He grinned, a bit overwhelmed by the sudden rush of emotion clogging his throat. He’d thought she’d never find the place, even though she’d insisted, “we’ll know it when we see it,” and she’d chosen here of all places.
“Okay,” he said. “I’m ready when you are.”
“Yeah?” she said, lighting up like a child on Christmas morning.
“Yeah.”
She threw herself into his arms and kissed him excitedly. He was very much enjoying participating in her enthusiastic make-out session until someone cleared her throat. Jace pulled his reluctant lips from Aggie’s and turned his head, expecting to see the tour guide. A woman he was sure he’d never seen before was standing at the top of the church steps, looking down at them with a knowing grin.
“Would you like to see inside?” she asked.
“Oh yes!” Aggie said, grabbing Jace by the sleeve of his leather jacket and yanking him up the steps before he could blink.
She entered the church a bit more respectfully and sucked in a deep breath while Jace tried to get his eyes to focus in the dim light.
“Oh, Jace, isn’t it perfect?”
From what his spotted vision could see, yeah, it was nice.
The woman standing beside Aggie handed her something and she used it to dab at her eyes. Aggie didn’t cry often. She’d cried when he’d been shot and they’d been reunited in the hospital. She’d cried when he’d told her of the most painful experiences of his past. She’d cried when he’d proposed to her. And she was crying now. Something monumental was happening for them. He was just going to go with it.
“It’s even more romantic on the inside,” she said and leaned her head against Jace’s shoulder.
He took in the diamond-patterned floor, the rich mahogany of the pews, the intricately carved woodwork above the pulpit, and the spectacular stained-glass windows in arched frames along both side walls and behind the altar. It was the chapel most girls dreamed of getting married in. But Aggie wasn’t most girls. Or maybe she was.
He kissed her temple and rubbed her lower back.
“When can we get married here?” Jace asked.
“That would depend on what kind of ceremony you have planned,” the woman said, smiling kindly.
“What kind of ceremony do we have planned?” Jace asked Aggie.
She laughed and dabbed at her eyes. “We’re open to suggestions.”
The woman’s smile broadened. “Would you like to go to my office and talk?” she said. “I’m Charity Watson—the event planner for the castle. I’d love to help you two make plans to tie the knot.”
Jace nodded enthusiastically and with his hand on Aggie’s lower back, directed his soon-to-be wife to follow Charity out of the chapel.
Aggie finally had agreed to marry him. He thought his chest might burst from the mix of love, excitement, and pride stirring within him.
Yeah, he was stoked that they were finally going to get married.
Even though the place she’d chosen was probably haunted.
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.