Page 78 of A Lady's Heart Deceived
For the first time in a long time, he was filled with excitement, giddy with a thousand plans for the future. He just had to find the woman he intended to share them with—the woman he loved.
He finally caught a glimpse of Maggie as she headed toward the front of the nave. She was joined by two other dark-haired women who suddenly appeared from out of the crowd. The site of his future wife and her female relatives had him grinning from ear to ear.
Maggie. He couldn’t ever imagine not having his heart skip a beat at the sight of her. She was his everything. He made as hasty a dash as was permissible in a church and hurried to join the parishioners at the front.
“Excuse me. Excuse me. Pardon.”
He scuttled around a couple who were deciding where to sit before dropping into a seat just as the opening strains of a hymn filled the domed great space. Hugh Radley appeared from out of the choir and climbed the steps of the pulpit. As he did, Piers leaned back in his seat and tried to catch Maggie’s attention. She, however, was being a dutiful daughter, and her gaze was fixed firmly to the front.
It was another forty agonizing minutes before Piers was finally able to seek her out. He made his away over to where Maggie and the other members of her family were gathered at the end of one of the pews.
“Hello. I wasn’t expecting you here tonight.” Her eyes narrowed, but a smile danced on her lips. She could read him only too well; she could tell that something good had happened.
“I have news. Wonderful news,” he said.
Her eyes grew wide. “Piers! You are out of uniform. Please tell me that means what I think it does.”
He grinned. “It does. An honorable discharge. I am a free man as of this afternoon.” He gave a nod in the direction of Lord Hugh Radley. “Though hopefully not for very long. I was planning of speaking to your father this evening.”
Maggie stepped back as Mary Radley appeared at her side. Piers dipped into a respectful bow. “Lady Hugh.”
“Captain Denford, what a pleasure to see you in church. And please, call me Mary, I rarely use my formal title with friends and family,” she replied.
Slipping her arm into his, Maggie grinned. “Piers is Captain Denford no longer. He is simply Piers.”
“Piers, is it? Not Lord Woodford?”
He caught the hint of a teasing chortle in Mary’s words. No doubt Maggie had already spoken privately to her mother and informed her of their plans for the future.
Piers hadn’t used the title of Lord Woodford since joining the army. But now that he was on the cusp of getting married, it made sense to revert back to being referred to as Baron Woodford, one of his father’s lesser titles.
“I was hoping to speak to his grace this evening, but he looks a busy man. Should I request a private meeting for tomorrow morning?” Piers asked. Disappointment was in his tone, but he could understand that Hugh had many parishioners to serve. Evensong at St. Paul’s was busy, and hundreds of people were gathered under the dome.
“My husband will be in his private office shortly. I shall speak to one of the deacons and arrange for you to meet him there,” replied Mary.
“And in the meantime, you and I need to talk,” said Maggie. She took a hold of Piers’s hand and began to lead him away. “I shall bring him back presently,” she called back over her shoulder to her mother.
Piers didn’t protest as she towed him toward a side door. Clearly Maggie knew her way around the cathedral and all its secret entrances and exits.
They stepped out of the main nave and into a darkened lane way. A high wall separated it from the main street. The fresh night air chilled his cheeks, but Piers shrugged it off. He was with Maggie, and that was all that mattered.
He barely had time to register what was happening before Maggie pulled him into a secluded doorway and threw her arms around his neck. Their lips met in a heated, desperate embrace. She was hungry for him, her need feeding his own.
They were kissing in the courtyard of London’s foremost public cathedral, one where her father had just given a short sermon about social rules and how they helped bind people together. What he and Maggie were doing was surely breaking at least a half dozen of those.
This is wonderful. I have missed you.
He wrapped her up in his embrace, not caring if they were caught. After all they had both been through, they deserved happiness, and today, he was going to seize the moment and make it their own.
The temptation to deepen the kiss and then offer to find a place where they could repeat the heady experience of the stables was strong. The loud toll of the cathedral bells, however, tore his lusty thoughts away. Hugh Radley would soon be finished with the final parishioners at the service and Piers was keen to speak to him.
Maggie drew back. “We should go. The steeple master will soon be down from the tower. He comes this way after the quarter hour chiming of the bells post evensong.”
“And I need to go and speak with your father,” he replied.
“Aren’t you forgetting something?”
In the dim light Piers couldn’t make out the expression on Maggie’s face, but her words were filled with joy—just like his heart.
