The accidental groom

Chapter 3 Caught

Caught

The wedding was approaching faster than Lizzie had anticipated. She had hoped to come up with a plan to escape her impending nuptials but so far she couldn't think of anything.

Hateful man. Hateful, hateful, mockingly horrid man!

If Lizzie never set eyes on him again it would be too soon! Even looking as rakishly handsome as he did last week in brown superfine, tan waistcoat and breeches, brown Hessians, his linen very white against his throat, his dark hair untidily fashionable upon his brow.

Her betrothed.

A man she did not know.

A man she did not want to know.

But a man whose lips had intimately explored hers the previous evening. A man whom she had kissed back just as intimately.

Trapped. The word rushed to her just as the relentless waves crashed onto the sand. But she wasn't a quitter. She was a fighter. And she wouldn't give up. She'd learned from experience to be tough, and had been fighting like mad ever since she had been orphaned in that unfortunate carriage accident .Fighting for love; fighting for a place in the hearts of the numerous cousins she had been packed off to. For no relation of hers wanted to have another mouth to feed. She was quite plain, and everyone expected that she would remain a spinster all her life, dependent on them for her survival. But during those days at least she had a ray of hope. She knew when she turned twenty five she would finally have access to the funds her parents had left for her and her Isabelle. But now there was no hope.

The marquis had come only once to their town house since offering for her and had given most of his time and attention to her cousin-probably discussing the dowry. But once or twice she had caught him glancing at her, and it was with the customary examination of her body, as if he were silently speculating on the degree of pleasure it would afford him when the time came for him to possess it.

Society was an ass, Lizzie decided , if it dictated that two such mismatched people as herself and Lord Alexander Rothsay should be forced to marry each other because of one small-one very small-misdemeanour.

Not even a true misdemeanour, really. Only a small hiccup in those rigid rules the ton set such standard by.Why shouldn't she go to the New world? She'd always told herself that she wished to be her own mistress. Surely she would be the most despicable of hypocrites if she didn't jump at the chance to be free forever not only of her cousin but also of the marquess. It didn't take long for her to convince herself that only a coward would let such an opportunity slip by.

As she sat now in her darkened room, she recalled the marques's last words to her about her trousseau. Let him speak smoothly and make his damned plans. Let him do whatever he wanted. He could obtain a dozen special licenses for all she cared. It didn't concern her. He could, in short, go directly to the devil.

She would be far away, free of him.

But to do what, to be what? A vision of herself in a foreign land, alone, rose in her mind. She felt a wave of apprehension and a taste of fear. "No," she said aloud to her shadowed bedchamber. "I'll find employment and be quite comfortable. I'm not stupid. I can work and work hard. I'll survive, and I'll be free." She spoke French passably well and had sufficient accomplishments to make a position of governess not out of the question.

She folded a pair of stockings and stuffed them into the portmanteau. She remembered the thousand pounds, obviously given to her cousin by the marquess to pass on to her for a new wardrobe. If only she'd had the knowledge then that she did now. His damned money and she'd spent nearly all of it. She lit a candle and searched methodically through her dresser and reticule. After some moments she scooped up what money she'd found and sat cross-legged on her bed. Uncertain what it cost to travel across the ocean, she decided it best to be overgenerous in her estimates. This deduction made, she was left staring with some dismay at four guineas. She frowned, but held hope nonetheless. She would simply have to find employment very quickly.