Twice Tempted by a Rogue (Stud Club #2)(48)

“They have to be read three times,” Rhys said, as if it should be obvious. “He only comes here once a month. If we’re to be married with any sort of reasonable speed, I thought …”

“What are you on about? We aren’t engaged!”

“Perhaps not,” he said calmly. “But we will be married. Call it faith.”

“You …” Her hands balled into fists at her sides. “You are impossible.”

He pointed to his prayer book and read with beatific calm, “‘With God, nothing shall be impossible.’”

Meredith turned into the aisle. She couldn’t remain there a moment longer without profaning the place.

She stormed straight out of the chapel, and the entire congregation followed in a thunder of footsteps. Not surprising. Church service happened once a month, but melodramas like these were the stuff of the annual fair.

“Meredith!” Rhys called to her as she hurried down the church steps and turned into the road. Unfortunately, his strides were worth three of hers. He caught her arm and wheeled her to face him. “You can’t run away from this.”

“What’s he talking about?” Gideon appeared at her side, breathless. “Have you agreed to marry this man?”

“No,” she insisted, snatching her hand from Rhys’s grasp.

“Do you want me to kill him for you?”

“No!” Once she’d mastered her voice, she repeated. “No, there is no violence necessary. And no, I have not agreed to marry him.”

“Ah, but she will,” Rhys said with a saintly expression. “So it has been written.” He looked down at the open prayer book he still carried in his hand and flipped a page.

“Quote to me one more time from that book,” Meredith said, leveling a finger at him, “and you invite its desecration.”

His mouth snapped shut. So did the book.

By now the entire village—churchgoers and the rest—had assembled in the road to watch the commotion.

“La!” exclaimed Cora, watching from a few paces away. “This is so romantic!”

“This is nothing,” Darryl whispered to her. “Just wait until I take you on a tour of the moors. We’ve ancient burial cairns and haunted ruins … It’s a mystical journey through time.”

The girl cooed softly. “You don’t say.”

“Nothing about this is romantic!” Meredith cried, running a hand through her hair. “It’s oafish, and … and overbearing. Not to mention, insulting.”

“Insulting?” Rhys echoed. “How so?”

“To be proposed marriage as some sort of eventuality of fate, regardless of how I might feel about the idea? Simply because the man in question has nothing better to do with his time?” She turned to Cora. “Perhaps that meets your definition of romance, but it doesn’t square with mine.”

Rhys cocked his head. “So that’s the problem,” he said wonderingly. “You’re holding out for romance.”

“That is not what I said.”

“It’s what you meant. You want romance. You want to be wooed.” He looked to the horizon, whistled softly, and muttered an oath that surely wouldn’t be found in the pages of his prayer book. “I’m no good at that.”

Gideon arched a brow. “Too bad for you.”

Thoroughly exasperated, she looked from one man to the other. “Listen, the both of you. I don’t intend to marry anyone. That inn across the road is the heart of this village. And my heart is in that inn.”

“I know it,” Rhys said. “That’s why I’ve pledged to fund improvements to the Three Hounds. A new wing of guest rooms, no less. And in time, a stable of posting horses.”

A murmur of interest swept the crowd.

Rhys continued in a voice for all to hear, “There’ll be work to be done, wages to be earned. With Mrs. Maddox’s help, I plan to ensure the well-being of the inn, and of the village.”

“I beg your pardon,” Gideon seethed, “but I’ve been doing both those things for some time now. Looking after the inn and the village. With Mrs. Maddox’s help.” He puffed his chest. “No one wants you here.”

“They may not want me, but they’ve got me. Which means this town has no more need of you.”

The crowd hushed.

Red surged up Gideon’s throat, spreading up his face, all the way to his hairline. “Don’t you—”

Rhys said, “You can go, Mr. Myles.”

But he couldn’t, Meredith wanted to protest. It didn’t matter whether or not the place needed him; Gideon needed this place. The smuggling trade wasn’t the half of it. Even though he’d grown to a man, that abandoned boy still lived inside him, craving family, friendship, acceptance. He didn’t believe he’d find them anywhere else. If Rhys backed him into a corner … there was no telling what he’d do.

Gideon’s hand went to cover the pistol jammed in the waistband of his trousers. His index finger tapped in an ominous rhythm.

“Gideon, no. You’re better than that.”

“Am I?” He flicked Meredith a glance. “Let’s have her decide, shall we? She knows best what—or whom—this village needs. Who will it be, Meredith? Lord Ashworth? Or me? Seems this place isn’t big enough for the two of us.”