Page 71 of Just Imagine
“I told him I’d been begging you for weeks to marry me so our child wouldn’t be a bastard, but you wouldn’t agree. He said he’d do the job tonight, no matter how much you protested. You can fight all you want, Kit, but in the end it won’t do you any good.”
“You’re not going to get away with this.”
There was the barest softening in his voice. “He cares for you, Kit. You’ll spare him and yourself a lot of pain if you do what you’re told.”
“You go to hell!”
“Have it your way.”
But even as she cursed him, she knew she’d lost. There was an awful kind of justice in it. She’d done something evil, and now she would pay for it.
Still, she made one last effort when she saw the minister and his wife waiting for them at the old slave church. She pulled away from Cain and ran to Mary Cogdell.
“Please . . . What Cain said isn’t true. I’m not going to have a baby. We never—”
“There, there, dear. You’re upset.” Her kind brown eyes clouded with tears as she patted Kit’s shoulder. “You need to calm down for the baby’s sake.”
That was when Kit knew she couldn’t escape her fate.
The ceremony was mercifully brief. Afterward, Mary Cogdell kissed her cheek, and the minister urged her to obey her husband in all things. She dully listened to them tell Cain that Miss Dolly had settled in with them for the night, and she understood that Cain had gotten her out of the way.
He led her back outside to Vandal, and they set off for Risen Glory. The closer they got, the more her panic grew. What would he do to her when they were alone?
They reached the house. Cain dismounted and handed Vandal over to Samuel. Then he clasped Kit around the waist and lifted her to the ground. For a moment her knees threatened to buckle, and he steadied her. She recovered and pulled away.
“You have my money,” she said as Samuel disappeared. “Leave me alone.”
“And deny myself the pleasure of our wedding night? I don’t think so.”
Her stomach constricted. “There’s not going to be a wedding night.”
“We’re married, Kit. And tonight I’m going to bed you.”
Eve’s Shame. If she hadn’t been so exhausted, she might have argued with him, but she had no words left. All she could think about was running.
Lights shone in the darkness from Magnus’s house at the edge of the orchard. She picked up her skirts and began to run toward it.
“Kit! Come back here!”
She ran faster. Trying to outrace him. Trying to outrace her own vindictiveness.
“Magnus!” she screamed.
“Kit, stop! It’s dark. You’re going to hurt yourself.”
She raced into the orchard, jumping over the jutting roots that were as familiar to her as her own palm. Behind her, he cursed as he tripped over one of those same roots. Nevertheless, he gained on her.
“Magnus!” Again she screamed.
And then it was all over. From the corner of her eye she saw Cain hurl himself through the air. He tackled her from behind.
She cried out as they both fell to the ground.
He pinioned her with his body.
She lifted her head and sank her teeth into the muscled flesh of his shoulder.
“Damn it!” He pulled her to her feet with a growl.
