Page 46 of Stay with Me

Titters and guffaws came from the crowd.

Nicholas half expected Father Fritz to start making kissing motions in the air again, and when he caught Sybil’s gaze, she was holding back another smile, as if she’d been thinking the same thing.

“Ye could have held yerself together for a few more hours, couldn’t ye, Nicholas?”

“I am holding myself together just fine, Father.” Just as long as he didn’t get too close to Sybil or look at her for any length. Whenever he did, he couldn’t seem to control his reactions as well as he wanted to.

Father Fritz finished tightening the belt at his cowl. But he’d donned the garment upside down so that a large swath of material had bunched up at his shoulders, giving him the appearance of a hunchback.

“Ah, well, what’s done is done.” Father Fritz stumbled, and the man accompanying him reached out to assist him, only to have the priest swat him with the prayer book.

“This is a blessed day indeed,” Beatrice called to Father Fritz. “Our dear Nicholas has found love, and for that we must truly celebrate.”

Love? His feelings weren’t love. At least, not the same kind of love he’d felt for Jane. Even so, his attraction to Sybil was strong. Was it disloyal to Jane? Moreover, what would Eric say after returning with the other hunters to find him married to someone else?

A sliver of unease pricked him, and he peered beyond the grazing sheep to the forest. Maybe Eric would come running out at any second and demand that the wedding be halted.

Nicholas fisted his hands. What should he do? Should he wait and discuss the matter with Jane’s brother first?

Ralph reached for his shoulder and squeezed it. His severe gaze held Nicholas’s and seemed to transfer a measure of calm and certainty into the growing turmoil inside. Was that whyRalph was hurrying the wedding along? So Eric wouldn’t be able to step in and disrupt anything? Or speak with Nicholas and convince him not to go through with it?

“Come now, Father Fritz,” Ralph called again. “Let’s begin.”

Grumbling under his breath, the portly priest hastened his steps until he reached the chapel. “I’m coming. I’m coming.” He halted several feet from another young couple, closed his eyes, and began to recite a prayer.

“Father Fritz,” Ralph growled. “Over here.”

The priest’s eyes popped open, and he shot Ralph a glare.

“Wrong people.” Ralph returned the glare before cocking his head at Nicholas beside him.

Father Fritz glared at the man and his maiden in front of him as if the mix-up was their fault before pivoting and crossing the last of the distance. “There ye are, Nicholas, my dear boy.” He smiled at Sybil. “And don’t ye look lovely, bab. Not that ye didn’t without yer clothes on. Ye looked very fine then too.”

Sybil’s eyes widened.

Nicholas almost choked on a laugh.

This time when Father Fritz closed his eyes and began his prayer, Nicholas stepped closer to Sybil. He wanted to reach for her hand, to twine his fingers through hers. But he didn’t have a reason to do so, not when they were no longer running for their lives. Besides, he would fulfill his resolution to be chaste if he limited the contact with her.

Father Fritz began to read the rite of holy baptism until Ralph whacked him in the arm. Nicholas guessed, as he had already many times previously, that Father Fritz’s superiors at Walsingham Priory had trumped up the espionage charges because they could no longer tolerate his odd mannerisms.

He was odd, to be sure. But he cared about people deeply, and that was all that truly mattered.

As Father Fritz started reading again, this time from the correct rite, Nicholas tried to expel the tension growing inside, but it stuck in his chest like a snagging blackthorn branch wrapping its wickedly long thorns around him. By the time the priest had finished praying and reading Scripture and began a soliloquy, Nicholas’s insides were punctured, and he was having difficulty drawing in a breath.

“Move things along faster, Father,” Ralph, standing next to Nicholas, murmured under his breath. “Can’t you skip ahead?”

Father Fritz paused and scowled at Ralph. “I suppose ye would like me to have Nicholas kiss his bride before the vows?”

“Yes.”

Father Fritz’s brows shot up.

Nicholas’s did too. Beside him, Sybil stiffened.

Ralph didn’t say anything more, but Beatrice clapped her hands. “What a fine idea, Father Fritz. You always seem to know just what everyone needs.”

The irritated lines in Father Fritz’s face dissolved, and he nodded gravely. “Of course I do. Nicholas has been going plumb barmy with need. Now is the perfect time to let him have his way with his bride.”

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