Chapter Twenty
Six days later, Chris stood in the parlor with his three best friends (besides Nobi) in the whole world. It had been far too long since he’d seen them, but there was no better way to usher in his new life with Nobi than with Wes, James, and Sam.
Wes smacked him on the back, “Trust you to get yourself abducted.”
Not one to throw a friend under the carriage, Chris was going to keep his mouth shut, but Sam said it anyway. “It shouldn’t have been you. It should have been me.” He was shaking his head.
“Don’t worry about it. It all happened for many reasons, one of which was so I could find out the truth about your father’s death. He didn’t kill that man. Big Tall Tom took them both out. Rumor has it he lost his mind. He’s gone now too.”
“I hate that you went through that, but I’m relieved to know the truth about my father.”
“We’re all happy to know the truth about your father. He was a good man, despite his flaws.” Chris gave Sam an embrace and then stepped back. “Also, apparently I needed the abduction as an excuse to figure out my life and what I wanted with Nobi.”
“You sure you needed that drastic of an incident, Chris? You couldn’t have required a simple slug to the face or something less dramatic?” James put his two fists up and faked a pugilistic pose.
Sam grabbed him by the jaw, “And wreck this beautiful face? I don’t think so. Maybe it did all happen for a reason.”
“It did. And I couldn’t be happier.”
“Well, we can see that,” Wes said. “Now where are those pistols?”
“Safe.” Chris gestured to the air, indicating they were still locked away. “You can take them when you leave.”
“No. I won’t be taking those. They belong to Sam.”
“What? No, they’re yours now.”
“I don’t think so. You’re the one that won the bet from the beginning of the summer.”
“Did I? Or did you?” Wes volleyed back.
Sam scratched his head, legitimately befuddled.
“Never mind. The pistols are yours. I don’t know why you wagered them in the first place. We should have stuck to pounds, not pistols.”
“I thought it would bring me better luck to get rid of them, especially at the time thinking my cousin had ramped up his efforts to take me out,” Sam justified.
“Well, did it bring you better luck?” James asked with a smirk on his face.
“Actually, in the most roundabout way it did. Look at us. We’re all marrying for love. And we didn’t even all believe in it,” he slugged James in the arm.
“Oomph. True,” he said, rubbing his arm, “but I’m a believer now. I’m just as lovesick as the rest of you sorry three.”
A round of laughter rippled through the room.
“But there’s one thing I have to get off my chest,” Chris said.
“What’s that?” James asked, taking a sip of his whiskey.
“You guys were wrong six years ago.”
“I don’t think so.” Wes puffed out his chest.
“You don’t even know what I’m referring to.”
Wes rubbed his jaw, “But I still don’t think we were all wrong.”
Chris scoffed. “You warned me not to pursue things with Zenobia.”
“Did we?” James tapped his chin.
“Yes, you did.”
Perhaps sensing Chris’s growing agitation, Sam wrapped his arm around his shoulder.
“Did we or didn’t we? Maybe we did.” Sam patted Chris’s stomach like a man would rub a dog’s belly to placate him.
“We were just looking out for one of our dearest friends. And just think, if we didn’t warn you, you might have gone after her too early, and then where would the rest of us sorry lot be? ”
Chris regained his internal equanimity. Maybe the belly rub had helped.
“True…I guess I was the sacrificial lamb of the group—and,” he lifted his hand to stop any rebuttals, “if anyone had to be the one put to slaughter, it may as well have been me. The rest of you would have been bleating far too loudly for us to go through with it anyway.”
“Har. Har.” Sam joked. “Now, onto more important matters.” He pulled a wad of bills from his pockets.
“What the devil is that for? Do we have some outstanding bet I don’t know about?” Wes whistled at the bills adding up.
“Not yet,” Sam rejoined. “But I plan to place our biggest wager yet.”
James’s eyes lit up like a twenty-four candle chandelier. “What are we betting on now?”
“What else is there to bet on?” He eyed the other three, waiting for one of them to supply the answer, but Chris was at a loss. Apparently, so were the other three, so Sam announced it for himself. “Babies! Who’s going to be the first father among us?”
Laughter cracked, and backs were slapped. Bets were made, and drinks were poured. Then James placed a tumbler in Chris’s hand, and Chris raised it into the air. “Here’s to four lucky Betting Buddies who finally claimed love.”
*
The diamond twinkled in the sunlight almost as brightly as Nobi’s smile.
She was engaged. Chris was going to be her husband.
And soon! It had only taken six years and an abduction to make them see the truth.
Well, perhaps not so much see the truth as act upon it.
They were lovers in the deepest sense of the word, and in a few short hours they were going to be united for all the world to see.
Immediately after Chris had asked her to marry him, she had sent word to her sisters.
All right, not immediately after he asked.
There had been a few more rounds of love-making, and more than a few bursts of pleasure.
Then, after those awe-inspiring rounds, she had written her missives and sent them off.
All of her sisters had replied that they would travel to Chris’s house for the wedding. The double wedding! Joan and James would be getting married as well. Even their father would be in attendance.
They had all arrived yesterday to what already felt like her home.
KNOCK. KNOCK.
“Come in!” Nobi called out as three giggling women skipped into the room. They were acting like giddy schoolgirls about to be asked to dance by a boy with the size of the grins on their faces.
“It’s our wedding day,” Joan announced jubilantly.
Nobi threw her arms around Joan. “Yes. And I’m so excited to share this day with you. I missed you so much.”
Mimi jumped in on the hug. “What about me? Did you miss me too?”
Boudicca tsked the youngest but also joined in on the hug. “We all missed each other, and we’re all excited to be here together again.” She wiped a tear from her eye.
Nobi craned her neck for a better view. “Bodi, are you crying?”
“Quite possibly. Marriage might have softened me a touch,” she sniffled. “I’m just so happy for you.” Another sniff. “For all of us.”
“Marriage doesn’t soften you, it makes you braver,” Mimi said, patting the eldest’s shoulder, still in the group’s embrace. “Every day you have to choose to trust. Choose to open your heart. Choose to love.”
“You’ve become wiser in your married state, Mimi,” Bodi said encouragingly.
“I’ve always been this wise, you just didn’t all always recognize it,” she smirked.
“We must be the luckiest four sisters in the world,” Joan added. “To think we are all four marrying for love, and to each a handsome duke.”
With an over-satisfied grin, Mimi said wryly, “I think we need to thank Zenobia for her cowardice with Chris.”
“Cowardice? I’m insulted.”
“Cowardice? Timidity? Procrastination? What would you call it?”
“I call it…playing the long game.”
The sisters laughed.
“Well, whatever you call it, I’m glad you did it.” Mimi tightened her hold on them and then let go to sit on Nobi’s bed. “I am sorry you had to go through this terrible ordeal with Chris being abducted though. Of all the sisters to have to go through it…”
The other three clamored onto the bed and sat cross-legged, just as they had always done. “I know what you mean, Mimi. I can’t believe it happened to me.”
Joan reached out and pressed a tender hand on her forearm. “How was it? Are you all right?”
Nobi squeezed her eyes shut and exhaled. “It was terrifying. I’ve never experienced so much fear.” With a deep inhalation, she continued. “But I had no choice. Or I guess, I felt as though I had no choice. Chris needed me.” Her voice dropped to a whisper, “And I needed him.”
“That must have taken everything you had inside of you to go after him,” Bodi said with pride.
“That and then some. I never knew what I had inside of me. I never knew what I was capable of. A-a-and…just before this all happened, I had lost my ability to shoot at a target.”
“What do you mean?” Mimi asked in shock. “You’ve never not been able to hit a bullseye.”
“I know. I think with everything that was going on and feeling so much loss around me, my mind was unfocused. Cloudy. I couldn’t see what I wanted.
The bullseye. I was going out that morning to practice my shot when I overheard the plan to kidnap someone.
I didn’t know it was going to be Chris. But when I rode out after him for his help and saw them take him, my heart leapt into my throat.
I had so few options. None it felt. So I followed them. ”
“You’re so brave, Nobi,” Joan said.
“I had to be. I couldn’t let him…die.” Her throat choked up as she willed away the desolate thought, thankful it wasn’t a reality anymore. “Anyway, like Mimi was saying about choices…I had to choose. I had to trust myself and go after him.”
“And then when you finally caught up with him?”
“It felt like an eternity had passed. And I saw my life play out both ways: without him and with him. I knew I couldn’t live without him anymore, so I planned to tell him how I felt.”
“But how did he get free?” Bodi asked.
“I shot a candle.”
“A candle?”
“Yes, thankfully Chris had a plan and gave me some hints. And then I took my shot and I hit the target I wanted to. It was like I could see what I needed to have and nothing was going to keep me from getting it.”
“I love this new side of you, Nobi,” Joan said encouragingly. “You’re stronger than you ever thought you were. You’ve always been quieter, a little bit like me, but that doesn’t make us weak. We’re resolute. Determined. And when we know what we want, we can go after it. Whatever it is.”
“Yes.” Nobi’s heart was full as she smiled at her sisters. “And now we have to put the final claim on that, don’t we, Joan? Shall we get ready for our wedding?”
The joy that filled the room was unspeakable. It resounded in laughter and tears. Embraces and memories.
As the sisters dressed, they cooed over how gorgeous the dresses looked, Nobi in a blue dress and Joan in green, the other sisters wore a pale pink. For flowers, they chose wild flowers.
When Bodi put their mother’s bracelet on Nobi’s wrist, and their mother’s earrings on Joan, all four were in tears. “Mother would be so proud of us. She would be here with a hug and a kind word for both of you.”
Sniffles filled the room.
“And she wouldn’t have told us anything about what to expect in the bedroom,” Mimi teased, which elicited laughter from all of them.
Bodi spoke once the laughter faded, “This is the one of the most special days of your lives, you two. You get to claim the men you love. And they will claim you. From this day forward, you will protect each other, love each other, challenge each other, and lean on each other. We four will always be sisters, but our relationships will change. They’ll deepen, even though we’re further away from each other.
We’ll learn to grow together in a whole new way.
Of course we can complain to each other about our husband’s when they eat too loudly—it will happen—but we will also celebrate each milestone in our lives together.
Our new homes, our children, birthdays, anniversaries, and more. ”
Bodi grabbed some filled flutes of champagne that had been brought in by a servant. “This is to our new beginning.”
“To love,” Nobi said.
“To laughter,” Joan said.
“To happily ever after,” Mimi said.