Against Her Rules (16 page)

  There
were a couple of dresses that demanded her attention, regardless of her
intentions to wear a dress she’d bought for a hundred and twenty three dollars.
Daphne had flown in gowns by several high-end designers. Vera Wang’s fall
collection was amazingly similar in colour scheme to the dress Elsie had
intended to wear. Daphne was useful to have around in times of a fashion
crisis, it seemed.

  Elsie
had her princess moment, trying on some of the most expensive, and exquisite
gowns of her life, but in the end, opted to go with her own. Her mother, Daphne
and Mrs. Scott all followed her to her room, where she tried on her dress.

  “It’s
perfect. Simply perfect.” Daphne dabbed at her eyes. Elsie believed she meant
it.

  Even
Mrs. Scott agreed.

  “Those
other dresses just swallowed you up. Now we see you.”

  She
felt the same way. It was a high-waist straight chiffon skirt in ivory, with a
brown halter. The skirt had a thick belt that was the same colour as the
halter. She looked tall and slender. Well, taller, at least.

  Now
that the dress issue was settled to everyone’s satisfaction, it was time to get
ready.

  I’m
getting married today!

  S
he
was nervous. Whatever Cam might have planned, she’d only used two things he’d
selected, that she knew of. She’d chosen the blush pink orchid spray for her
bouquet, and agreed whole heartedly that Asher play the music during the
ceremony. Cam had already thought of an alternate best man, his brother, Colin.

  Cam
was waiting for her in the dining room.

  “I
guess the secret is out?” she said as she walked in.

  “Well,
I didn’t try very hard to keep it a secret, now did I?” Cam said. “You are
spectacular.”

  “As
are you. I hadn’t even pictured you wearing a kilt.”

  “Well,
it was a bit of a fight between my parents about whether I wore the red Clan
Scott tartan, or the green and blue Clan Campbell. But I chose the Scott in the
end.”

  It
felt like she’d walked in on someone else’s wedding. Why else would there be a
sexy Scotsman in her house, decked out in full formal Scottish dress?

  “I
thought I’d be the only one wearing a skirt.”

  “Well,
get used to a life full of the unexpected, my love.”

  “You
went through a lot of work to plan this wedding, didn’t you?” She ran her hand
down his tie.

  “Not
at all. Very little actually.” Cam chuckled.

  “Don’t
be modest. I’ve seen the dresses, none of which I’m wearing by the way. This is
my own dress. And I’ve seen the flowers. And the band. And your family. I
admire your confidence that I’d agree to marry you so quickly, by the way.”

  He
laughed. “My confidence? My darling, I wasn’t that confident at all. It took
your Dad to help me figure it all out.”

  She
took hold of his hand. “Cam, I really appreciate everything you’ve done. And
I’m more than willing to marry you today. Obviously, since I’m standing here
talking to you, and not hiding in my room in tears. But you need to know
something about me. I like to plan my events. I like to have my own touches.
It’s part of what I do. I have a vision, and I need to see it to completion.
Yesterday, when you sent those images, I was livid. There was no way I was
getting married today. And then I thought about it. It wasn’t that I didn’t
want to marry you. It was that I didn’t want just any wedding. I wanted my
wedding.” Damn it all again, but she was tearing up.

  “Elsie,
it’s okay.”

  “No,
let me finish. I know you put a lot of thought into planning something too, and
maybe you feel the same way. Maybe you want your wedding a certain way.
But...well, it’s stupid, I know, but Cam, I’m a girl. And I’m a pretty girlie
girl for all that. I wanted to have a say.”

  “Elsie,
it’s okay,” he said, hugging her. “You think I don’t know that? I couldn’t care
less if we were married wearing paper bags in a parade officiated by a clown.
The only thing I care about is that at the end of the day—this day—we’re
together. I had three goals to achieve. Get engaged. Convince you to marry me
today. And give you anything you might need to help plan our wedding.”

  Awareness
washed over her. “You weren’t planning a ceremony?”

  “No.”

  “And
so you didn’t spend all day in town getting decorators, and caterers, and
photographers, and going overboard to plan some big audacious wedding?”

  “If
I thought you wanted that, you’d have it. But remember last night, when I told
you that I know you? I mean it. I know you, Elsie. It’s scary how much about
you I seem to know. It’s like you walked into my life and something inside me
recognized you.”

  She
reached for a jug of water and poured a glass. Her throat was dry. “So you
weren’t surprising me with a wedding? I’m surprising you?”

  He
laughed then. “I’m hardly surprised, now am I?”

  Another
level of awareness dawned on her. “You manipulated me! You made me think you
were planning a wedding, just so I’d get upset, and take control myself. That’s
what you meant by convincing me to marry you today.”

  “Manipulation
is a strong word, but maybe I steered you in that direction. A little. But it
wasn’t just my idea. Your father knew.”

  “Did
my mother?”

  “No.
He didn’t think she’d be able to play along. He didn’t think he could either,
which is why he came to St. John’s with me.”

 
You
sneaky bastard.
She loved him. If he hadn’t put the idea into her head, she
knew what would have happened over the next few months. She’d dither back and
forth about if she wanted to marry him. And she would have driven him mad, in
all likelihood. It was better this way. She didn’t have time to think too much,
and he didn’t get a chance to discover how neurotic she could be.

  Well,
they’d gone this far. Might as well see it to completion.

  “Mr.
Scott. Would you like to skip supper and get married instead?”

  “I
thought you’d never ask.”

T
hank you so much for reading
Against Her Rules.
I
hope you enjoyed Elsie and Cam’s story as much as I enjoyed writing it. Sharing
your first novel with the world is both exhilarating and terrifying, and my
only wish is that for a few hours you were able to escape from the real world
into the happily-ever-after that a romance novel should deliver.

If you are familiar with Newfoundland, you are
already aware of all the beauty that surrounds this place. And if you’ve never
heard of my dear island home before, maybe you’ll visit some day and experience
it yourself. Heart’s Ease is not a real community, but all the other
communities that start with Heart in this book are real places in Newfoundland
and Labrador. We have some rather flavourful place names around here. I live in
Conception Bay!

Finally, a note on spelling. There was considerable
debate among my fellow writers over whether I should use American spelling or
Canadian spelling. I chose to tell this story in the language I use every day.
I hope it didn’t detract from the reading experience of any of my American
readers. If it bothered you, I’d love to know before I publish the next book in
this series.

  If
there’s any feedback you’d like to share, I’d love to hear from you. You can
find me on my website:
www.VictoriaBarbour.com

Read more at
Victoria Barbour’s site
.