Page 60 of The Autumn Wife
Shouts went up all around. Theo stepped right up to her, warm at her back. She knew, suddenly, that if Talon tried to send her back to that cage, Theo would whisk her out of the courthouse, armed soldiers be damned.
“Let me finish.” Talon’s voice boomed, and the shouts settled. “I speak for the king, and thus my decision supersedes any procedure. Thus, I make you an offer, Madame Tremblay.”
Skewered by the powerful man’s glare, Cecile sensed her fate swinging on a fraying string.
“As a King’s Daughter, you have certain obligations. Even as a widow. I will give you what this mob wants—a complete acquittal of all charges. But only if you do your duty and marry again.”
She had barely absorbed the thrill of the wordsa complete acquittal of all chargesbeforeonly if you do your duty and marry againcould register.
Sister Martha turned to her, her mouth making a perfectly round ‘O.’
The offer bounced inside Cecile’s skull, making an impact but not in a way she understood.
“I’ll marry her.”
Theo stepped to her side, standing as straight as a ship’s mast as the room went silent.
“This very hour, I’ll marry her.” He dropped his intense green gaze to her uptilted face. “If she’ll consent to honor me with a yes.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Aprisoner in the morning, a bride by evening.
Cecile bolted off the porch of the Girard cabin, sweeping up the skirts of the silk brocade dress Marie had lent her, with its looped overskirt and pretty yellow ribbons. She raced toward Theo, standing amid guests by a cooking fire, wearing the attire of a free man, with brass buttons on his cloak and buttery boots on his feet.
Her footsteps pounded on the grass and her skirts flew in the breeze of her passing, but she couldn’t reach him fast enough.
Under a thinning canopy of blazing autumn leaves, the sun spit out just enough gentle warmth to melt a thin layer of snow. She raced past the trestle table set with pewter dishes waiting to be plated with venison now roasting on a spit. Pumpkin fritterscooled in bowls, rustic bread had been thickly sliced, and bottles of wine gleamed in the dappled light.
Such a post-wedding feast, cobbled together by Genny’s woodland skill, Marie’s swift planning, and Marietta’s boundless generosity.
The gathered sisters of the congregation giggled as they witnessed Cecile hurling herself toward her lover.
Sister Martha raised a cup.
Etienne, leaning against the trunk of an oak with the baby porcupine in his arms, laughed even as he lowered his head in mortification.
To think, only hours ago, she had been wearing a wrinkled, dirty dress, her hair tangled, her wrists bearing the marks of shackles, while speaking vows before a priest and witnesses.
Everyone who’d been at the court had joined the wedding—following Talon, who’d purposefully led everyone to the fort chapel himself, to ensure her and Theo’s vows were consecrated.
After, everybody had gone to the tavern to toast the marriage. Several of thecoureur de boiswitnesses had graciously stood them a drink. How funny it had been to see the nuns gathered amid a clutch of woods runners and Huron traders, shooting back wine in a smoky public house.
And now, finally, they’d all made their way to the Girard house in a flotilla of woods runners’ canoes. With Marie’s help, Cecile had changed into betterclothes. Now she fought her hampering skirts to run as fast as she could towardher husband.
He flung his arms wide as she approached, caught her with a laugh, and swung her in a circle so wide that her dress flew in an arc around them.
She felt his breath against her ear. “My darling Ceci.”
Her feet hit the ground but he did not release her.
She touched his jaw, his cheek, the flaring crinkles on either side of his eyes, hardly believing he was real. Thatthiswas real.
“The first time I saw you, you were racing—just like this—to save Etienne.” He tightened his grip. “That’s when I fell in love with you.”
She laughed, loving the words even if they were beautiful nonsense.
“It’s true,” he countered, playfully pinching her chin. “Though I didn’t know it then. I thought I’d been knocked senseless or something.”
