Devil in Disguise (The Ravenels #7) by Lisa Kleypas

“A reet winsome lady, she is,” MacTaggart exclaimed, grinning. “I was told English ladies were pale and sickly, but here you’ve found a dark beauty with roses in her cheeks.”

Keir smiled briefly. “Let’s no’ make this langsome, MacTaggart. Lady Merritt is weary, and as you know, I’m no’ one to stand on ceremony.”

“’Tis a haisty affair, aye?” the sheriff observed, some of his good cheer fading as he looked around the room. “No flowers? No candles?”

“No, and also no ring,” Keir informed him. “Let us say our pledge, give us the certificate, and we’ll have done with it in time for supper.”

MacTaggart clearly didn’t appreciate the younger man’s cavalier attitude. “You’ll be having no signed paper until I make certain ’tis done legal,” he said, squaring his shoulders. “First … do ye ken there’s a fine if you’ve no’ posted banns?”

“’Tis no’ a church wedding,” Keir said.

“The law says without the banns, ’tis a fine of fifty pounds.” As Keir gave him an outraged glance, the sheriff added firmly, “No exceptions.”

“What if I give you a bottle of whisky?” Keir asked.

“Fine is waived,” MacTaggart said promptly. “Now, then … do the rest of you agree to stand as witnesses?”

Ethan and the Slorachs all nodded.

“I’ll start, then,” Keir said briskly, and took Merritt’s hand. “I, Keir MacRae, do swear that I—”

“No’ yet,” the sheriff interrupted, now scowling. “’Tis my obligation to ask a few questions first.”

“MacTaggart, so help me—” Keir began in annoyance, but Merritt squeezed his hand gently. He heaved a sigh and clamped his mouth shut.

The sheriff resumed with great dignity. “Are the both of you agreeable to be wed?”

“Aye,” Keir said acidly.

“Yes,” Merritt replied.

“Are the both of ye single persons?” the sheriff inquired. When they both nodded, he pressed, “You’re no’ brother and sister?”

“No,” Keir said curtly, his patience wearing thin.

“Nor ooncle and niece?”

“MacTaggart,” Keir growled, “you know thunderin’ well I have no nieces.”

The sheriff ignored him, focusing on Merritt with a deeply searching gaze. “Milady, has this man used force or false representation to carry you away against your will?”

Merritt blinked in surprise.

“What’s the matter with you, MacTaggart?” Keir demanded. “Of all the goamless questions—”

Fia interrupted. “This lass has no’ been abducted, sheriff.”

Keir glanced at her over his shoulder. “Thank you, Fia.”

“She’s been debauched,” Fia continued primly. “Drawn away from the path of virtue by the temptations this lad exerted upon her.”

Keir was thunderstruck. “Debauched?”

MacTaggart stared at him gravely. “Do you deny you’ve lain with this lass, MacRae?”

“I deny ’tis any of your fookin’ business!”

Ranald Slorach shook his head glumly. “’Twas London,” he said. “That wicked city put lewd ideas into the lad’s head and corrupted his mind.”

Merritt pressed her lips together and lowered her head, holding in a helpless giggle while the Slorachs and the sheriff continued to discuss the ruination of Keir’s moral character while tarrying too long in the unwholesome environment of London, and the degenerate atmosphere of England in general. She stole a covert glance at Ethan, who was struggling manfully to conceal his own amusement.

“Sheriff,” Ethan broke in, “now that the damage has been done, I believe only marriage will correct it.”

“’Tis right, you are,” MacTaggart said decisively. “The lad must be hob-shackled right away, for the saving of his character.” He looked at Keir. “Go on then, MacRae. Speak your vow.”

Keir turned to face Merritt fully, and took both her hands in his. As he stared into her eyes, his expression changed, softening with tender warmth. “I take you for my wife. I vow I’ll try every day to be the man you deserve. And I’ll love none but you, my heart, until my last waking moment.”

She was caught in that diamond-bright gaze, while every part of her was alive with awareness of him … her skin, her body, her pulse, the marrow of her bones … all harboring the recognition of him not as a separate being, but as part of herself. She’d never imagined such intimacy was possible, an intimacy that had nothing to do with ownership.

I’ll be the extra rib that protects your heart.

You can’t. You are my heart.

She smiled up at him, burning and weightless with joy, wondering how gravity could still be anchoring her to solid ground. “I take you for my husband. I’ll love you with all that I am and all that I have, forever.”

His mouth came to hers.

SHE NEVER REMEMBERED anything specific from the next few minutes, what words were exchanged, or what time it was when everyone else left and she and Keir were finally alone. She did recall he’d heated a hot bath for her, and when they’d climbed into bed, the sheets had been ice-cold, but Keir’s body heat had warmed her rapidly. And she remembered him leaning over her with a lazy smile, his hand moving gently down her body as he said, “Ransom told me we’ll have to confine ourselves mostly to the house and thereabouts for the next few days.”