Metsy Hingle - The Kidnapped Bride

Just the mention of food, and Lorelei’s stomach grumbled. Suddenly she realized she hadn’t eaten a thing since the buttered toast with coffee she’d had before lunch that day. Given her wedding had been scheduled as a late-afternoon affair and it was already after six in the evening, it had been a good eight hours since she’d eaten.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m starved. I thought we’d stop and get something to eat here.”

“I’d rather be eating the food I selected for my wedding reception.”

“Sorry, but that’s not an option.” Jack pulled the Explorer to a stop in front of an Old West saloon and turned to her. “This is probably going to be the last home-cooked meal either of us has for a while. I’d hate to see you refuse it just to spite me.”

“I have no intention of refusing it. The way I see it, I’m going to need all my strength if I’m going to find my way down this blasted mountain and back to Mesa.”

Slowly, lazily, Jack wrapped and unwrapped his powerful hands around the steering wheel. “You’re not going to have to find your way back to Mesa. I’m going to take you there myself—after we find the mine.”

When she started to object, Jack lifted his hand and touched her face, his voice dropping to a whisper as he said, “Don’t fight me on this, Lorelei.”

Lorelei turned away from him. She’d always been too susceptible to that combination of recklessness and tenderness in him.

Jack sighed and dropped his hand. “In addition to eating, I thought you might want to change into something a little more comfortable for traveling. The road’s going to get a lot bumpier about five miles past here.”

“That’s very considerate of you,” she said with mock sweetness. “But since I was expecting to be at my wedding reception now and not stuck up here in the mountains with you, I’m afraid I didn’t happen to bring along a change of clothes.”

“That’s okay. I had Desiree pack some things for you,” he said, chuckling at her sarcasm. “You’ll find jeans, shirts and hiking boots in the bag behind your seat.”

One more thing to take her sister to task for, Lorelei decided as Jack got out of the truck and came around to open the door for her. Lorelei glared at him as he helped her down from the truck’s high seat. The hem of her wedding gown and train spilled out of the vehicle behind her and onto the street, stirring up a small cloud of red-colored dust that promptly attached itself to the satin. Lorelei jerked the train of the gown up and draped it over one arm.

After retrieving the bag from behind her seat, Jack took her arm. He motioned to the restaurant. “You can change clothes while I order us something to eat.”

He acted as though it was the most natural thing in the world for the two of them to waltz into town with her dressed in a wedding gown and he in his jeans. Feeling conspicuous as glances were cast their way, Lorelei said, “I hate to point out the obvious, but don’t you think anyone’s going to notice the fact that I’m wearing a wedding dress?”

“I think it’d be hard for them not to notice. You make a beautiful bride.”

“That’s not what I meant,” she said, and fought the urge to stamp her foot.

“I know what you meant. But as I said, there’s only six people who actually live in this little town. The rest are just tourists or workers. I’ve gotten to be friends with the locals during the past couple of weeks—including the people who own the restaurant. And I doubt they’ll be surprised at all since they’re expecting us.”

“What do you mean they’re expecting us?”

Jack shrugged. “I mentioned that I was getting married soon and that my bride and I would be spending our honeymoon in the mountains. I told them we’d try to stop by on our way up the mountain.”

Lorelei stopped in the middle of street. “And they believed you?”

“Sure,” he said, flashing her a smile. “What’s not to believe?”

“Besides the foolish notion that I’d agree to spend my honeymoon in these mountains, there’s the absurd idea that I’d even consider marrying you.”

“I don’t see anything absurd about it. You did agree to marry me—”

“Ten years ago,” she reminded him.

“So we’ve had a long engagement. Lots of couples do.”

“We are not engaged,” she insisted.

“As far as I’m concerned, we are. You never officially broke the engagement. And I’ve still got the wedding bands we picked out.” Putting down the suitcase, he shoved his hand inside his pants pocket. He pulled out a jeweler’s pouch and emptied its contents into the palm of his other hand. Two thin, shiny gold bands winked at her.

Lorelei swallowed past the thickness in her throat as she remembered the two of them selecting the rings from a small jewelry store in Fort Lauderdale. “You kept them?”

“Of course.”

“But why?” she finally managed to ask.

“Because I never stopped loving you. It was always my plan to find you again someday, for the two of us get married. I just hadn’t expected it to take so long.” He dumped the rings back into their pouch and tucked the little bag into his pocket.

And there had been a time ten years ago when she had hoped he would find her, soothe away her hurt and make everything right again. But all that had changed after... after...

“Remember the honeymoon we’d planned?”

Lorelei pulled her thoughts away from those dreadful weeks right after he had failed to show up for their wedding. She squeezed her eyes shut a moment against the remembered pain, the fear.

“We were going to go diving off the coast near the site of that sunken ship, remember? It would have been your first treasure dive. I’ll never forget how excited you were....”

She had been excited—at the thought of being married to Jack, at the prospect of doing something so daring as diving for lost treasure. The idea had appealed to an adventurous streak in her that she hadn’t even known existed. But then, Jack himself had appealed to that same reckless streak. Looking at him now, his eyes glowing with excitement, she found it was easy to remember those dreams and plans. It was easy to remember how deeply she had loved him.

“Don’t you see? Trying to locate the Dutchman’s Mine will be the same thing. Only instead of searching in the ocean for treasure, we’ll be searching in the mountains.”

Lorelei felt herself tempted. It would be all too easy and terribly foolish to allow herself to be sucked into those fantasies again. “I’m not interested in searching for any gold mine.”

“But you will be,” he told her as he urged her toward the restaurant. “There’s more of the old Lorelei in you than you’d like to admit.”

Jerking her arm free, she marched into the restaurant in front of him. Lorelei blinked as her eyes adjusted to the darker interior. She scanned the Old Western-style restaurant with its wooden tables and ladder-back chairs. When she felt Jack come to stand beside her, she asked, “What’s to stop me from telling these people the truth? That you kidnapped me and brought me here against my will.”

“Go ahead. Just don’t expect anyone to believe you. I already told the owners that you were quite a joker. Besides, the wife of the man who runs the place thinks I’m quite a catch.”

“I’ll bet.”

“Jack,” the dark-haired woman behind the counter called out. “And this must be your lovely bride.”

“Hello, Isabel. You’re looking as gorgeous as ever, I see.” He gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Sure you don’t want to ditch Alberto and run away with me?”

The woman flushed and gave Jack a smack. “Behave yourself, Bandito, and introduce me to your wife.”