A Kiss Before the Wedding (Love at Pembroke Palace Book 5)

by Julianne MacLean

  She inclined her head at him, in that way she always did, to warn him against pushing her too hard.

  “Do not dissect my every word, William. You must simply accept that I have made my decision, and I do not wish to alter it.”

  For a long, excruciating moment, they stared at each other in the moonlight, while the night breeze continued to blow through the hedges. William felt as if the walls of cedar were closing in on him. He wanted to grab hold of Adelaide, shake her, then pull her into his arms and hold her—so tight that she could not escape him, not until she realized she was making a dreadful mistake. That she was his. That she could not marry another, not even a duke.

  “Please, William…you must say good-bye to me now,” she whispered. “Let us part as friends.” She held out her hand.

  No. This was wrong. He would not shake her hand. He would not say good-bye. His mind wandered to other times. Good times they had shared.

  “Before we bid each other farewell,” he said, “and before you become a duchess, permit me to make a request.”

  “Yes?”

  “Meet me again tomorrow, as we used to do in Yorkshire. Remember?”

  Her eyes clouded over with apprehension. “We are not children anymore, William. I cannot go running with you across the moors, or fishing at dawn, or swimming in the rain. I am about to become a married woman.”

  “But you are not married yet.” He spoke lightly, his tone persuasively friendly and open. “Come and meet me. We will talk and laugh. I want to know everything I have missed since I left Yorkshire. Is Mrs. Jenkins’ goat still roaming in Mrs. Smith’s vegetable garden?”

  Adelaide hesitated, then her shoulders relaxed slightly. “Yes, but it’s much worse now, for Mrs. Jenkins has three new goats who like to follow their leader.”

  William smiled, for there it was—a hint of the girl he once knew. She had not disappeared after all, at least not yet.

  “Will you see me tomorrow?” he pressed. “I saw a charming lake house on my way here, and there is a walking path around the lake. Could you sneak away for a short while?”

  She thought about it and glanced over her shoulder. “I do not like that word…sneak.”

  “Call it whatever you wish. I will be at the lake house all day,” he said, “and I will wait for you there.” As long as I have to.

  And somehow I will change your mind.

  Then suddenly, unexpectedly, her expression softened and to his utter shock and delight, she stepped into his arms and hugged him. He was so taken aback, all the air rushed from his lungs, and it took a moment for him to gather his wits about him.

  When at last he could breathe again, he cupped the back of her head with his hand and buried his face against her neck.

  Desire flowed through him as he breathed in the sweet scent of her skin and felt the soft silk of her hair upon his cheeks. He was so overwhelmed by her touch that the ground shifted beneath him, and he regretted ever leaving Yorkshire. Regretted it terribly, for he knew this was the end.

  Adelaide was saying good-bye.

  Quickly, she stepped back before he could do anything to prevent it. “I must go before someone discovers I am missing and sends out the dogs.”

  She might as well have reached into his chest and ripped his heart out.

  “We cannot have that,” he gallantly replied, while he fought to control his agony. He was not ready to give up. There had to be a way to stop this tragedy from playing out.

  When they reached the maze entrance, he took hold of her hand, raised it to his lips, and laid a soft kiss upon her knuckles. His heart pounded feverishly, and when he spoke, his voice shook.

  “I will always love you, Adelaide.”

  As she withdrew her hand from his grasp, all joy left his body. Then he felt her palm upon his cheek. It was soft and gentle in the night.

  Slowly, his eyes lifted. He laid his hand on top of hers and gazed at her with heated lust, which was wildly improper and indiscreet, but he could hide nothing from this woman.

  Her eyes glistened with wetness, and a tear fell across her cheek.

  Ah, Adelaide…

  Turning his lips into her palm, he kissed it firmly, lingeringly. When she offered no resistance, he kissed her slender wrist, then traveled up the soft flesh of her inner arm until he reached the inside crook of her elbow.

  She sucked in a breath of shock, but it was mixed with desire.

  A wild sense of satisfaction filled him. Unable to control his lust for her, he took her face in his hands and claimed her sweet, succulent mouth with his own.

  Her lips parted for him. They were moist and hot beneath the ravenous heat of his kiss. While his tongue mingled with hers, his hands traveled down her neck and across her shoulders until he slid the silken shawl away. It fluttered lightly to the ground. Adelaide moaned with pleasure as she rose up on her toes to wrap her arms around his neck.

  The increased pace of her breathing and the intoxicating evidence of her pleasure sent a firestorm of arousal into William’s core, and he pulled her tighter against him. She trembled and went weak in his arms, and surrendered at last to what had always existed between them but had never been explored.

  “Oh William,” she sighed as she threw her head back in rapture.

  His blood coursed hotly through his veins. As he dragged his voracious mouth to the front of her throat, he moaned and blazed a trail of hot kisses down to her collarbone. His tongue darted out to savor the sweet essence of her skin.

  “You’re mine, Adelaide,” he whispered, drawing back and taking her face in his hands. “Follow your heart and come away with me. We will go to Italy together. I will marry you and love you forever.”

  Bewildered and shaking, she wet her lips and clung to his jacket collar as if pleading with him. “Why didn’t you say all of this before? Why did you wait so long, when now it is too late?”

  He touched his forehead to hers and shut his eyes. “It is not too late.”

  “Yes, it is. I do love you, William. I always have, but I just don’t know…”

  His eyes flew open. “You do know. You must think of your own happiness. There is more to life than duty. Let us go now,” he pressed.

  “No, I cannot. I must think first…”

  “Then meet me tomorrow,” he said.

  When she continued to hesitate, he pulled the ruby ring from his finger, placed it into her open palm, and closed her fingers over it. “This is my promise to you before God. I will be your husband, Adelaide, if only you will come to me.”

  Holding the ring in a tight fist, she pressed it to her heart.

  “Yes,” she said at last, and the whole world turned bright before his eyes. “Wait for me tomorrow at the lake house.” She began to back away from him. “I will come to you after dark.”

  He stepped forward to follow, desperate not to lose her. “Do you promise?”

  “Yes. I swear it. Nothing will keep me from you.” Then she turned to go, waving one last time before she broke into a run.

  And just like that, joy flooded back into William’s body, and his heart exploded into a thousand stars as he dropped to his knees in relief.

  Chapter 5

  Shortly after sunset the following day, Adelaide gathered her hat in her hands, placed it on her head, and tied the ribbon under her chin. She crossed her bedchamber and opened the door, but sucked in a breath of shock when she found her father leaning against the opposite wall in the corridor, arms folded over his chest, nostrils flaring as he gazed at her.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” he asked accusingly as he pushed away from the wall and crowded her back into her bedchamber.

  “It’s a lovely evening for a walk,” she calmly explained.

  He entered the room and shut the door behind him. He was a tall man and he towered over her like a giant. “Do not lie to
me, Adelaide. I know where you were last night. I know you went to the maze at midnight to meet Mr. Thomas. Margarite told me everything.”

  Adelaide frowned. How had Margarite known? Adelaide had assured her sister that she would not go to meet William. At the time, she had believed in her own heart that she could, and would, resist seeing him again. But in the end, she had left her room with the utmost urgency and gone dashing across the moonlit gardens to reach him.

  Margarite must have expected her to change her mind. She may even have spied on her.

  “I did nothing wrong,” she told her father. “Mr. Thomas is a friend. I felt I owed him an explanation.”

  “Why?”

  “Because he…” She paused, then raised her chin, squared her shoulders, and spoke with a purposeful degree of condescension. “Because as you must know, he fancies himself in love with me. I had to set him straight, and make sure he understood that I had made up my mind, and we could never be together.”

  Her father’s eyes narrowed until he was squinting at her. “Then where are you going tonight?”

  “Nowhere,” she replied too quickly. “A walk. There is no cause for alarm. I was firm with Mr. Thomas, and he is gone now. I suspect he is already halfway back to Italy.”

  Her heart was pounding violently in her chest and she prayed her father could not recognize her panic.

  For a moment he studied her expression. Then his eyes softened, and he moved closer. He took her shoulders in his hands and spoke compassionately, as if she were still a child and she had just lost her puppy.

  “I know how it is between you and Mr. Thomas,” he gently said. “There is a bond there, for you grew up together, but I cannot let you make this mistake, Adelaide. It is only because he has been away for so long that you romanticize what you were to each other.”

  She shook her head and argued, “I am not romanticizing—”

  He raised a finger to his lips. “Shh. You must listen to reason. Look around you. You have made it all the way to Pembroke Palace. It is your destiny to become duchess here. The duke adores you. He would have paid any sum to have you. You must let go of the past and walk down the aisle tomorrow to marry the man who is meant to be your husband. Surely you feel it. Surely you understand that Mr. Thomas is merely a distraction.”

  Adelaide swallowed painfully over a lump in her throat. “Of course I know that,” she replied. “I am not a fool, Father.”

  “Good.” He dropped his hands to his sides and headed for the door. “But just to be sure…” He paused at the threshold. “I am going to lock you in.”

  Adelaide’s eyes widened with shock. A burning mix of rage and terror flared through her body as she lunged forward to stop him but the door slammed shut before she could reach it. The key turned in the lock.

  “Father, no!” She pounded hard against it.

  “It is for your own protection,” he said from the other side. “You will thank me later. You’ll see.”

  “No, I will not! I will never thank you! You mustn’t do this!” She wrestled with the latch and kicked the door repeatedly.

  “I will tell the duke that you are unwell this evening,” her father said, “and that you must rest. If you shout or continue to act like a spoiled child, Adelaide, I will come in there and beat you senseless. Do you understand?”

  Adelaide felt suddenly light-headed, for she knew her father well. He did not make idle threats, and he had beaten her once before. Only once, however, for she had learned her lesson the first time and had never defied him again.

  Or rather, she had never been caught defying him.

  Slowly she backed away from the door while her heart pounded like a hammer. Please God… This cannot be happening.

  She turned and rushed to the window to look outside. The sun had set in splashes of pink and orange on the distant horizon. Soon it would be dark, and William would expect her at the lake house.

  How long would he wait?

  What if she could not escape and he believed she had changed her mind?

  She opened the window and leaned out. Was it possible to jump or climb to freedom? No. She was too high up and would surely die in the attempt.

  Adelaide shut the window again. Her gaze darted about the room desperately to seek some means of escape. Her father had said it was her destiny to marry the duke, but she could not believe it.

  She loved William. She would always love William, and she knew in the deepest realms of her soul that it was her destiny to grow old with him. But how…how would she ever reach him?

  Perhaps it was not her destiny after all, Adelaide thought miserably as she slipped into bed at nearly two in the morning.

  She had tried everything. She had pulled the velvet rope and rang for her maid, pleaded every excuse she could think of to get out of her room, but her father was always there, sitting outside her bedchamber, watching her with hooded eyes, listening to every word she spoke.

  Eventually she had done exactly what he warned her against. She had screamed and pounded on the door and cried for help, and her father had proven true to his word. He walked in, shut the door behind him, and slapped her hard across the face. He threatened worse if she did not keep quiet.

  Then he said something that made her blood run cold. He promised to direct his wrath and violence toward William if she did not do her duty and walk down the aisle as planned.

  It was now three o’clock in the morning, and her wedding would take place that very day, in eight hours’ time.

  Adelaide’s heart was broken in pieces.

  Had William given up on her yet? Did he believe she had changed her mind, or would he gallop through the chapel doors on his great black steed in the morning, like a courageous medieval knight, and spirit her away before the vicar could begin the ceremony?

  Oh, now she was just being foolish, dreaming of fairy tales and what could never be. Adelaide squeezed her eyes shut.

  William…if you can hear me across the distance, know that I love you and I tried to reach you. I will never forget the magic of our kiss in the moonlight.

  Then a cool breeze wafted across the bed and fluttered her hair. There was a creaking sound, like a door opening and closing.

  Adelaide sat up in the darkness and glanced at the door, but it was still locked. A sudden panic filled her, for she had heard the stories about the spirit monks who haunted the subterranean passages of this palace. She had never believed in ghosts before, but a keen awareness tingled down her spine—a sense of something about to happen.

  Then a hand covered her mouth and her heart leapt into her throat. Once she calmed, the hand loosened and she knew in her heart who had come for her.

  “William?”

  Was she dreaming? Was he truly there, standing beside her bed, or was it some spirit from beyond?

  He was cloaked in shadow, but somehow she knew he was real. She could feel him in her soul.

  “You must be very quiet,” he whispered as he sat down on the edge of the bed.

  She nodded in agreement, her spine ramrod straight.

  He took his hand away from her mouth and cupped her cheek. “Are you all right?”

  “Yes,” she whispered. “I wanted to come to you. I tried.”

  “I know.”

  “Father locked me in.”

  “I suspected as much.”

  She felt her forehead wrinkle in confusion. “But how did you get in here? Did you come through the window?”

  He shook his head. “I have not yet learned to fly, my darling. When you did not come, I ran as fast as I could to the palace, to the servants’ entrance, and tried to sneak in.”

  “What happened?”

  “The housekeeper took me for a thief and tossed me out on my backside. I had almost given up and was about to return to the village when a footman approached me. He told me about the secr
et passages and offered to take me to your chamber—for a price.”

  “That was very unscrupulous of him,” she said.

  “I agree, but I paid him nonetheless. He had just been let go, so I suppose he had an axe to grind.” William glanced toward the large tapestry beside the bed. “Did you know there was a door in the wall?”

  “No. If I had, I would have used it to sneak out of here hours ago.”

  Overcome by curiosity, Adelaide slid off the bed and went to examine it. Indeed, there was a secret door behind the tapestry. It opened soundlessly this time to reveal a dark passageway that led somewhere mysterious.

  “We can sneak out together,” William whispered, “if you are sure this is what you want. My horse is waiting at the stables. If we ride all night, we can make it to London by late tomorrow and board a ship. I will take you to Italy, my love, and I promise you will be very happy there. I have so much to tell you about the discoveries I have made and what I have learned there, what we can do there together—but not now, Adelaide. If we are going to leave before your wedding, we must go.”

  She nodded, but hesitated and looked around. “Should I bring anything?”

  She glanced at the locked door and felt a sudden pang of remorse. Would she ever see her sisters again?

  “Your cloak,” he replied, “for it has become cool outside, and whatever else you can fit in a small bag.”

  She hurried across the room, fetched a few things from the wardrobe, and stuffed them into a valise. Then she wrapped her cloak around her shoulders.

  William approached and fastened the clasp at her neck. Their eyes met, and she felt a thrilling wave of excitement for the future, but it was mixed with fear and uncertainty.

  “Are you sure about this?” he asked, his expression serious.

  “Of course I am. You are everything to me, William. You always were, for as long as I can remember. And knowing you feel as I do, I cannot imagine my life without you.”

  “Nor can I imagine my life without you. I love you, Adelaide. Nothing will ever change that.”

  Stirred by the power of his love for her, she lifted her face to meet his kiss, which held a promise that would never be broken. She felt it in her heart and in her body—especially when his silken tongue met hers with raw, heated passion. Happiness settled into her, and she knew that William Thomas was the single great love of her life.