The Wedding Night Read online

  “For you, Lord Jack.” She handed him a thick, battered envelope that had suffered far more than her finger smudges.

  The mail came to Drakestone twice a day, and company correspondence flowed up and down the drive like ferries on the Thames.

  This was not that kind of mail.

  “What is it, Jack?” Mairey touched him, shifting Patrick into her arms.

  San Francisco. Addressed in a firm hand to “Jack Rushford, London.” A simple envelope, but his heart was in his throat.

  He had discovered recently that an Emma Rushford had emigrated to America in the spring of 1844, sailing around the Horn to California. His own Emma would have been fourteen, but the manifest hadn’t listed ages, so he had sent inquiries to his contacts in San Francisco.

  He had learned to hold tightly to his hope.

  “Where did you get this, Anna?” he asked.

  “I was out at the end of the drive, and a boy came by with it.”

  “Did he say anything?”

  She blushed through her sunburned cheeks. “Not about the letter. I told him I would deliver it to you straightaway.”

  “Thank you, Anna.” His hands shook as he sliced the envelope open. He felt Mairey’s eyes on him, and absorbed the love that she wrapped him in.

  “Were you expecting a letter from San Francisco, Jack?”

  Where was the line between expectation and hope?

  “Every day, my love.” Because Mairey had taught him to love relentlessly.

  Dear Mr. Rushford. He could hardly see for the tears that welled in his eyes.

  If you are my brother, as your handbill at the San Francisco post office says, you’ll know these pictures as well as I do.

  Mairey fit her hand through his arm. The girls were crowded in. And all the world stood still.

  The next page was a pencil drawing of a cottage on the side of a hill. The next was a rickety wagon—a child’s. And then a hearth seat with a carving of a daisy.

  “Who drew the pictures, Lord Jack?” Caro asked.

  He looked up at Mairey, a huge sob clutching at his heart.

  “My sister drew this, Caro. Her name is Emma.”

  Mairey’s eyes were starry with astonished joy, her cheeks streaming with her lovely tears, and her mouth, when she kissed him tasted of all the miracles she’d brought him.

  “Happily ever after, Jack.” She nuzzled his chin and gazed up at him, while Anna and Caro and Poppy clung to them both, and their son chortled and blew little bubbles between them.

  Jack kissed Mairey soundly, his treasure, his dearest heart. “Oh, my sweet love, now and forever after.”

  Dear Reader,

  It’s so difficult to finish a book you love—you’ve had the chance to live in their world, and to fall in love with the hero…just as the heroine does! If you were swept away by the Avon romance you’ve just read, I invite you to be just as enraptured by some of these other upcoming love stories—only from Avon.

  Readers of historical romance won’t want to miss Linda Needham’s The Wedding Night, a powerful and sensuous love story from an author who’s a rising star of romance. Jackson Villard, a rich, ruthless lord has sealed off his heart from life—and love…until he meets vibrantly beautiful Mairey Faelyn. But he doesn’t know that Mairey is out to betray him…

  Scotland conjures up images of misty highlands, men of honor…and the women who love them. Lois Greiman’s latest in her Highland Brides series, Highland Enchantment, is an unforgettable love story between a daughter of a laird and a man of honor. Don’t miss this page-turner from an award-winning writer.

  What if you’re an attractive widow, respectable, above reproach, attending a London ball with the height of English society. Then, across the room, your eyes lock with those of a tall, mysterious stranger…only he’s not a stranger to you—and he’s capable of exposing your wildest secrets. This is just the beginning of Susan Sizemore’s lushly sensuous The Price of Innocence.

  And for readers of contemporary romance…everyone once fell in love with Peter Pan, the boy who wouldn’t grow up. Now, talented newcomer Mary Alice Kreusi creates a wonderful spin on this story in Second Star to the Right. It’s a richly delightful story, all about the power of love and the belief that dreams really can come true.

  Be swept away—all over again! Enjoy,

  Lucia Macro

  Senior Editor

  About the Author

  According to Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary I am a romancer: a writer of tales based on legends, love and adventure. All I can say is, I LOVE MY JOB! Imagine the fun of creating two brave and fallible people who are miserable as strangers, who are even more miserable once they meet, and who must learn to love unconditionally before their hearts can be whole and happy. An unbeatable job description.

  I live with my engineer husband on five acres of tall, tall trees in the green and gorgeous Pacific Northwest. I’m fortunate to have married my hero—saves all that trouble of training one. We met onstage in a play. Our first kiss was followed by the director’s comment, “Hey, you guys can do better than that!” Practice makes perfect.

  I hope you love meeting Mairey and Jack in The Wedding Night, both of them as brave and fallible as the heroes and heroines in my three other books: Her Secret Guardian, Ever His Bride and For My Lady’s Kiss—all of them with Avon Books.

  Please write to me at: Linda Needham, PO Box 582, North Plains, OR 97133-0582, or visit me on the web at www.sff.net/people/lneedham.

  Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.

  If You’ve Enjoyed This Book, Be Sure to Read These Other

  AVON ROMANTIC TREASURES

  BECAUSE OF YOU by Cathy Maxwell

  HOW TO MARRY A MARQUIS by Julia Quinn

  ON BENDED KNEE by Tanya Anne Crosby

  SCANDAL’S BRIDE by Stephanie Laurens

  UPON A WICKED TIME by Karen Ranney

  Coming Soon

  THE LAST MAN IN TOWN by Susan Kay Law

  Copyright

  This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  THE WEDDING NIGHT. Copyright © 1999 by Linda Needham. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  Adobe Digital Edition July 2009 ISBN 978-0-06-196812-9

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  Linda Needham, The Wedding Night