A Kiss Before the Wedding - A Pembroke Palace Short Story Read Online Free PDF Page A

collarbone. His tongue
darted out to savor the sweet essence of her skin.
    “You’re mine, Adelaide,” he whispered, his voice
husky and low. He drew back and took 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. “Yes, 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 his
body, and his heart exploded into a thousand stars as he dropped to
his knees in relief.
     
     

Five
     
    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 to Italy.”
    Her heart was pounding violently in her chest
and she prayed her father could not recognize her panic.
    For a long 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