Page 156 of The Trouble with Tigers
Kitty’s tears abruptly halted, and she shot the priest a look of innocence that would have done an angel proud.
Zeke grinned, despite the harrowing ordeal he had just suffered through.
Sniffling, Kitty wriggled out of Caden’s arms. “Sorry, Father. I didn’t know what else to do. He couldn’t get the door open without loosening his grip on me, and the basin was the only means of defense I could conceive. I did say a prayer before I hit him with it.”
After a moment of stunned silence, Zeke and Caden exploded with laughter.
“I say, what have I missed?” Randall asked, his head craning in from the open doorway. “My lady!”
Zeke curtailed his humor enough to grab Kitty’s hand before yet another man engulfed her in his arms. He met Randall’s eye. “Hastings?”
“Patched up and, according to the doctor, one lucky man. His vitals somehow escaped the knife, although he would have bled out if we hadn’t stumbled upon him.”
Kitty chirped in alarm and glared down at James.
Zeke wrapped one arm around her slender waist, anchoring her to him and offering what comfort he could. “Where is he?” he asked Randall.
“Resting in his room at the inn—under watch.”
“Zeke, you must take me to him.” Stark terror filled her eyes. She hadn’t looked half as frightened when her own neck was on the line.
He’d expect no less.
“A hansom is waiting,” Randall told him.
“Good man. Caden?”
His brother sighed. “By all means, I’ll handle this mess, too.”
***
Sitting beside Zeke in the street hackney as it made for the inn, Kitty gazed at Zeke's hard profile. A muscle ticked in his jaw. Considering the days’ events, she could understand him being upset. She just wished she knew which things precisely bothered him.
One thing she did know. He was her hero, utterly and completely, and she loved and trusted him with every fiber of her being. She reached up to cup his cheek, urging him to meet her eyes. “I knew you’d come for me, Zeke,” she said softly.
He jerked a nod. “Right. You knew I’d come, and what? Witness your ceremony? You were going to marry him, Kitty.” Hurt and betrayal swirled in his eyes.
“Not by choice,” she said, willing him to understand. “Can’t you see I had no other option?”
He shook his head and his face flushed a dull red. “You could have trusted me to take care of you. Instead you nearly got yourself killed.” He cursed and turned his face away from her.
Was she imagining things, or had there been a sheen of moisture in his eyes?
She laid her hand over his heart, gently caressing him through his clothing. “I didn’t die, and I didn’t marry Garrick.
“No, you didn’t,” he said in a gruff voice. Lifting her hand from his chest, he stripped her glove off and pressed his lips to her palm.
“Kitty,” he choked out after a moment. “For a moment there I thought I might lose you. If anything happened to you, I couldn’t survive it,” he said, his voice so choked with emotion she could barely hear him.
“I’m so sorry I put you through it, my love." She drew a fortifying breath. "Zeke, I want you to know, even if I had gone through with marrying Garrick—for Collin’s sake—I meant to slip away the instant his back was turned.” She swallowed. “I told Collin I wasn’t marrying Garrick. Then Garrick found us. He drugged me."
Zeke’s head snapped in her direction.
She went on. “I woke in the church. I didn’t know what he’d done with Collin, Zeke. I only knew Garrick swore to kill him if I didn't marry him. I had to try and protect him.”
Zeke swore. “He should have been protecting you.”
She cupped his hot cheek. “I know, Zeke. I never would have consummated that marriage, Zeke. You have to know that. And there are so many other things I wish to tell you. Things I learned about my grandfather and my brother which I can’t go into now because there isn’t time. The main thing I need to tell you is that I made up my mind to marry you. I love my brother. But not enough to spend the rest of my days without you.”
