Her Bodyguard (38 page)

“I know.”

“But I’m thinking, just maybe, you’re as close as anyone could get.”

The morning’s search proved no more fruitful than the previous day’s, and by the time the rain ended just around noon, nerves had rubbed a bit raw. The older McBride boy sniped with anyone who dared speak to him. Trace and his brother Tye snapped and snarled with each other and everyone else. Luke just wanted to get away.

Taking a break from his assigned search grid, he turned his face into the wind and began to walk. He paid little attention to where he was going. He simply followed an unfamiliar birdsong and an intriguing flash of sapphire blue flitting from tree to tree. He’d never before seen such a brilliantly blue bird in the Lone Star State. He’d give anything if Mari were here to see it. The bird was the same color as that necklace of hers. She’d get a real kick out it.

Watching the bird, Luke’s eyes burned. He blinked away the sting, clenched his teeth.
You’ll see it, sugar. I swear, I’ll find you.

With the necklace so recently in his thoughts, when Luke first saw the pendant dangling over the side of a rock halfway up a small hill to his right, he thought he’d suffered a hallucination. He took a second look, then rubbed his eyes. It was a necklace. Not Mari’s blue pendant, but the red one. Emma’s necklace. How the hell did Emma’s McBride’s necklace get here?”

Luke froze, almost afraid to hope. “Mari?” he said. He cleared his throat and tried again, louder. “Maribeth?”

He listened hard. Nothing. Keeping his eye on the necklace, he climbed the hill. The necklace lay just beyond his reach. He went down on his knees. Reached for the necklace. “Mari, sugar? Can you hear me?”

His fingers brushed the chain. He went down on his belly, stretched as far as he could reach. Hope, fear and dread swirled inside him like a dervish.

“Maribeth McBride? I want to hear you call my name.” He snagged the chain, dragged the necklace across the rocks toward him. He clutched the pendant in his hand, searching for sight of her or a hiding place or any sign that she might be near. “Mari!”

“Here, Luke. I’m here. I knew you’d find me.”

His voice broke. “Mari?”

“Look below you. There’s a shaft. It’s the entrance to an underground cavern. Luke, I’m really ready to get out of here.”

Luke spied the black slit in rocks and sweet blessed relief washed over him. He clambered over the rocks to the cavern’s entrance. Lying on his stomach, he stretched out over the hole. “Mari?”

He heard a shuffling sound, then a figure moved into the thin beam of light piercing the darkness of the shaft. She looked dirty and torn and tattered. He’d never seen such a beautiful sight.

“Please hurry, Luke. I have so much to do. We’re getting married in little more than a week. I think I’ve lost a little weight, so Mama might need to alter the dress again. Plus, we still need to find turtledoves, and I have to tell Aunt Claire that I’ve changed my mind about the cake topper. I want fresh flowers. Yellow roses. Is that all right with you?”

With his mouth stretched in a smile as big as the Texas sky, Luke sighed long and hard. “Maribeth McBride? I do love you, but you are such a Menace.”

EPILOGUE

MARI’S WEDDING DAY DAWNED bright and beautiful, the autumn air crisp, the sky cloudless and a beautiful azure blue. It was a perfect day for a wedding.

On the lawn at Willow Hill sat rows of tables decorated in the bride’s colors of sapphire-blue and lemon. The last of the briskets cheerfully furnished for the event by little Billy Waddell’s forever-grateful father smoked in two iron barbecue pits. The meat had perfumed the air for two days in preparation for the guests who would attend the barbecue at the bride’s home following the ceremony at First Methodist Church.

Collectively, the citizens of Fort Worth held their breath, wondering what mischief to expect at today’s ceremony. The McBrides were well-known for having calamitous weddings. Hadn’t the bride herself helped turn loose cats, dogs and mice at her own parents’ wedding? Hadn’t the family pet fish swum in the holy water font at her aunt and uncle’s nuptials? Then there were the bigger animals the McBride boys released at Emma’s wedding, along with the disappearance of a wedding guest, the complete story of that mystery something the people of Fort Worth had yet to be told.

No, something was bound to happen today, which was why an invitation to the afternoon event was the hottest ticket in town. Everyone wanted to see firsthand what disaster was bound to occur when the Bad Luck Wedding Dress was worn by a Bad Luck Bride.

The morning of Luke’s wedding day, Janna and her new husband pitched in to help him spruce up the Rankin Building apartment where he and Mari would live until the completion of their house on Summit Avenue. The previous day they’d held a small, private funeral service for Rory. It had been a hard day for Luke, his sister, and especially Kat McBride, but they’d made it through. They’d all taken comfort in the fact that Rory had died trying to do the right thing.

By noon, Luke and his family had the apartment cleaned, polished and prepared to be a perfect wedding night bower. Considering all the travel the bride and groom had done of late, Luke and Mari were content to delay a honeymoon until the spring, after Kat’s baby was born. Luke made certain the apartment was stocked with supplies to last a full two weeks. He and his bride didn’t plan on leaving the apartment for at least that long.

Mari slept late the morning of her wedding and awoke with a smile on her face. She luxuriated in the pampering overseen by her grandmother, Monique Day, and when the females in her family removed to First Methodist Church at noon, two hours before the wedding was scheduled to begin, she all but floated above the streets in a haze of happiness.

The church looked beautiful, the flowers and decorations perfect, just the way she’d dreamed. The women fussed with some last-minute ribbon tying, then repaired to the vestry to dress. Jenny’s mother-of-the-bride dress was a stylish design of yellow silk shot with threads of sapphire. Mari thought her mother had never looked more beautiful. As her attendants, Emma and Kat were dressed alike, the shimmering sapphire of their high-waisted gowns a triumph of fabric and design.

“Oh, Mama,” Mari said when her sisters finished dressing. “You have outdone yourself with these gowns. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite so beautiful. You are the most talented dressmaker in the entire world!”

“I’m glad you like them, honey. I wanted this day to be everything you’ve dreamed of.”

“It will be. It is.” Tears pooled in her eyes as Mari smiled at her mother, Emma and Kat in turn. “I’m marrying the man I love, and all of my family is here to share this day with me.”

“Sans the family pets, I trust,” Emma said. “The boys swore on their favorite slingshots that they’d leave the wildlife at home this time.”

At that, Mari tried to remain nonchalant. Only yesterday, she and Luke had been walking in the gardens at Willow Hill and stumbled upon a meeting between her younger brothers. The despondent boys were bemoaning the fact that due to the no-animals promise they’d been forced to give, Mari’s wedding was bound to be dull, boring, and missing an important family tradition. So convinced were they that the wedding was doomed to be a letdown of enormous proportions for guests who had come to expect excitement at a McBride wedding, that Mari and Luke reconsidered.

Janna’s daughters would do the honors. Halfway into the ceremony, a dozen ducks were scheduled to be released onto the floor of the First Methodist Church of Fort Worth.

Mari couldn’t help but grin in anticipation.

“What?” Emma asked, her eyes narrowing suspiciously.

Mari was saved from responding when Jenny looked at her watch and declared it was time for Mari to dress. The women then helped her don the wedding gown that Jenny wore when she wed Trace, the same gown Aunt Claire wore when she married Uncle Tye, the dress Emma wore when she married her beloved Casey. Some people in town called it the Bad Luck Wedding Dress, but the McBride women knew better. Even Emma, who had lost her dear Casey after such a short time, recognized the magic in the gown. It wasn’t luck, good or bad, that gave the gown its power. What made the gown special was the love that filled the hearts of the brides who wore it, the love that would bless the brides’ marriages, be those marriages long or painfully short.

“Oh, my goodness,” Kat breathed when the buttons were all fastened, the train attached, and Mari’s sapphire necklace in place around her neck. “Look at you. You are breathtaking, Mari. Simply breathtaking. Luke Garrett is gonna take one look at you and swallow his tongue.”

A knock sounded on the vestry door and Trace McBride called, “Hello? Are y’all ready in there? It’s about time to start.”

Jenny opened the door, then went up on her tiptoes and pressed a kiss against her husband’s cheek. “You might want to shield your eyes when you come in, sir. The bride’s beauty is blinding.”

Trace took one look at his daughter and went speechless. Jenny listened to him clear his throat, blink back tears, and took pity on him, ushering the others outside, leaving father and daughter alone.

“Oh, Mari-berry. You are as pretty as a ripe summer peach.”

“You’re pretty handsome yourself, Papa, all dressed up in your new suit.”

Trace ran a finger along his shirt collar and mumbled something about it being too tight. “Maribeth, I have to ask. Are you absolutely certain you want to go through with this? You know, all you have to do is say the word, and I’ll take care of everything. You’d never have to see that bounder again if you don’t want to.”

“I love him, Papa.”

“Yeah, well. So what?”

“You like him too, now, don’t you? You can admit it, you know.”

“Yeah, well. So what?”

Mari laughed and father and daughter embraced. Hugging her tight, Trace said into her ear, “I love you, baby. I always will. Be happy.”

“I love you, too, Papa. You’ll always be the first man I loved, and I will love you until the day I die.”

“If he doesn’t treat you right, you tell me. I’d take care of him quick as a minute.”

“Oh, Papa.” Laughing, Mari kissed his cheek, then they joined the rest of the family in the vestibule of First Methodist Church. Moments later, the organist sounded the cue for the mother of the bride, and Jenny gave Mari another quick hug and kiss before Billy escorted her down the aisle. Kat waited for her cue, then glanced back at Mari and said, “I’m glad you brought me home, Mari.”

Emma hugged Mari, whispered in her ear, “The love you’ve found with Luke is powerful, vigilant and true, Mari. You’ve given me hope.”

When her sisters reached the front of the church, Mari and Trace took their places at the end of the center aisle. The first notes of Mendelssohn rang out and the congregation rose to their feet.

Luke waited for her at the altar, standing tall and proud and certain. He wore a charcoal-gray suit with a matching vest over a pristine white shirt, and he was so handsome he stole her breath away.

On their way up the aisle, Trace murmured, “You can still change your mind.”

Mari giggled and patted her father’s arm. At the altar, Trace paused before handing her over to Luke. “You treat her right, son.”

“I’ll guard her with my life, sir,” Luke told him, then he turned toward his bride. “My God, woman. Look at you.” Warm admiration gleamed in his eyes. “So beautiful. I’ve got to be the luckiest man on earth.”

Luck. Good luck. A lifetime of good luck. Laughter bubbled up inside Mari. “I’m feeling rather lucky, myself. You’re looking mighty fine, yourself, Mr. Garrett. May I mention that the duck feather in your boutonniere is quite the touch?”

A wicked glint entered his eyes and Luke fingered the item. “I thought you’d like it.”

“Excuse me?” interrupted the minister. “Would the two of you mind if we got on with the ceremony?”

“Sure, Reverend,” Luke said. “Just one…”

He swept Mari into his arms and kissed her thoroughly. She was only vaguely aware of the scandalized buzz coming from the congregation and the insistent clearing of the minister’s throat. Her body hummed with desire when he finally stepped away.

Luke turned to the now red-faced minister and grinned. “Now we’re ready.”

Mari couldn’t stop smiting. Joy filled her heart. When she heard the first quack, she let out a laugh.

“Oh dear,” murmured the minister.

Luke winked at Mari. “Now this is shaping up to be a McBride Menace wedding.”

“Yes, isn’t it?” Mari replied as one of the guests let out a screech. She laughed softly, and Luke lifted her hand to his mouth for a kiss. Right on her Bad Luck Love Line.

His eyes glowed with tender pride. “Have I told you how proud I am to be marrying a McBride Menace?”

“You are?”

“Without a doubt. Menaces are strong, they’re loyal, they’re courageous, and when they love, they love with every fiber of their being.”

Tears stung Mari’s eyes. “You see those things in me?”

“Damn straight, I do.”

“Please, sir,” interrupted the minister. “You’re in church!”

“I never saw it.” Determined not to cry, Mari blinked away the wetness. “I only saw the mischief, the troublemaking. The bad reputation.”

Quack. Quack. Quack. Quack
.

“Oh, for crying out loud!” Trace McBride exclaimed. “Tommy, keep that mallard out of the gardenias, would you please?”

Luke tucked an errant strand of hair behind Mari’s ear. “You just had to find yourself, sugar. That’s a difficult task for all of us.”

A difficult task. Find yourself
. Mari’s eyes widened as she heard the echo of Roslin of Strathardle’s words.
At the proper time, your task will be revealed
.

Had that been her task? Not to find her sister, but to, find herself?

Luke fished in his pocket and withdrew a ring, a beautiful square-cut sapphire in a setting designed to complement her necklace. He slid it onto her finger, then took both her hands in his. “I love you, Maribeth McBride, Menace extraordinaire. With you at my side, I feel like the luckiest man alive. I vow I will guard your luscious body and protect your tender heart all the days of my life.”