Only one man knew her. Only one man preferred her. Only one man wanted to put his tongue into her mouth again and again and again.
And she wanted that man.
“There you are,” Claire said proudly, patting the last hairpin in place. “Take a look.”
Sara turned her head, watching the diamonds catch the light, making her hair sparkle just as Bonnie had predicted. The effect was breathtaking and she could not help but think of herself as a nymph.
Can I not have my own perception of how a nymph should look?
Yes he can. And he did. She was his Nymph, and he had looked at her with warm eyes at the waterfall.
Sara’s chest loosened with her decision. She was his Nymph. Charles Pomeroy was a good man, but he would not make her happy, just as she would not make him so. It was that simple.
A smile spread across her face. Nathan would come for her. He would stop the wedding. Oh, true, he had said at the assembly that he was not that sort of fellow, but she knew the truth. The true man was the one she had met at Cloverfields, the one who had showed her kindness and compassion and affection in everything he did. He was not perfect and she did not want him to be so. She loved him as he was and as he would be in the future.
All he had to do was stop the wedding. Which he would. She knew it.
“Right,” Bonnie said, clapping her hands. “It is time to go to the church.”
Sara stood and smiled. “Then let us go.”
“Let him speak now or forever hold his peace.” Vicar Warren’s voice resonated in the stone church, wafting over the people gathered for the marriage ceremony.
Charles’ gaze remained on hers, his mouth fighting a happy grin. His rich chocolate eyes sparkled at her, bringing to mind a boy with a hard-to-keep secret. His happiness was a heavy weight in her stomach.
The silence in the church grew oppressive. Uncertain, Sara glanced around at the congregation. Everyone was looking up at the altar, variations of expectation and joy on their faces. Her friends sat at the front, Claire beaming at her, Bonnie with one of Sir Stephen’s handkerchiefs at her eyes. Louisa was sitting to the side a bit farther back, leaving room for Jacob and Stephen to sit with their wives, but when her eyes met Sara’s, she gave a small smile and a nod of encouragement.
Sara’s eyes drifted over the rest of the small gathering, looking for one person in particular. She didn’t see him.
Her heart cracked. He wasn’t here. There wasn’t any sound of horse galloping outside, no doors being thrown open, no panicked man making declarations as he stumbled up the aisle toward her. He wasn’t going to stop her wedding. She had fallen in love with a man who did not care if she married another.
Pain ricocheted through her chest as her heart suffered another crack.
She had pinned her hopes of being saved from this horrible mistake of a marriage on him and he had not come to whisk her away, a knight on a white steed.
Did she need more proof of his lack of affection for her?
Sara turned her gaze back to Charles, now looking at her with a question in his eyes, a small furrow of concern between them. She gave him a wobbly smile, trying to keep the pain growing inside of her from spilling out.
How could she have been so foolish? Nathan had always been nothing but honest with her. He had said that he didn’t want to marry her, had even encouraged her engagement to the man standing in front of her.
He had been her brief taste of adventure and that was it.
But how did their chance meeting on the path factor into everything? He had been so tender and caring, she was certain she hadn’t imagined it at all. The feeling of his hand cupping her face had echoed over her skin later that evening. They hadn’t kissed, but she had wanted to and knew that he had wanted to as well. And she knew, she knew that the harsh words he had spoken to her at the assembly had been his way of hiding his own pain, of ensuring that she made what he considered the best choice.
Vicar Warren resumed speaking and a dull hum filled her ears, joining with the pain to make her miserable. It became harder to hide what she was feeling and she could see the awareness growing in her betrothed’s eyes.
Sara stared at Charles. His rich chocolate eyes had once been so mesmerizing to her. She used to feel a slow warmth cover her when he looked at her and now—what? Now those eyes had no effect as she longed for the surge of heat that followed when she saw glacier blue shift into hot springs.