The Bad Luck Wedding Night, Bad Luck Wedding series #5 (Bad Luck Abroad trilogy) (16 page)

"I still shudder to think of what could have happened," Charlotte said with a sigh. "You should have told me before—"

Melanie shook her head. "We couldn't tell you, Charlotte. You'd have given the game away right off. You're terrible at telling lies."

Primly, Charlotte said, "Some would consider that a good trait."

"Nevertheless, we succeeded in separating Nicholas and Lady Steele. I just knew she wouldn't visit the Highlands in the middle of winter."

"One would think someone that icy would take to cold better."

The girls paused a moment to ponder that thought, then nodded. Robyn asked, "So what happens next? How does his having a wife change your plans?"

Melanie and Aurora reached for the same shortbread cookie. The younger girl won, and triumphantly replied, "It doesn't. We didn't have a plan short of getting him away from Lady Steele. That's the purpose of this meeting tonight. We need to create one."

"Our strategy appears obvious to me," Charlotte said. "I liked what I saw of Sarah today. If Nicholas is set on having a wife, then Sarah strikes me as a much better choice than Horrible Helen. What we should do is convince him to keep her."

Robyn pursed her lips. "How do we do that?"

"We need ideas. Find a piece of paper and let's make a list."

While Aurora rummaged for writing supplies, Melanie stretched her feet out in front of her and wiggled her toes. "He must have liked her well enough at one time back when they both lived in Texas. He married her, didn't he?"

"Yes, but we don't know why. It would help if we knew that."

Aurora snorted. "According to Willie, there's only one reason a man wants to marry a woman. Bedding."

"You talked about the Sport of Venus with Willie?" Scandal shimmered in Melanie's voice.

Charlotte reached over to cover Robyn's ears. "Aurora!" she said. "Please. Robyn is too young to hear such talk."

"No, I'm not," Robyn said, tugging away from her sister's touch. "I know about bedding, and I know about swiving and Nick and Sarah. They didn't do it."

"What!"

"That's what Gillian believes. I heard her talking to Jake when Sarah was at Rowanclere. Gilly said Nick couldn't annul the marriage if he'd bedded her. Jake said Nick wouldn't let a prime woman like Sarah get away from him without taking a run at her first. Then Gilly said maybe Nick was ill and couldn't do it, and Jake said that wasn't the case because Nick had told him a story about sneaking into a Turkish sultan's harem."

"Oh, my." Charlotte dropped her cookie. Melanie and Aurora shared a look of scandalized interest, then each took a thoughtful sip of milk.

Robyn continued, "Then Gilly said it was none of their business, and they shouldn't be speculating. Jake said all the talk about bedding had made him hot so Gilly had to do something about it. Then he started tickling her and she giggled and he chased her up to their tower love nest."

"Tower love nest?" Aurora asked, leaning forward.

"It's a room they have at Rowanclere where they go to do it."

"Let's change the subject, please," Charlotte said, her complexion red as the Ross tartan.

Melanie reached over and patted her elder sister's knee. "There, there, Charlotte. Don't be embarrassed. I swear, I don't know how you'll manage as a wife. You've got to get over this reticence of yours."

"Besides," Aurora said, tapping her lips with a finger. "We can't change the subject. I think this is central to the problem and must be discussed."

"For heaven's sake, why?" Charlotte begged. "It's not proper. It simply isn't done."

Robyn piped up. "By us it is. We're the Ross girls. We'll do anything."

Aurora nodded and continued, "I think Gillian is right Nick is obviously a virile man, so of course he wanted to bed a beautiful woman like Sarah, and if he didn't that must mean it was her fault. Now, that was a long time ago, so chances are, whatever her problem was, she no longer has it But what if it hasn't been fixed? Then they still won't be able to play the Sport of Venus, and he will still annul the marriage, and then we're back to worrying about Horrible Helen all over again."

Melanie nodded sagely. "We have to find out what the problem was and fix it if need be."

Charlotte flung up her hands. "How are we supposed to do that? We're four unmarried virgins. What do we know?"

"Maybe we should bring Gillian in on the plan. Maybe even Flora," Aurora suggested.

"No." Robyn shook her head. "That would ruin everything. Flora has always been rather stuffy, and now Gillian sometimes acts the same way. It's best they dinna ken a thing about this."

Aurora sniffed. "A woman who giggles her way up to her love nest for bed sport doesn't sound stuffy to me, but you know her better than we do. We'll handle this on our own. I think the first step is to discover what is wrong. We should be able to do that despite the handicap of our virginity."

"Handicap of virginity." Charlotte closed her eyes and moaned softly.

"Let's think, sisters. What could it be? Maybe Sarah is not attracted to Nicholas."

They considered the notion for a moment, then each girl shook her head. Melanie said what they all were thinking.
"Every
woman is attracted to Nicholas."

"All right." Aurora pursed her lips. "Maybe it's a physical problem. That could be troublesome, because she might still have the condition."

Four faces settled into frowns. Melanie said, "What sort of physical problem could it be? I don't know enough about it. Charlotte, it's too bad you're not already married, because then you could tell us."

"I won't be telling you such things!"

Aurora sniffed with disdain. "If you don't loosen up some, you're liable to end up like Nicholas's wife and not be
doing
such things, much less talking about them."

Charlotte lifted her chin. "I'll have you know I'm plenty loose with Rodney!"

"You are?" Melanie asked, surprise in her voice.

Aurora leaned forward, her eyes bright with interest. "Tell us."

Charlotte lifted her face toward the ceiling and sighed.

Melanie scooted off the bed and began to pace the room, thinking. "Look, we can guess all night and we'll never know for sure. The only way I see for us to obtain this information is to convince her to tell us."

Aurora shook her head. "She won't just tell us. We'll have to trick it out of her. I'm certain of that."

"I love to play tricks," Robyn said happily.

Melanie chewed at her thumbnail and mused, "How do we do it?"

Aurora nudged Melanie with a bare foot as her pacing took her within reach, then tapped Robyn on the shoulder. Having gained her sisters' attention, she cocked her head toward their elder sister.

Melanie grinned.
"We're
not going to do it. Charlotte, you are. You're the one getting married. It's only natural for you to ask Sarah about sex."

It's bad luck to remove your engagement ring before your wedding day.

Chapter 9

Other than at mealtime when the family dined together, Sarah managed to avoid her husband for the next few days. She divided her time between two primary activities: meeting with Nick's sisters to discuss Charlotte's wedding preparations and searching the castle storerooms for the fabric Nick had sent home from foreign bazaars along the old Silk Road.

She wanted to find the fabric he had stored. Badly. She'd never seen such fine silk as that which Nick had sent to Fort Worth, and since she'd promised Lady Pratt the finest wedding of the century, she intended to produce just that. The girls needed bridesmaid's dresses, and if fine cloth was available for them, she wanted to use it.

She realized the bolts could be stored in any number of places. The man had at least three homes, maybe more, and for all she knew he kept such treasures in a warehouse. Glencoltran wasn't a huge abode, but with four centuries worth of additions to the old keep, it had plenty of nooks and crannies to keep her searching—and hidden—for days on end. She felt certain Nick would hand it over if she asked, but that would mean having to talk to her husband. Since avoiding him was her main reason for searching for the silk to begin with, seeking him out to ask him where it was would defeat her purpose.

"After I find it, perhaps I'll simply steal it and head for home," she grumbled.

Not that taking the fabric would truly be stealing. To her way of thinking, his crimes canceled out any wrongdoing on her part. He'd had her kidnapped, after all.

Kidnapped?
her conscience questioned. Is that actually true?

"Oh, maybe not," she grumbled as she raised the lid of a dust-covered trunk. To be perfectly honest, Rand Jenkins could not have made her go anywhere she didn't want to go. She'd made the trip under protest, but of her own free will.

Upon identifying the contents of the wooden box as men's clothing, she released the trunk lid to close with a bang, then immediately turned her attention to yet another trunk.

This chest was filled with toys—balls and wooden ships and pretty baby dolls that distracted her from her purpose. Lifting one of the dolls, she fussed with the frilly skirt, idly wondering if it had belonged to one of Nick's sisters.

Sarah enjoyed the time she spent with the girls. Witty, spirited, full of laughter and real affection, they reminded her so much of Trace and Jenny McBride's Menaces. She'd grown fond of them quickly.

If only they didn't ask such personal questions.

She was running from those questions now. Half an hour earlier, while discussing wedding gown designs with the Ross girls in a drawing room downstairs, Charlotte—sweet, relatively timid Charlotte—had asked what sort of nightgown Sarah wore for her wedding night with Nick.

Sarah had fumbled her teacup and spilled the steaming liquid all over her dress. She excused herself to change, then suggested they take a break from making wedding plans for the rest of the day, but the girls wouldn't hear of it. Encouraged by a sharp look from Aurora, Charlotte insisted they resume their discussion following an hour-long break. "I've important questions to ask you, Sarah," she had said. "They simply cannot wait any longer."

Now kneeling on the floor in the tower storeroom, Sarah returned the doll to the trunk, then reached for a child-sized tambourine. She thumped the skin in a slow, steady rhythm, which caused the tin disks to jangle. "They're up to something," she murmured. Sarah had seen that look on the McBride Menaces' faces more times than she could count.

She'd managed to flee the drawing room without agreeing to answer any questions, then after quickly changing into her oldest dress, Sarah had hurried to hide herself in the tower. She couldn't think of a better time to search for that fabric.

She shut the lid of the toy chest and studied the other possibilities open to her. Some boxes were too small, others an unlikely shape. Then she spied a long, narrow trunk that had a promising appearance. She opened the lid and spied an engraved jewel case inside. Intrigued, she stretched out a hand to investigate the contents.

Nick spoke from behind her. "Have you taken to thieving in the years we've been apart, lass?"

Startled, she allowed the trunk lid to slip from her grasp. It slammed shut, pinching her fingers. She squealed and brought her hand up to her mouth.

"Ach, throbbing, isn't it?" Behind a wince, blue eyes gleamed wickedly. "Sucking on it is certainly one of my favorite ways to make a hurt feel better."

She eyed him suspiciously but uncertainly. Sexual innuendo was not her forte, and she wasn't certain he was trying to be risqué. However, Sarah didn't have time to debate the issue with herself. Summoning her best "I'm offended" tone, she rose to her feet and said, "I'm not stealing. I'm doing my job."

"Hmm..." He strode over to the chest, flipped back the lid, and shook his head. Though he kept his manner casual, she sensed an energy about him, a tension that set her own senses on alert. "Explain to me, Sarah, what use a wedding planner has with costumes for a masquerade?"

She glanced back at the trunk and spied the black dominoes.
Costumes, yes. Of course.
However, something told her now was not the time to tell the truth. Searching for a plausible he, she shrugged. "At Lucky in Love Weddings we sometimes use personal items in our decorating theme. I was seeing what is available."