"No, she doesn't!" Lee flung open the doors of the church.
"What?!" The couple at the altar, along with the entire congregation, turned to stare at the intruder.
"May I ask the meaning of this interruption?" the priest demanded.
Mary Alexander paled beneath her bridal veil and clutched the nosegay of white roses and orange blossoms in a death grip. She couldn't see the face of the man standing just inside the church entrance but she recognized the voice—the faint, but familiar Irish lilt that belonged to Pinkerton detective Liam Kincaid. Her pulse seemed to flutter. It was as if by thinking about him the other day, she had conjured him up today. Mary swayed on her feet, suddenly dizzy, and was afraid she might swoon. Her groom gripped her elbow to keep her upright. She closed her eyes, counted to ten, then opened them again to see if the Irish rogue was real or a figment of her imagination.
"I told you, I object to this wedding," Lee announced, stepping out of the dark foyer and into the light. He fixed his gaze on Mary and started down the aisle.
A loud murmur echoed through the church as the wedding guests realized that a strange man was intervening in the marriage of Mary Alexander to Pelham Cosgrove III. Somewhere close behind her, Mary heard Reese say, "What's he doing? We can't let him do this." And heard her brother David answer, "Stay out of it. Mary can handle him without our interfering."
And suddenly she realized he was real. If Reese and David could see and hear him he had to be real, very real, and about to ruin her last chance of marrying a respectable gentleman while she was still young enough and pretty enough to get one. "Stop right there!" Mary ordered, holding out her hand to ward him off, even as she feasted on the sight of him.—his expressive gray eyes, the intriguing mustache, the calf-length canvas duster covering his suit, lending him an air of mystery. "Don't come any closer." Her knees were quaking with nerves. It was one thing to wish, in an abstract way, for Prince Charming to come and save her but it was quite another thing to have him actually try to do it, especially just as she was about to become another man's wife. "You can't object."
"But I do," Lee said softly, continuing to move closer.
"We've already done that part," Mary protested, nodding toward the priest. "He's already asked if anyone objected. Nobody did."
"I may be a little late, but I'm in time to object," Lee told her.
"All right, then," Mary challenged him. "Why?"
"Why what?" Lee paused for a moment, stunned. He hadn't expected her to demand a reason.
"Why do you object to my getting married?" She handed her mangled nosegay to her sister-in-law and chief brides-maid, Tessa, and placed her hands at her sides, bracing herself for a showdown with Liam Kincaid.
"I don't object to you getting married," Lee told her, "I just object to your marrying him." He eyed Mary's tender-foot groom, staring as Pelham Cosgrove III sucked in a deep breath, then let it out. Lee noticed that Cosgrove's nostrils flared with the effort. Lee continued to stare. Something about Mary's bridegroom looked familiar—as if he'd seen him before.
"Why?" Mary asked again. "What business is it of yours who I marry?"
Dammit, Lee thought, she would have to make him explain things in front of God and everybody. He took a deep breath. "You can't marry him. Not when…"
Mary held her breath, waiting for Liam Kincaid to admit he had feelings for her, and had had feelings for her from the moment they met in David's office four months ago. "Go on."
"Not when," he searched furiously for the correct phrase. "Not when I have a prior claim."
"Prior claim?" Mary's voice rose an octave. "Since when have you had a prior claim on me?"
"I've known you longer."
"How do you know?" she challenged him again. "How do you know Pelham's not a long-standing family friend?"
Lee turned his fierce gaze on Pelham Cosgrove HI. "How long have you known her?"
"A-almost three months," Pelham stammered, as Lee reached the altar and stood towering over him.
Lee grinned in satisfaction. "There. I've known you much longer."
A whole thirty days longer, and that was in calendar days, not in time spent together. Mary opened her mouth to point out the fact that one month did not equal much longer, but Pelham interrupted her.
"Is that true?" Pelham Cosgrove III turned to his bride. "Does he have a prior claim on you?"
"He…" Mary began.
"Yes, it's true," Lee answered. "We've known each other for quite a while. One might even say she knows me intimately, since we've been together in a few very interesting"—he drawled the word, giving it a different meaning—"situations."
Mary thought she heard someone chuckle nearby. It sounded like a man—it sounded like her brother, David! Her face colored a deep angry shade of red. She had been alone with Lee Kincaid only once, when they danced together at the celebration following her brother David's marriage to Tessa Roarke four months ago. Lee had tried to charm her with his Irish blarney and steal a kiss or two, and he hadn't been successful on either account. Mary turned to Pelham, "You must believe me when I say I've never heard such outrageous lies and insinuations."
Pelham Cosgrove pushed Mary out of the way and stepped forward in front of Lee. "What kind of situations?"