiled canvas with his finger. “What is it?”

  “That’s for Emma to know. This was buried beneath the standing stones near the castle.”

  “That’s just what the girl needs,” Captain McDaniel scoffed. “More old junk to moon over like that stuff in the attic, where she’s been spending all her time. I was just about to haul her out to help me with the garden. All that brooding is no good for the girl.”

  So Emma was here! Jared’s heart skipped a beat. She was close, so damned close.

  But her grandfather bristled with hostility, looking so much like Captain the dog, Jared might have laughed if the situation weren’t so dire. “I don’t care if you brought her the tail from King Tut’s monkey,” the Captain said, drawing himself up to his full height. “You made my grandbaby cry, you lowdown son of a bitch. Damned if I’m going to let you upset her again!”

  Jared’s mouth set in a thin, hard line. “There’s no ‘let’ about this, Captain McDaniel. I don’t want trouble but I’ll go through you if I have to.”

  “You can try.” The old man cocked his fists up, ready, blue eyes filling with exhilaration.

  Jared groaned inwardly as the old man called his bluff. What the hell was he supposed to do? Emma would hate him if he broke the old man’s hip. He’d just have to grab the old guy carefully and try not to hurt him when he moved Captain McDaniel out of his way.

  Jared started toward McDaniel, looking for someplace on that thin body he wouldn’t break. In a flash, the Captain grabbed his wrist. Pain shot through Jared. He dropped to his knees to keep his wrist from breaking. Another flick and SMACK! Jared lay flat on his back, the wind knocked out of him, a boot sole balanced oh so delicately on his windpipe, the frail old man beaming down at him in triumph.

  The terrier yapped frantically, trying to snap at the old man’s leg, but unable to reach. He set to lapping the bare patch of ankle where Jared’s pant leg had ridden up.

  “Now, young man,” the Captain said. “Are you going to go away like I told you?” He took his foot off Jared’s neck so he could answer.

  “No,” Jared said hoarsely, gently nudging the dog off him.

  “No?” McDaniel echoed, staring.

  “That’s right. I said no.” Jared rubbed his throat with his left hand as he climbed to his feet. “I hope you’re ready for a very long battle of wills, Captain McDaniel, because I’m not going anywhere until I see Emma.” Jared narrowed his eyes in grim determination. “You do what you have to do, guarding the gates to the citadel or whatever. But I’m just going to keep on coming at you until I get through.”

  The old man frowned. “Is that so?”

  “It’s so.” Jared pushed up his sleeves, then rolled lightly onto the balls of his feet, ready to lunge, dodge, evade as he searched for an opening in the old man’s defense. He braced himself for another onslaught, praying he wouldn’t hurt the old man by accident. The Captain’s arm swung in a hearty arc, but not to knock Jared back to the ground. This time Emma’s grandfather smacked him on the back in unmistakable delight.

  “I’ll be damned!” McDaniel said. “I can finally die in peace.”

  “Die?” Jared echoed, alarmed, thinking what such a loss would do to Emma. “Are you sick?” The thought of Emma facing such an illness when she was already so emotionally battered turned Jared’s stomach. He eyed the Captain sharply, his mind racing. The man didn’t look sick. Okay, he looked ninety-something years old, but if the grip he’d dropped Jared with a few minutes ago was any indicator, he was a whole lot healthier than he appeared. Or at least a whole lot craftier.

  “Hell no, I’m not sick!” the Captain scoffed. “Couldn’t afford to be. I had to hang on long enough to make sure my girl would be taken care of.”

  “Sir?” Jared rubbed his temple, confused. Had he bumped his head harder than he thought when Captain McDaniel had dropped him like a rock?

  “You’re just what my granddaughter needs! That Drew Lawson—” McDaniel made a face like he’d just gulped down sour milk. “Everybody thought he was Prince Fucking Charming. I knew he was all wrong for my Emma from the first. But what can you say? I’m just one old man and the rest of my family was thrilled. Such a nice boy, Drew,” he mimicked. “Such a gentleman. A gentleman for my Emma? Bah! What that girl needs is a man she can’t push around!”

  Jared grinned into the Captain’s wizened face and the hawk-sharp eyes, knowing exactly why Emma loved her grandfather so much. “Even with me, she tries.”

  “That’s good. That’s good.” Captain McDaniel puffed out his chest and for a moment Jared saw the man he’d been fifty years before. “Taught her everything she knows. I’ve been waiting twenty-eight—no, twenty-nine years now for a man to come along who deserves my diamond in the sky.” He gave Jared a long hard look from head to toe. “If you carry that girl off and give me a great-grandbaby before next summer, you just might do.”

  Jared laughed out loud. “You know, you’re the second old man who’s told me to kidnap the woman and get her pregnant. Don’t you think I should show a little more finesse than that?”

  “Finesse, my ass!” The Captain pretended to glare. “Are you a fluffy or are you a man?”

  Jared planted his fists on his hips, loving the old man already. “I’m no fluffy.”

  “No, you’re not, by damn.” The Captain slapped his thigh heartily. Then he sucked in a deep breath. Jared’s heart tugged as he saw tears in the old man’s eagle eyes, Captain McDaniel’s voice soft with gratitude. “No, you’re not.”

  “Thank you, sir.” Jared thrust out his hand, Captain McDaniel taking it in a viselike grip.

  Sparkles danced back into the old man’s ornery eyes. “Don’t be thanking me before you’ve lived with her awhile,” he warned. “She’s got a damned foul temper and she’s stubborn as…well, as me.” He shrugged thin shoulders, a little sheepish. “The rest of the family’s off at some dance rehearsal for Hope. One of those fluffy tutu things on a McDaniel!” He shook his head, screwed up his face. “Never thought I’d see the day. But I won’t hold it against her, long as her daddy keeps teaching her tae kwon do as well. Girl’s got to defend herself, you know. Never know what kind of renegade she might run across.”

  Jared chuckled, remembering the times Emma had bested him, the times she’d battled him. The times she’d loved him. “That’s a dead cert.”

  McDaniel jerked his head toward March Winds’ open back door. “Emma’s alone up in the attic with all that old trash she loves so much. Might as well take that bundle of dirt you carted all the way from Scotland to add to it. Head up to the second floor. It’s the third door on your right. If you see lots of cobwebs and trunks, you’re in the attic. If you bump your head on shelves full of towels, you’re in the closet.”

  The corner of Jared’s mouth ticked up in a smile. “I’ll keep that in mind.” He started to reach for Captain’s lead. But Captain McDaniel stopped him.

  “
How about we give you a little privacy? Might as well get acquainted with my namesake, here.”

  “Only if you promise not to bite each other.”

  Captain McDaniel flung his head back and laughed—Emma’s laugh, belly-deep and clear—as Jared headed for the door.

  “Hey!”

  Jared stopped at the Captain’s brusque cry. He turned to see the old man giving him a glare that would have made armies back down. “Hey what?” Jared asked.

  “You hurt her, I’ll break every bone in your body, got it? I’m not dead yet.”

  “Emma thinks you’re going to outlive us all.”

  “I might.” The Captain flashed his pirate grin, his gold hoop gleaming. “I just might after all.”

  RAIN DRUMMED SOFTLY on the attic roof, filling March Winds with the magic that had been so much a part of Emma’s childhood. Dress-up clothes spilled across the wooden floor where Hope had left them. Treats from an impromptu tea party set up under the window had been decimated. Hope had dashed off to the dress rehearsal for her recital hours ago, insisting Emma remain in the attic until she an’ her daddy were gone. The costumes, sewn by her mom and Aunt Finn, were supposed to be a surprise.

  It was good to be home, Emma thought. The past month in Whitewater had healed her in ways she’d needed far too long. It was amazing—the resilience of the McDaniel clan’s spirit. Hope had navigated the playground minefield with aplomb, reminding anyone who teased her exactly how good her daddy was at swinging a baseball bat.

  Former classmates of Deirdre had been surprisingly kind, a few even apologizing for being such jerks when she was pregnant and alone. Deirdre had accepted their apologies with the dignity that was all her own. Not that she had needed their empathy. Jake had convinced her a long time ago that she wasn’t responsible for what Adam Farrington had done to her in the backseat of that car.

  One of the few things that actually gave Emma a bit of grim satisfaction was imagining her birth father having to explain the bad press to his wife. Unfortunately, Farrington’s daughters would have to learn the truth, too. The crime of rape was an ugly thing to have to connect to your father. Emma knew that all too well.