Page 42 of Unexpected Magic

“How could you have known?” Delia asked.

“When you collapsed, I…” Jasper must have remembered they had an audience, for he trailed off and cast a pleading look at Lady Margate, who suddenly remembered something she wanted to discuss with the maid.

“We shall just stand in the passage outside,” she told the maid, and added, to Delia and Jasper, “The door shall remain open, and I shall not be long.”

In the next moment, Delia was alone with Jasper.

“When you collapsed,” Jasper said, picking up the threads of his last remark, “I realized how I felt about you. Delia, I desired you from our first meeting, though I knew it was wrong of me. I admired you then, too. You were so calm, so collected, so competent. The more I came to know you, the more I respected and esteemed you.”

He placed his hands around hers, grasping them lightly. “I cannot pinpoint when desire and admiration ripened into love. Indeed, I hardly knew it myself until I thought I might lose you. When the mage attacked you, I nearly lost my mind in anger and grief. When you collapsed yesterday…”

With a shudder, he added. “And to realize that my own failure to consider the nature of your gift caused that pain!Delia, my love, when I said last week that I need you,thatis what I meant. You have my heart. Youaremy heart. If you are determined not to marry me—then I shall abide by your wishes and make certain that the Prince Regent and the Council of Mages do likewise.”

His eyes were intent on hers, as he pleaded, “But even if you cannot love me, Delia, I beg you to reconsider. Marry me, not for duty but out of pity. I shall love you enough for both of us. And I shall never try to control you, or shape you, or make you do or be anything. You shall be free to be yourself, and I shall be your Jasper, content to worship you.”

An errant part of Delia was still dispassionately observing while the remainder of her mind and soul rejoiced at Jasper’s declaration. That observing part wondered how long the dragon lord could be a humble worshipper before trying to order her around again. But then, she didn’t want to control or shape him. She loved him as he was.

“I shall not marry you out of duty, nor out of pity, either,” she said, and was reassured she was about to do the right thing by the devastated expression on his face.

She hastened to say, “I shall marry you because I love you, too, Jasper.” That was as far as she got before he surged toward her and enfolded her in a hug so tight that her breath huffed out of her.

“You mean it? You will marry me?” he demanded, but his lips descended on hers before she could reply, so she poured her affirmation into meeting his ravenous lips with a fervor that caught fire from his, so their mutual passion spiraled upward and they lost themselves in the touch, scent, taste of one another.

After an uncounted stretch of minutes, Lady Margate’s sarcastic tones penetrated their passion. “One trusts, giventhis display, that Lady Cordelia has accepted Lord Baradine’s proposal.”

“One trusts,” said the cultured tones of another lady, “that the wedding will follow in short order.”

“Indeed,” a third lady agreed.

“Today, if possible, and if Lady Cordelia agrees,” said Jasper, whose lips had reluctantly left hers, but whose arms still held her in a close embrace.

Delia was too breathless to reply in words, but she nodded, and said in Jasper’s mind,I agree.

“Today is not beyond the bounds of possibility,” Lady Margate allowed. “Lady Hardcastle, perhaps you would be kind enough to take Lord Baradine and introduce him to the archbishop? Lady Pendleton, please let Findlater know we shall require his chapel and his chaplain. Lady Cordelia, do you have any preferences about what you shall wear to your wedding?”

Do not let her push you into anything you do not want, Jasper said mind-to-mind.If she tries to persuade you against your own wishes, let me know and I shall fight your battle for you. This is our wedding, not hers, and not anyone else’s.

Did he think her so weak? True, she was not in the habit of standing up for herself, but she was more than tired of letting others make decisions for her. Besides, she was competent. Jasper said so.I shall tell her what I want, she promised.But if she ignores me, I shall rely on you.

“Are you ready, Lord Baradine?” asked the lady addressed as Lady Hardcastle. “We shall translocate to Doctor’s Common. Follow my mage trace.”

Jasper gave Delia one more kiss—hard and quick—and then he and the lady were gone.

*

When they metin the duke’s chapel five hours later, Jasper had eyes for no one except his bride. How beautiful she was! And after the ceremony, she would be his, all his, in the eyes of God and the church, as well as in his own mind. He would be hers, too, of course. He made a mental note to avoid phrases that sound as if he owned her or thought of her as a possession.

Lady Hardcastle—as Dean of the College of Mages, she was one of the most powerful ladies in the realm—had rolled over the clerks who tried to get between her and the man whose job it was to prepare special licenses for the archbishop’s signature.

When they reached him, that man, too, assured them that the process must take several hours, at least, and no, Lady Hardcastle could not see His Grace the Archbishop. He was no match for Lady Hardcastle, however, and within a few minutes, they were ushered into the esteemed gentleman’s presence.

It was Lady Hardcastle who had found out how to contact Captain Harewood, and now the captain was standing at Jasper’s elbow, ready to witness the wedding as Jasper’s best man. He had wondered who would stand up with Delia, but a glance showed that the man beside her, telling Findlater’s chaplain that he gave “this woman”, was the Prince Regent. Sister Louise was behind his highness and was now taking the man’s place as Delia’s attendant and witness.

He would remember every part of the ceremony until his dying day, especially the vows, his said in a firm voice that reached every part of the large chapel, hers quieter but equally decisive.

And then it was done. “I now pronounce you man and wife,” said the chaplain. Delia was his!

*