"I know," she said with a watery laugh. "And I will be. Garrett says he loves me."
He nodded in satisfaction. "Are you going to ask Burke to the wedding?"
"You wouldn't mind?"
"No . . . not if I get to give you away."
"Of course you do," Jess said, startled that Riley could possibly think she would consider any other alternative. "Burke can be a witness, if he likes."' She glanced up at her future husband. "Is that okay with you?" she asked uncertainly.
His lips curving in an impatient smile, Devlin slipped a possessive arm about her waist. "Anything you want, angel—as long as you make it happen within the next half hour. I won't vouch for my control any longer than that. If you aren't my wife in the next thirty minutes, I'll just have to carry you off."
"Then I guess," Jessica said with a pleased smile of her own, "we'd better go find that Justice of the Peace."
Chapter 23
Jessica made a beautiful bride, even with her gown bedraggled and soot-stained. She carried a bouquet of white hothouse roses which Ashton Burke had insisted on having fetched from Georgetown. Around her shoulders she wore her mantle of green velvet that she'd left at his home. Her tawny hair, smoothed and rearranged into its previous elegant coiffure by Flo's motherly fingers, gleamed golden in the early-morning sunshine. Her complexion, scrubbed virginally clean in the privacy of Doc Wheeler's office, held a radiance that only a woman in love could exhibit.
Devlin made a magnificent groom, or so all the ladies thought. His formal black tailcoat enhanced his dark, stunning looks and leanly muscled physique, and hid most of the grime on his white shirt and waistcoat, which were blackened beyond salvage. The disreputable stubble shadowing his jaw lent him an edge of danger that was highly potent, while his expression held the unmistakable possessiveness that a man in love showed toward the woman he had claimed for his bride. Married and unmarried females alike sighed with envy, while the mothers present warned their innocent daughters to quit gawking.
The ceremony took place in the middle of Main Street, surrounded by the majesty of the Rockies, with a cool blue Colorado sky providing a canopy overhead. Half the occupants of Silver Plume looked on, most of them grateful at finding some joy in the midst of disaster. Both of Jessica's proud fathers watched the proceedings with their hearts in their eyes, going so far as to slap each other on the back when the justice pronounced the couple married and said, "Yea may kiss the bride."
Those were the words Devlin had been waiting for, for what seemed like a lifetime. "Finally," he murmured.
He took Jess in his arms, gazing down at her with a powerful tenderness he couldn't possibly hide. He'd returned to Colorado more than a month ago with every intention of making Jessica his wife. She wasn't the kind of woman, however, to meekly fall in with plans not of her own making. In fact, she was just stubborn enough to deliberately overset his ambitions on general principle—and determined enough to hold on to her convictions, even if it meant losing the things she held dear. Oddly enough, though, that was one of the things Devlin loved most about her. That she had principles she fiercely believed in, principles that meant more to her than wealth or power or comfort, even more than love. It was his misfortune that Jess also had a blind spot a mile wide. Until she'd sorted out her feelings for him, all he'd been able to do was wait . . . and pace . . . and pull out his hair . . . and pray.
Now, it was all over. Now, with the delay and uncertainty at an end, he could breathe again.
"You gonna kiss her or what?" Clem complained, interrupting his reflections.
Devlin grinned and obediently bent his head to seal their vows. He felt Jess's mouth warm and trembling under his own. It was all he could do to force himself to pull back and turn her over to her family and friends for their congratulations.
The celebration afterward was more elaborate than Devlin could find patience for. Burke had sent to Georgetown for several dozen cases of champagne, and ordered beer all around from a nearby saloon that was still standing, so the gathering turned into a holiday, with the town commemorating not only the marriage of one of its own, but the victory over the fire and the new future of Silver Plume, which would be rebuilt out of the ashes.
Devlin cursed under his breath when someone brought out a fiddle and the crowd spontaneously began dancing in the street. He watched jealously as a laughing and radiant Jess was passed from miner to miner—some of whom had known her since childhood—for a whirl. And yet he clamped down on his urge to tear her away from their good-natured embraces. In his haste to tie Jessica to him, he hadn't allowed her the kind of wedding most young women dreamed of. The least he could do was let her enjoy this moment.
It was nearly an hour later before he managed to get close enough to slip an arm around her waist. Jess, looking up at her new husband, felt her heart catch at the bright, warm light moving in his eyes.
"If you're sorry we couldn't manage a church wedding," Devlin said in her ear, "we can do this again properly in a week or two."
Smiling joyfully, Jess shook her head. "I'm not in the least sorry. This is much better than a stuffy ceremony in a church."
Devlin's guilt faded. "At least we'll have something to tell our grandchildren. . . . We were married the day Silver Plume burned down."
At his reference to grandchildren, a warm glow kindled inside her. "I never figured you would want a family."
"I expect there are still some things you don't know about me, angel"—his mouth curved seductively—"but I intend to take great pleasure helping you find out."
"You really want children? You told me once that you didn't."
"Only because I never found the right woman until now."
Jess's amber eyes still held a hint of uncertainty as she gazed up at him. "Oh, Garrett, are you sure I'm the right woman for you?"
"Damn sure. I'll show you just how right if I ever get you alone. Do you think we could make our excuses and get out of here? We still have a marriage to consummate."
Jess blushed and nodded mutely, excitement and shivering anticipation making her limbs suddenly weak.
They made their farewells amid a chorus of bawdy comments and good wishes. Jess hugged everyone, Burke included, Riley the hardest of all, and finally allowed Devlin to help her into the closed carriage.