Trapped at the Altar Read Online Free PDF

when her grandfather’s body is barely in the grave.” He looked around the table, feeling for the first time that he was taking his place in Council, that his opinion would now carry weight.
    â€œThat’s nonsense . . . it was Lord Daunt’s wish that in the event of his death, the wedding would take place seven days later. He made that clear in his final will. Honoring his wishes will be honoring him.”
    â€œMaybe so, sir, but I think Ariadne is so grief-stricken that she cannot accept that.” Ivor wondered if he could use this newfound power to push for a postponement of the wedding and, if so, whether a delay would benefit Ari or himself. Would it give her time to accept the inevitable, or would it simply give her more time to agonize, to try to find a way out of it?
    Short of turning her dagger upon herself, and that was not Ari’s way, she would not succeed in avoiding this marriage, so better to get on with it, he decided. He continued with a confidence he was far from feeling, “However, I am sure, sir, that when the time comes, Ariadne will honor her grandfather’s wishes.”
    â€œShe will have no choice in the matter,” Rolf declared. “And it is not right that she should be roaming the countryside at will and alone. You should have prevented her, Chalfont.” He gestured to a young man standing guard at the door. “You, Wilfred, take three men and go above, find Lady Ariadne, and bring her back immediately.”
    Ivor said swiftly as the door closed behind Wilfred, “I will go myself, sir. There’s no need for a search party.”
    â€œThey will find her soon enough,” Rolf stated with a dismissive gesture. “And we have not finished our discussion. Once the wedding is over, we will begin preparations for your journey to London. There, as my predecessor intended, you will advance the family’s fortunes. With the right contacts, the right dispensations, we will leave this valley, and with the Daunt lands returned to us as the rightful owners, we will resume our place in the world.”
    It was spoken with firm confidence, but Ivor couldn’t help wondering how easy it would be to get the world to forgive and forget the twenty-year reign of pillage and terror across the countryside. The Daunt lands had been broken up when the family had been driven into exile, and it was to be assumed their present owners would be reluctant to yield them up without a fight. But he merely murmured an assent, anxious to get out of the Council chamber and go in search of Ariadne. He could only pray that she was not with her poet if Wilfred and his friends found her before he did.
    At last, Rolf signaled that the meeting was over, and Ivor hurried out into the afternoon. The steep cliff of the gorge threw the valley into shadow as the sun sank lower, and he cursed Ariadne. She should have known better than to have stayed away this long. He glanced up the cliff, just making out the narrow trail snaking to the top. There was no sign of the small figure picking her way down to the valley. Wilfred and his friends wouldhave left on horseback by the main pass out of the gorge. They would have reached the cliff top five or ten minutes ago. It didn’t bear thinking of what would happen if they found her with Fawcett.
    Did Ariadne really love her poet? It was a novel idea and arrested Ivor mid-step. For a moment, he stood still, hands thrust deep into his britches’ pockets. Somehow he had assumed Ari was merely in the grip of a fleeting romantic fantasy. Most girls her age had them, or so he believed, and having lived all her life in the shelter of the valley, there would be something almost exotic about a man from the outside world. She would come to her senses soon enough. Or so he had believed.
    But Ariadne was not like any of the valley women. She had been treated differently, of course; she was special, and everyone knew it. No young man