The Robber Bride (16 page)

One by one they stepped forward and told their stories of how Victoria had helped them, either physically or monetarily. Tears glimmered on her cheeks as she listened to the accounts. After ten or so of the hundred and twelve, the judge declared that the jury had heard enough. But Fin wasn’t finished. He had something he needed to say.

“Your honor, if I may?” he said, raising his hand as he stood from his seat. “I would like to make one final plea to the jury.”

Justice Powell nodded and Fin stepped forward, closer to Victoria. He swallowed, knowing what he wanted to say, but having a hard time getting started with all these hundreds of people looking on.

“I have known Victoria Barclay my entire life,” he began. “I was eight years old when she was born, and I remember holding her in my arms when she was a baby. I was there the first time she fell and scraped her hands and knees. I rushed to her side to make sure she was all right, only to be reminded that at the ripe age of four, she ‘was no shrinking violet.’ I remember thinking then that she was a bold and daring and incredibly unique creature.

“But there was only one problem with having such bravado from such a young age: she never learned to ask for help. She took the weight of the world upon herself, always, not realizing that if she had only asked, others might have come to her aid.”

He paused to take a breath and to get down on one knee before her. A collective gasp echoed through the chamber, but Fin paid them no mind. He cared only what Victoria thought of him in that moment.

“Victoria Barclay, I think that I have loved you my entire life, but like a fool, I was too dense to realize it, or maybe just too stubborn to admit it. But I cannot deny it any longer. You are the most incredible woman I have ever known. You have sacrificed everything—even your own life—to take care of others. There are not many that can claim such a thing.

“Victoria, I don’t know what the outcome of this trial will be, but I must tell you this now, before God and all of these people, that I love you. I love you with all my heart, with everything that I am. I cannot comprehend a world without you in it, but I will live peacefully knowing that I told you this today. And should the jury find you not guilty, it is my most fervent prayer that you would agree to live the rest of your life with me, as my wife.”

Victoria was crying in earnest now, the tears dripping to the floor, just missing the tips of Fin’s boots. Everyone was waiting for her response, but Justice Powell was the one to finally demand an answer from her.

“Well, Miss Barclay, what say you to this gentleman’s request?”

Victoria fell to her knees without a word and collapsed into Fin’s arms. He held her tight, praying he would never have to let her go.

It seemed an eternity before the jury returned from deliberation. In reality it was only a matter of minutes, but when the life of the woman one loves hangs in the balance, minutes can feel like days. But at long last, the judge announced there was a verdict.

The room held its collective breath as Justice Powell opened his mouth to speak. “Miss Barclay, on the charges of sixty-seven accounts of highway robbery, you have been found…
not guilty.
”

A roar rose up from the crowd, and Victoria dissolved into a puddle of tears on the stand. Fin went to her and gathered her in his arms. He lifted her off the ground and swung her in a circle, overjoyed that he would get to spend the rest of his life with her.

Epilogue

“Fin, where on earth are you taking me?” Victoria asked for what seemed like the hundredth time since they’d climbed aboard the carriage. The blindfold—lacking in eyeholes this time—prevented her from knowing anything about their location.

“I told you, darling,” Fin said, “
it
’s a surprise.”

“Yes, but couldn’t you give me just a little hint?”

“
Tsk
,
tsk
,
tsk
. You are too curious, my dear. But don’t
worry,
we’re almost there. You won’t have to wait much longer.”

True to his word, the carriage came to stop only minutes later. Fin led her out onto the street after checking to make sure her blindfold was firmly in place, with no opportunity for her to peek. She took his hand, firm and reassuring, and let him lead her about until they had apparently reached their destination. People whispered around her as they passed through rooms, but she still had no idea where they were.

“My dearest Victoria,” Fin said, as he stood behind her with his hands on her shoulders. “It is my deepest desire to never have you face the gallows again, and so
this
is my wedding present to you.”

He tore off the mask, and Victoria blinked several times, trying to figure out what was going on. They were in some kind of sitting room. It was clean, perhaps just built even, with lots of windows and seating enough for twenty or more people. But it was the walls that caught her attention. They were lined with paintings, clearly done by the same artist, and above the fireplace was a painting of her. It was life-sized, and so beautiful that she hardly recognized herself.

“Fin,” she said a bit breathlessly, “where are we?”

“This, my dear Vickie, is the Victoria Barclay Hospital for the Poor.”

She turned abruptly to look at him. He couldn’t mean it. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, you don’t have to sneak about to help people anymore. And you don’t have to rob anyone to fund it. That’s what the paintings are for.”

“Fin, these are your life’s work. You can’t just sell them to fund my hospital.”

“They
are
my life’s work, and therefore I can do whatever I bloody well want with them. And I’ve decided that twice a month we will hold auctions here, in this room. All proceeds will benefit the hospital.” He paused and turned to look at the painting of her over the fireplace. “Except that one. That particular piece is priceless. It’s the mask on the subject that makes it so.”

Victoria looked up at her husband, still amazed that she could call him that now. “I love you,
Phineas
Dartwell
,” she said as she wrapped her arms around his neck. “And I promise I will never do anything illegal again as long as I live.”

“Well, thank God for that!” Fin kissed her then, and it was the sweetest, most wonderfully shocking kiss she’d ever known. Highway robbery couldn’t compete with the thrills she got from kissing the man she’d married.

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Jerrica
Knight-Catania

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Wetherby
Brides Series

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The Perfect Kiss

A Summons From the Duke

Regency Christmas Summons Collection 2

© 2011
Jerrica
Knight-Catania, Lilia Birney, Samantha Grace

In JERRICA KNIGHT-
CATANIA’s
Loving Mister
Lockwell
, Lady Isabel
Whitton
has no use for people other than her twin sister -- she much prefers the company of her books. So when she discovers that all her cousins from near and far have been summoned to her home, Danby Castle, for Christmas, she isn't pleased. To make matters even worse, the deplorable Mister
Lockwell
has come uninvited. * Damien
Lockwell
, 3rd son of the Earl of
Totterdown
, has invited himself to Yorkshire for Christmas. Spending the holiday with the
Whittons
seems far preferable to watching his father drink himself into a stupor. And Lady Isabel proves to be just the kind of entertainment he was looking for -- she's smart as a whip and quite the most unique creature he's ever met -- not to mention she despises him, which is the most thrilling part of all for a man like Damien.

~ * ~

In LILIA
BIRNEY’s
A Second Chance For Christmas
,
Philip
Whitton
has been summoned back home by his grandfather
after a wastrel existence in Italy, studying music and trying to forget his first love. Emily Barlow, nee Ware, is picking up the pieces of her shattered existence following her husband's death. Thrown together by chance on the road back home to Danby, Emily and Philip rekindle the flames of their old passion. Will the fire burn itself out like it did before, or are they ready to follow their hearts and live out the truth of their love?

~ * ~

In SAMANTHA
GRACE’s
Twice Upon a Time
- since her father’s untimely death, Felicity
Halliday
has relied on the medical knowledge learned at his side to treat London’s most disreputable in order to support her family. Life has been hard, but everything changes the night she is snatched from an alley behind a theatre and tossed into a nobleman’s carriage.
 
* It has been less than a fortnight since Julian Beckford returned to London after a sojourn in India, and he’s already up to his
top-boots
in one of his cousin’s mad schemes. When his foolish cousin decides to engage an actress to play his wife over the holidays at Danby Castle, Julian becomes an unwilling party to the lady’s abduction. Along their journey to Yorkshire, Julian makes a stunning discovery about his cousin's pretend wife
....and
finds it’s possible to love Twice Upon a Time.

About the Author

Jerrica
Knight-Catania left her “glamorous” life as an actress in favor of becoming a romance author, where she could write about truly glamorous lives. She currently resides in New York City with her real-life hero of a husband, their shy Russian Blue, Dr. Snuggle, and their beautiful daughter who is most definitely a princess-in-training.

Jerrica
loves to hear from readers! You can send her an email at
[email protected]

Visit
Jerrica’s
official website to learn more about her other books, the
Wetherby
family and to see what’s new in her writing world!

www.jerricasplace.com

http://romancingthebook.wordpress.com/