When I awoke at dawn, it took me a couple of minutes to figure out why I had awaken in the floor without any clothing on and in the arms of Matthew Bromley who was without clothing as well. I remember that the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was his sword lying a few inches away from my face.
My first impulse was to grab hold of the silver sword and put it through his black heart. But then, who would protect me against those four men who would do anything to get their hands on me. So instead of killing the man who had forced me the night before, I scurried across the room to the corner I had been in before the incident and scanned the room for something I could use to cover my body.
There was a wardrobe next to his head that surely had clothes within it. I did not want under any circumstances to wake him up though, but at the same time, I did not want to be seen without clothing. So I moved stealthily across the room to the brass doors. Then, while holding my breath I opened one of the doors very slowly and softly so that it would not waken or hit him. Even, though, I hated him for abducting and forcing me, I did not want to make him angry enough for death to come at me.
I pulled out a floor-lengthened dress with ruffles as well as a laced trim at the elbows. It had a v cut collar with a small ribbon tied into a bow under the bodice area. Within minutes I was wearing the white dress and fortunately it fit perfectly. It was a bit difficult to set the corset by myself but I somehow managed it.
“Well, well, well, look at what we have here,” a voice said from the floor. “All dressed and ready to leave.”
“Leave me alone,” I said, crossing the room to the bed where I placed myself in a sitting position.
“What are still angry about last night?”
“What do you think? Yes, I am still angry. No. I am furious.”
“Do not act like you did not enjoy it, Mary Jane.”
“Then how shall I act, sir?”
Matthew rose up from the floor without any clothing just like I had only minutes before. I looked down at the floor so that I would not be forced to look at his nakedness. I listened to the sound of him searching around for something to wear besides the clothes that had been lost in the room.
“Okay, you can look now,” he said. “I do not know why you refuse to when I am sure you did while you were searching for the attire you are wearing.”
“You are repulsive, Matthew,” I sneered, looking up from the floor.
I rose from the bed and began looking around the room for my shoes. I had no idea where they had been placed during the night.
I had been searching under the bed when he questioned, “May I ask you something?”
“I suppose so since you are whether I answer yes or no,” I said unenthusiastically, still searching.
“Did you really hate last night?”
I was silent for I did not exactly know how I felt about it. Sure he had forced me against my will, but he did not hurt me. Actually, after he had informed me that he intended on making me remember him for the rest of my life it was like he was someone else. He was somewhat caring like while we were dancing.
“Well?”
“I-I am uncertain about how I feel,” I told him truthfully.
“How do you come by that?”
“Last night, you were not the Matthew Bromley I knew when it ended.”
“Really? How so?”
“You were…well, caring and nice like when we danced. The you that I liked.”
The next thing I knew, I was in my captor’s arms. He was holding me gently against him with this look I had never seen on his face before. It was a look of…of all things…love.
“So you did enjoy it?”
“I did not say that, Matthew. It is just that I like the one I danced with.”
“Mary Jane, that is the real me.”
“What do you mean?” I questioned, wondering what he meant by that statement.
“When I am with my men I am a completely dissimilar man,” he assured me.
He then brought his lips to mine for a few seconds before I tried to push him away. But instead of letting me free, this man wrapped his arms around me even tighter. As if the corset was not tight enough. The peculiar thing was that I found that I was kissing him back after he had done this. When he did end the kiss, the thing he said shocked me more than the fact that he had kidnapped me and killed my fiancé and that I had been kissing him. Of all things to say at that precise moment, he just had to say those three words.
“I think I love you.”
My breath caught in my throat and my heart skipped a beat. I was in what you could call a state of shock. It was as though my brain was not operating for I no longer knew how to breathe. It was like my lungs had shut off.
“Mary Jane, breathe,” Matthew ordered with a worried tone, shaking me. “Breathe.”
Then it was like I could breathe again. My lungs filled with air and I ended up gasping for breath. But I had enough breath in me to say, “You what?”
“I said that I love you, Mary Jane.”
“How is that possible? You just met me.”
“I have loved you since the moment I saw you standing in the library with the candles gleaming off of your silky blond hair and excited blue eyes,” he explained, still holding me in his arms.
“This is ridiculous. You are absolutely mad.”
“I do not think so.”
“Well, I do. Now, release me.”
Ignoring my demands, he began to slowly undo the back of the dress I was wearing. “I think you in fact enjoyed our time together last night.”
“What are you doing?” I cried, fighting him as I had the night before.
“Oh, nothing. Am I right?”
“No. Release me, Matthew.”
“Why?” he asked as though he were dim-witted.
“Because I am not your wife…nor will I ever be.”
This statement seemed to surprise him. Then, his eyes filled with exhilaration, causing me to regret the words I had just spoken. It had given him an idea that I knew for sure that I would not find pleasurable.
“I was not even thinking of something such as that, but thank you for the idea. I will keep that in mind,” Matthew said with a smile before he kissed me with deliberate passion.
This was like no other kiss I had ever received from a man. I began to feel myself getting lost in his kiss, but quickly realized who was kissing me. I gave a little cry of protest and turned my head to the side.
“Matthew, you cannot just go around kissing me like this,” I stated angrily.
“Give me reason not too,” he said, forcing me to look into his face.
“We are not fond of each other.”
“So? You enjoy kissing me. Admit it.”
“I will not.”
“Then why should I stop? You know you enjoy it and I know I do. So what is the problem?”
“The problem is that we are not betrothed…not married…not going to be kissing.”
“Fine. Marry me.”
“What? I am not going to marry you.”
“It would not be a real wedding, but part of your new identity.”
“What do you mean?”
“You would come about as my so called wife.”
I absolutely could not believe what I was hearing or doing. Here I was kissing a man I did not even know and being proposed to as if we had known each other well enough to be doing things such as this. This was crazy.
“Say yes.”
“No,” I cried out. “You are being foolish.”
“Say yes or I will kill you right here and now,” he threatened between grinding teeth.
What on earth was I going to do? Marry a murderer or be murdered? Be murdered or marry a murderer? Live or suffer? It was then that I decided I was going to be murdered by this man rather than marry him. In my mind, I was convinced that being dead would be a better way to end all my problems. I was not going to say yes….
…. And then I did. I said yes.
* * *
Later that same night, Matthew sent Frank and Rolf out to find someone to marry us. While they were out, I was locked into the bedroom with the green velvet canopy bed; lying next to me was my captor’s sword.
“Why me of all people?” I whispered to the night sky I was looking at through the window. “Why did I have to be trapped here with these thieves?”
I placed my hand over the handle of the silver sword, clutched it firmly. I raised it slowly off of the wooden floor. It glistened in the moonlight as I pointed the blade at my heart. Then, closing my eyes I began to count.
“One…two…thr-”
“Mary Jane, what the devil do you think you are doing?” my unfortunate fiancé snatched the sword from my hands before I could plunge it through my heart. “Trying to kill yourself?”
“Maybe,” I sneered with a glare.
I had been so in thought about the sword in my hands that I had not noticed that he had even come into the room. I wanted to look away, but his gaze held mine.
“That would not have been very smart,” he commented, throwing the sword across the room.
“I do not care what you think.”
“Well, you should.”
“And why is that? Because I am to be your bride?” I questioned with a tone of sarcasm.
“As a matter of fact, yes. Do not be ill-advised, Mary Jane.”
Chapter Seven:
Early the very next morning, after an unpleasant night of being locked in the wardrobe closet, I was drug into what appeared to be some sort of library by Jack. During that time I had tried my best to convince him to let me go.
“Jack, please let me go. You do not really want to make me do this do you?” I asked with the most pleading voice.
“Actually, after the incident in the master room I want to you to suffer. Mary Jane, you embarrassed me in front of the other men by making me look like the bad guy of the situation,” he stated, gripping my arm tightly.
I looked into his eyes hoping for some hint of kindness, but there was none. Jack Lafayette was nothing more than a heartless man now; so different from the Jack I had fallen in love with years before.
“It is not my fault that you did not recognize me. Please let me go. I beg of you.”
“Why should I? Huh? For the reason that we were at one time in love as you might call it? Thanks to your getting pregnant, I was forced to leave my home and join these men,” he growled.
“Jack! It was your idea to do what we did.”
“That is not the point. The point is that you should not of allowed it.”
“You are exasperating.”
He pulled me into the room where I found the other men with my captor and an older man that appeared to be the man to wed us. Then pushed me away from him. This caused me to stumble a little, and for him to get an annoyed look from Matthew whom said, “Jack, you should have gotten her when you had the chance. This was actually all her idea.”
“It was not!” I cried. “You simply threatened-”
“Oh, Mary Jane, you look beautiful.”
I gave him a look of pure hatred as he took my hand into his possession. I wanted to pull his sword out from its place at his waist and plunge it into his heart as I had attempted to do to myself the night before. I think he saw this in my eyes, for he looked down at it, removed it, and handed it to Hawk.
“Hold this,” he ordered. “I do not want it to hurt anyone during this.”
“Yes, sir,” Hawk replied with a tone of knowing.
Then we were kind of married. He simply slipped a ring that I had never seen before onto my finger, and kissed me. I did not agree to be his wife. Thankfully, the kiss lasted no longer than a moment, meaning that I was not forced to kiss him back for I would not have had the chance.
It was while we were walking towards the stables that I asked him about the diamond ring on my left hand. He had been holding my arm tightly, making an escape impossible.
“Matthew?”
“Yes, my dear?”
That was sickening to hear.
“Where did the ring come from?”
“You mean the one you are wearing?” he asked before answering, “I have had it for years…it was my grandmother’s engagement ring.”
“Oh. And you gave it to me?” I asked with wonder.
“Yes. You are after all my wife.”
“Yes, but we are not in love. We are not really even married. Should not you be saving it for someone else?”
Matthew stopped dead in his tracks. He turned to me with a look that I could not comprehend before placing a hand under my chin. “Mary Jane, you are my first and the only wife I am ever going to have. There is no one else to save it for.”
“Matthew, I cannot except it. It would be wrong for me to take away the chance for you to give it to the woman you should really be with,” I informed him. “And besides…we are not really married.”
“You are right…the woman I should be with was left in the Leroux’s garden. Tell me when she happens to reenter your body.”
I was silent then, not knowing what to say. What could I say? Here I was telling the man who said he was in love with me that I could not except my wedding ring for we did not belong together and he was just saying that he wanted the real me, the one he fell in love with to reenter my body.
By this time, my husband had mounted onto one of the horses that were being stolen and was pulling me up to sit in front of him. He placed his arms around my waist, taking hold of the reins.
“Come on, men. We have got a load of ground to cover before the sun goes down,” he stated to his men that were mounting onto the other horses. “Hyah!”
Then we were off. It was the beginning of my new life as Mary Jane Bromley…well that is who I was for about two weeks anyway.
* * *
After quite some time of riding across the countryside, the six of us stopped along side of the road where there was a load of shade. My husband dismounted from the black horse, which we had been riding and tied its reins to one of the trees, as, did the other men. I sat upon the horse, not daring to move. Just because Matthew was my husband did not mean that he would not threaten me, as he had been the last couple of days. I did not want to be a nuisance.
“Are you waiting for me to help you dismount or something?” he asked me, placing a hand on my thigh.
“I just do not want to cause any trouble,” I answered quietly.
“What do you mean?”
I was aware of the fact that the men were watching me with interest, all except for Jack who looked disgusted. Subsequently attempting to make him even more that way, I leaned down and whispered into my husband’s ear.
“I did not know whether you were wanting to help me or not so I just waited to see what you were going to do. I did not want to make you angry with me.”
“Really?” he questioned, cupping the back of my neck with his hand.
“Yes.”
“It looks as though we are starting this relationship off right.”
His lips then met mine. I was not going to kiss him back until he gave me the warning to do so. He had placed his arms around my waist, gripping the back of my dress where it unfastened. I did not want him to rip my dress off in front of his men so I did what I was commanded to do. I moved my mouth with his. As I did this, his hands left the buttons and he pulled me down from the horse.
I slid down him till my feet touched the ground. When they did I placed my arms about his neck. That was when I slightly tugged on his hair to let him know that the kiss had been long enough. At last he finally ended the kiss.
“Jack, find the horses some water. Frank and Hawk, get the food ready to be eaten, and Rolf, make sure the lady has a cloak to sit on,” he ordered. Then commented, “She does not need to get dirty just yet.”
I searched his eyes for some meaning to the statement he had just made, but there was none. The men were soon doing what they were told.
“Mary Jane, I would like it if our kisses were like that from now on,” he told me, still holding me against him. “Even when we are alone.”
“Can I ask you something?” I questioned, looking into his eyes that were twinkling with excitement.
“Yes, and you do not have to ask to speak anymore.”
“Do you think we could ever fall in love completely? Though it is highly doubtful that I could ever love you.”
“Can you keep a secret?”
I nodded slightly as he ran his hand through my hair. There was a hint of the man I had danced with in him at the moment. I hoped that the real him would come out so I would at least be comfortable with him. Albeit, I was still unhappy with this marriage I had been forced into.
“I already do love you completely,” he said softly. “I think you will fall in love with me eventually.”
“But if I do not?” I asked, afraid of what his answer would be.
“I will just keep trying until you do.”
“How do you know what you feel for me is love and not lust?”
“Darling, I bet my life on it.”
I still did not believe him and was convinced that he was absolutely crazy for forcing me to marry him. I did not know this man so I did not trust him or his word. I know that he saw it in my eyes. I bet my life on it.
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