Sinners On Tour 06 Sinners at the Altar (39 page)

Chapter Five

Aggie wiped her inexplicably sweaty palms on her jeans as she watched Charity circle her desk and sit across from her and Jace.

“We want to get married in
that gorgeous little chapel as soon as possible,” Aggie told her.

“Are you both American citizens?”

Aggie nodded. “Will that be a problem?”

“Potentially.
You have to be in England for a minimum of fifteen days before the ceremony for it to be legally recognized.”

“We could do a two-week honeymoon before the wedding,” Jace suggested.

“Can we have a ceremony here and then have a legal get-hitched-quick courthouse wedding back in the States?” Aggie asked.

“I don’t see why that would be an issue,” Charity said.

“Would anyone be horribly offended if we got married in the chapel even though neither of us are members of the Church of England?”

The wedding coordinator smiled at them. “Who could be offended by two people so obviously in love as you two getting married in their church?”

Aggie glanced at Jace, who was very red in the face.

“So how soon can we do this?” Aggie asked. Now that she’d found
the place
, she wanted to get married as soon as possible.

“What’s the rush all of a sudden?” Jace asked. “Afraid I’ll get away?”

Aggie kicked him out of sight of the woman on the opposite side of the desk.

“If you want a spring or summer wedding, keep in mind that the castle is open to tourists,” Charity told them. “It’s not usually a huge concern, but if you wait until the castle closes for the winter, you’ll have more privacy.”

“I like privacy,” Jace said.

Charity smiled. “I thought you might.” She flipped through the day planner on her desk. “The first possible date in our off-season would be November first.”

Jace breathed a sigh of obvious relief. Aggie scowled at him.

“That will give us enough time to plan something special,” Jace explained. “We need a few months to organize. And you don’t really want a bunch of strangers gawking at us while we get married, do you?”

Aggie patted his hand. He was right, she wouldn’t. And she knew he would be very uncomfortable in that situation. Five and a half months wasn’t all that long to wait.

“November first it is,” Aggie said
, a huge grin plastered to her face.

“Wonderful,” Charity said. “Here’s a brochure. We’ll exchange contact information and make further arrangements.”

“What happened to the rooms I had built for my lady?” Jace asked. “She cannot find comfort in these halls.”

Aggie jerked her head to give him a strange look. “What?”

Jace blinked at her. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“What did you just say? It didn’t make any sense.”

Jace shrugged and shook his head. “I didn’t say anything.”

“You did. I heard you.” Aggie turned to
Charity to back her up. “Didn’t he just say something about building rooms for his lady and comfortable halls?”

The coordinator lifted a brow and shook her head slightly. “I didn’t hear him say as much, but he is rather quiet for such an attractive man.” Her cheeks went pink. She reached for an address book to record their personal information.
“Names.”

“Agatha Christine Martin,” Aggie said. Soon to be Agatha Christine Seymour, which was an even worse name. She vowed that if they ever had children, she’d give them decent names to help counter the Seymour Butts jokes they were sure to endure.

“Jason Thomas Seymour,” Jace said absently.

The woman stopped with her pen in
midstroke. “Thomas Seymour?”

“Your middle name isn’t Thomas,
it’s Michael,” Aggie said.

Jace’s dark eyebrows drew together. “You’re right. I don’t know why I said that. I’m kind of distracted.”

This place seemed to bring that out in him.

“You’re a Seymour?” Charity lifted a golden blond eyebrow at him.

Jace nodded.

“Thomas Seymour was the baron of this holding in the sixteenth century,” she said. “Did you visit Queen Katherine’s tomb in the church? He was married to her.”

Jace shook his head, his face a shade paler than usual. “We didn’t make it that far in the tour, but Aggie was reading about him in her guidebook and the tour guide mentioned him several times. That must be why I gave you the wrong name.”

“I wonder if you’re related,” Charity said, sitting straighter in her chair. Head cocked to one side, her gray eyes assessed him with interest.

Jace laughed. “Not likely.”

“Ah well, we can pretend,” she said and winked at him. “I think you should go visit Queen Katherine before you leave today. Some claim to have seen her ghost.
A tall, elegant woman in a green gown.”

Aggie chuckled.
Ghosts? Who in this day and age would believe in such nonsense? She rolled her eyes at Jace, but he did not look amused.

“We’ll have to postpone that visit until we return in November,” he said. “I have somewhere I need to be.”

And by the way he was perched on the edge of his chair, Aggie assumed it was anywhere but here.

“You do want to get married here, don’t you?” Aggie asked, grabbing him firmly by the elbow before he launched himself out of his seat.

“Can’t wait,” he said breathlessly.

But something about the way he held his
body so stiffly made Aggie doubt his sincerity.

Chapter Six

Halloween

Aggie dropped her bag wearily inside the bedroom door of the cottage she was sharing with her mother for the night. She felt that she got the short straw on that draw, but the other cottages just outside the
Sudeley Castle grounds were occupied by couples, and since her new stepfather hadn’t been able to attend the wedding ceremony, Aggie’s mother had come to England without him. She’d been driving Aggie nuts since they boarded their flight in Los Angeles over eleven hours before. Sitting between her incredibly introverted fiancé and her obtrusively extroverted mother for that many hours had worn Aggie’s nerves raw. This was supposed to be the happiest time of her life, and she just wanted to kick someone in the face.

“This is quaint,” her mom said. “I expected accommodations at a castle to be a bit grander.”

“The castle itself is breathtaking,” Aggie assured her. “The guest cottages are newer. Besides, I like them.”

“I saw the castle on the way in,” her mom said. “It was beautiful.
Very romantic. I always thought you’d get married someplace a bit gloomier.”

“Why’s that?”

Her mother chuckled, the sound low and throaty. “Well, you’ve always swayed toward the dark and macabre. And it is Halloween, after all.”

“But I’m getting married tomorrow, not tonight.”

“Close enough.” Her mom grinned and began searching through her purse.

There was a knock at the door, and Aggie opened it at once. Jace smiled at her, but he looked almost as weary as she felt. She ushered him inside and closed the door to the chilly afternoon air.

“We need to meet with the event planner to make sure everything is ready for tomorrow,” he said. “And apparently Eric has cooked up something special for everyone tonight, Halloween being his favorite holiday after April Fool’s Day.”

“I’m not sure I’m up for Eric’s nonsense tonight,” Aggie said with a tired sigh. “I have jet lag from hell.”

He touched her cheek gently and stared into her eyes almost dreamily. “Maybe we’ll have time for a nap before Eric’s Halloween bash.”

“Agatha! Come look at this view!” her mother called from somewhere in the cottage.

“In a minute, Ma!” she yelled. “Do you really think my mother is going to let me sleep?” Aggie asked Jace.

“
I
wasn’t planning on letting you sleep,” he said. “And I was inviting you to
my
cottage. The one without your mother.”

“Aren’t you rooming with Eric and Rebekah for tonight?”

“I’m sure they’ll be busy with other things this afternoon.” He leaned close and whispered, “Which leaves the cottage free for me to get busy with you.”

She snorted at his use of “get busy.” “You do know I’m in a really bad mood, right?”

He grinned and lowered his eyes. “Yep. I was kind of hoping you’d take your anger out on me.”

She chuckled and kissed the tip of his nose. So he was after a little pain. Why
hadn’t he just said so to begin with? “I think I’ll take you up on that nap.”

“I thought you might.”

He drew her into his arms and kissed her hungrily. Her cranky was rapidly being replaced by her horny. The man had that sort of effect on her.

“Save it for the honeymoon, lovebirds,” her mom said from somewhere behind her.

Aggie stiffened and pulled away from Jace. He leaned close to her ear and whispered, “I love you.”

Her heart warmed and even her annoying mother couldn’t have put a damper on the joy
brought from hearing those three words from him. “I love you too.” Aggie turned toward her mother, who was grinning at the two of them. She looked almost happy for them.

“We’re going to go talk to the event planner and make sure everything is all set for tomorrow,” Aggie said, reaching around Jace to open the door. She prodded him toward the exit, trying to make her escape.

It had been a challenge planning and arranging everything by phone and email, but Charity was excellent at her job and had put Aggie’s fears about the wedding to rest. Mostly.

“Just let me get a cigarette and retrieve my jacket,” her mom said. “It’s a bit chilly out.”

Aggie winced, but didn’t refuse to let her accompany them. Her mom was the only parent she and Jace had between them, and Aggie knew Mom wanted to participate in the wedding. She only had one daughter to marry off, and Aggie was only going to get married once, so this was her only chance to be mother of the bride. Aggie just hoped her mom would make her a believer of miracles by keeping her over-the-top personality reeled in a bit.

“We’ll wait for you outside,” Aggie said and stepped out onto the front step. Jace followed behind her and closed the door.

He took her hand, holding it gently in his warm grip, and they walked slowly toward the main castle so that her mother could catch up with them easily when she emerged from the cozy cabin.

“Do you think
it’s cold enough to snow?” Jace asked, glancing up at the overcast sky.

“Not quite,” Aggie said. “But we might get some rain.”

“I miss the snow,” he said. “Let’s go someplace cold for Christmas this year. It’s just not the same when it’s warm and sunny.”

“As long as we stay huddled together in a cozy cabin.
No driving.”

His hand tightened on hers, and she knew they were both thinking about the last time they’d seen snow. It had been in Canada two years before, and they’d nearly lost their lives in a bus accident.

“Yeah,” he said. “Some nice cabin in the mountains that allows pets.”

Aggie smiled. “Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without Brownie,” she said.

“She loves the decorations,” he said with a gentle smile.

Jace’s cat loved methodically stripping Christmas trees of all decorations, as if it were her mission in life. Aggie had been exasperated with the beast last Christmas until after the third time she’d decorated the tree and decided it was a losing battle. Besides, it made Jace laugh to watch his cat chase a wobbling Christmas bulb across the room,
and anything that made him laugh was worthwhile to Aggie.

“Do you feel like we’re already married?” Jace asked.

“We have been living together for over a year.”

“Is this really the big deal everyone makes it out to be? I’ve felt
like you are my wife for a long while now. Doesn’t it seem like I’m already your husband?”

Until she stood before all their friends and spoke her vows to him, it didn’t feel official to her. “No. I love you as if you’re my husband, but I’m looking forward to marrying you tomorrow.
Can’t wait.”

He squeezed her hand again, telegraphing all sorts of mushy feelings she knew he’d never voice, but she understood his affection.

“Me too,” he said, grinning brightly. “Even if we won’t be legally married until we return to California.”

She stole a kiss, unable to resist his appeal when he unleashed that carefully concealed charm of his.

“I hope it doesn’t rain on your wedding day,” Aggie’s mom said from several paces behind them. “Are you two at it again?” she asked.

Aggie drew away from Jace’s delightful lips and tossed a look of annoyance in her mother’s direction. “We’re going to be at it for the next seventy or eighty years, so you’d better get used to it.”

Her mom laughed. “You two are so cute together. Both hard on the outside and soft on the inside. You’ve cracked each other’s shells and are all gooey and mixed up together now.”

Aggie rolled her eyes. She had no idea where her mother had come up with such a silly idea. The idea that Aggie had a soft spot anywhere in her being was preposterous. Well, okay, so she did have
one
soft spot. But it was very small and well hidden. She only let Jace see it very occasionally. At least that’s what she liked to make herself believe.

Mom took a drag of
f her cigarette and blew a long stream of smoke from between her lips. “That flight was the longest eleven hours of my life. I’m going to have chain-smoke for days to get caught up on my nicotine.”

“You could have used the flight as an opportunity to quit,” Aggie pointed out. She didn’t like the smell of the smoke, or the nuisance of having a smoker in tow, but mostly she wanted her mother to quit because she worried about her
health.

“And you could have used it as an opportunity to learn to speak Mandarin,” Mom countered, taking another drag off her cigarette.

Jace chuckled, which earned him a squeeze around the shoulders from his soon-to-be mother-in-law.

“You are so cute when you laugh,” she said, words that immediately wiped the smile off his face.

They crossed a wide field of grass, found a pathway around the immense castle—which was even more beautiful and romantic than Aggie remembered—and climbed the steps to the building’s main entrance. Mom paused at the bottom of the steps to finish her cigarette near an ashtray. At least she wasn’t crushing her butts into the landscaping. Aggie paused at the top of the stairs and turned to wait for her, but found her lighting up another cigarette as she scrunched out the cherry of the first. She hadn’t been joking about her need to chain-smoke.

“I’ll find you in a minute, don’t worry about me,” Mom said, waving them into the building.

Aggie shrugged and turned to Jace, who was gazing across the lawn toward a garden.

“Jace?”

He didn’t so much as blink.

She waved a hand in front of his face.

“Earth to Jace.”

He took a step toward the garden, and she jerked his arm. “Where are you going? We need to meet with the planner.”

“But she’s waiting…” he said, his voice distant.

“I’m sure she is. We’re already late. Come on.”

She pulled him toward the door. He sucked in a deep breath and rubbed his face.

“What’s wrong with you?” she asked. “You’re so out of it.
Jet lag?”

He looked at her as if he hadn’t realized she was standing beside him. “Nothing,” he said and held open the door so she could enter the castle.

“You always act so strange when we’re here,” she said, glancing around the spectacular entry to get her bearings. Now, where was Charity’s office again?

“I feel strange when we’re here.
Not bad strange, but strange.”

She saw a familiar corridor and headed for the office. “What do you mean?” she
asked, half her attention on him, half on finding their way.

“The way I feel when I get home after being on tour for a couple of months.”

“Tired and horny. Gotcha,” she said with a laugh. They tended to spend several days in bed when he returned from a tour. And usually they spent most of their mattress-time
not
sleeping.

“Settled,” he murmured.

She was feeling particularly
un
settled, truth be told, but she was sure that feeling of nervousness in the pit of her stomach would vanish after the ceremony.

“Tripod!”
Eric’s voice echoed through the cavernous room.

If not for the crazy rock-star haircut, Aggie would have thought Eric had walked through a window in time. He was wearing a black coat with long tails over buff-colored trousers. He held a large top hat and cane in one hand, had some travesty of a floppy bow at his throat above a fitted cadet-blue vest, and wore brown calf-hugging boots on his feet. She really did do a double take of the lovely petite woman at his side. She wore a delicate pink gown with a ruffled bottom and ruffled sleeves all trimmed with ribbon and lace. Elbow-length opera gloves completed her look. Well, those and the splotches of crimson highlights in her blond hair.

“Rebekah?” Aggie said. “Where did you get that dress?”

“From our favorite costume shop,” Rebekah said. “We had Malachi hunt down all sorts of costumes for the Halloween ball and ship them here from all over Europe and the United States, so everyone can find something grand to wear. Eric and I are vintage 1820s, but there are gowns dating back as far as fifteen hundred. We have nothing newer than the nineteen thirties and everything you can imagine in between. So it’s not a period ball, exactly, but it’ll be lots of fun.”

“Did you know Rebekah doesn’t have periods? It’s awesome,” Eric said, which earned him an elbow in the ribs from his wife.

“You decided to tell a period joke over a ball joke?” Jace said. “I’m stunned.”

“I’m saving the ball jokes for later,” Eric assured him.

“I thought you’d go for a Halloween theme for the party. Like monsters and zombies and stuff,” Aggie said. When the couple had begged Jace to allow them to throw a Halloween party in lieu of the traditional rehearsal dinner, Aggie had expected it to be more, well…
Halloween
.

“Well, at first we thought you were getting married in a creepy old castle, but this place is grand,” Rebekah said, twirling slightly as she gazed up at the ceiling high above. “It’s so beautiful and romantic and fabulous. We decided a period ball would be more fun and far more fitting.”