The Marquess Finds Romance Read online

  You see me now, a marquess, the hero in a fairy tale. But the marquess has lost his love. I sent you from me so that you may choose your destiny. My dearest wish is that you choose me.

  Choose me, my love.

  Tears poured down Janie’s face. She had no doubt that this was her story. She had a story of her own! Through blurry eyes, she rifled through the pages until she reached the title page.

  Hickstrom’s Book of Fairy Tales

  (Revised, 2nd edition)

  “Hickstrom!” Janie sobbed. “Hickstrom! Thank you! Thank you for my story!”

  She swiped at the tears in her eyes and read the revised title page again. When had Hickstrom done this? Closing the cover, she studied the binding and the lettering. They looked just the same as they did when she first saw the book.

  “Thank you, thank you, Hickstrom! You’re the best! Is this my happily ever after? I know this is James! The sheep, right? I know this is James. I don’t know how you did it, but thank you!”

  Janie caressed the book as if it was James’s face, her smile so wide that her cheeks hurt. She tapped her feet on the carpet with excitement at the thought that she would soon see James.

  “I choose you, James. I choose you,” she whispered.

  Janie slid the pages to chapter 3 again and read the story title and first lines aloud.

  “‘The Marquess Finds Romance.

  “‘A very long time ago in a land far, far away there lived a fairy godmother with little to do but concern herself overly much with notions of love and lonely hearts and the lives of others. No solitary heart was safe where she was concerned. She must do everything within her power to ensure that love conquered all.

  “‘What follows is the tale of two such lonely hearts.’

  “I’m not gonna lie, Hickstrom. This story starts out about you, doesn’t it? No surprise there.”

  Janie continued tapping her feet, wishing that she wore shoes. She wasn’t sure where she would end up, hopefully wherever James was, but she should at least have shoes on her feet.

  “Wait, Hickstrom!” Janie ran into the bedroom closet and slipped into a pair of walking shoes. She eyed her beautiful Regency dress, wishing she had time to slip into it, but she doubted that she did. She ran back into the living room, threw herself back down onto the couch and leaned over the book to read the next paragraph aloud.

  “‘The marquess, a lonely gentleman with a broken heart, wandered through the meadow, pausing to scratch the ears of a sheep. The flock of silly creatures followed him, bleating and pressing against his legs for attention.’

  “Is he still at Alvord Castle, Hickstrom? Or are these his sheep? I guess I’ll figure it out when I get there!”

  Janie ran her fingers across the page. A realization started to gnaw at her, creeping up her spine toward her neck, making its way to her temples where it pressed hard.

  She should have slipped into unconsciousness by that time. She had read from the book...twice. But she hadn’t moved. She still sat on the couch in Clara’s apartment in the twenty-first century. Shouldn’t she have traveled back through time?

  “Hickstrom?” she called out, her voice shaking. “Hickstrom, are you still mad at me?”

  The fairy godmother did not come.

  “Hickstrom! Can you come here? Please, Hickstrom! Please.”

  Janie quieted and strained to listen for unusual sounds. She scanned the living room, especially the door. Returning her eyes forward, she noted the two empty tea mugs, an empty plate.

  With a gasp, Janie ran to the kitchen, made coffee with trembling hands, slopping and splashing as she did. She pulled out the prize—the bag of chocolate chip cookies. Throwing a bunch on the plate, she returned to the living room with her goodies and splayed them out on the coffee table.

  “Hickstrom?” she called, her voice shaking so hard that she could hardly understand herself. She cleared her throat. “Hickstrom! Please! Tell me what to do! I know you’re not a vindictive woman. Please!”

  “No, I most certainly am not, dear. Do hand me that plate of biscuits,” Hickstrom said, sitting beside her.

  “Hickstrom!” Janie shrieked. She reached to hug the fairy godmother, who accepted a quick embrace before disentangling herself.

  “Thank you. That is enough, dear. Now, those chocolate chip biscuits?”

  Janie, trying to stifle sobs of relief, handed Hickstrom the plate of cookies. Hickstrom took one and bit into it.

  “I’m sorry I shouted at you,” Janie said. “I never even shouted at my own mother. I know it was rude.”

  “It was, dear, but you were impassioned. I do not hold grudges.”

  “No, I know you don’t,” Janie said. “You wrote a story for me and James.”

  “Did I?” Hickstrom said, reaching for her coffee.

  “Didn’t you?”

  “Is it a revised edition?” she asked, ignoring the book.

  “You know it is,” Janie said.

  “Then I must have written it, for I am the author.”

  “The marquess is James, right?”

  “Yes,” Hickstrom answered directly...for once.

  “How did he become a marquess? I thought he was a viscount.”

  “Lord Carswell was not honest with me...or you, I am grieved to say. I discovered the truth about his inheritance at some point, and I hoped he might speak up, but he did not. James was most invested in hoping that he was chosen as a husband—not arranged, not predestined, not coerced, as he mistakenly says.”

  “What was he dishonest about?”

  “He has always known that he would someday inherit a marquessate, but he did not disclose that information when I decreed my hasty edict that you should marry a marquess. His brother, the seventh Marquess of Huntington, childless and unmarried, was in poor health, and Lord Carswell was his heir. Lord Carswell was on his way to London to see his brother’s solicitor when he stopped at Alvord Castle for a visit.”

  “What a coincidence! No, he didn’t tell me he was inheriting a...marquessate.”

  “A pity,” Hickstrom said, taking time to munch on a cookie.

  “I don’t care though. I still love him.”

  “Yes, I know that you do. He awaits you at Alvord Castle.”

  “He’s waiting for me?” Janie gasped. “Right now?”

  “Indeed. The two of you have been a great deal of work, but you convinced me of your love for him, and he convinced me that he could love you with kindness and consideration, as you deserve. That he inherited his marquessate merely sweetened the arrangement.”

  “Arrangement? Oh, Hickstrom, I hope you didn’t use that word with James.”

  “I have not. I understand his dislike for arranged marriages all too well.”

  Janie pulled the book onto her lap.

  “I was hoping you were going to make me a marchioness,” she said with a broad smile.

  “Do you wish to become one? That is easily done,” Hickstrom replied, pausing to bite her cookie. “Then you may come to Lord Carswell as an equal in rank. I had thought of such a plan before.”

  Janie drew in a deep breath. “I feel equal to James, and I think he sees me as an equal now. At least, I hope so.”

  “He must if he wishes to make you his marchioness.”

  “Thank you, Hickstrom,” Janie said. “Thank you for everything.”

  “It was my pleasure, dear. Now read from the book and let the marquess find romance.”

  Janie grinned and looked down at chapter 4.

  “You may skip the paragraph about me,” Hickstrom said.

  Janie leaned over and kissed Hickstrom on the cheek.

  “I’ll see you there!” Janie said. She looked down and began to read aloud.

  “‘The marquess, a lonely gentleman with a broken heart, wandered through the meadow, pausing to scratch the ears of a sheep. The flock of silly creatures followed him, bleating and pressing against his legs for attention.’”

  She fell into the swirling depths of ti
me and awakened with her face buried in grass. She turned her head. A sheep licked her nose, and she sputtered and scrambled up.

  “Ick!” she said, wiping the slobber from her cheek. “I love you guys, but not that much!”

  “But do you love me?” a wonderfully warm male voice said from behind.

  Janie whirled around to see James standing there, surrounded by the flock.

  “James!” she cried out.

  “Janie!” James said, lifting his top hat in greeting. He threw the hat to the side as he pushed his way through the sheep to reach her side.

  Janie moved forward, pushing and nudging the sheep aside to reach him.

  “We have a story, James! We have a story! She gave us a story!”

  James pulled Janie into his arms and buried his face into her hair.

  “How does it end?”

  Janie realized that she hadn’t read the entire story.

  “I don’t know, James. I don’t know, but it’s going to end well. I promise you. It will end well...with you and me.”

  “You chose me,” he murmured, lifting his head and looking down at her with his silver-lashed blue eyes. “You chose me.”

  “I couldn’t help it,” Janie said, gazing up at him. “You forced me to love you.”

  James laughed and lowered his head to kiss her.

  ****

  Hickstrom helped herself to another lovely biscuit and pondered her next project.

  Books by Bess McBride

  Time Travel Romance

  The Earl Finds a Bride

  (Book One of the Fairy Tales Across Time series)

  The Viscount Finds Love

  (Book Two of the Fairy Tales Across Time series)

  The Baron Finds Happiness

  (Book Three of the Fairy Tales Across Time series)

  A Ship Through Time

  The Highlander’s Stronghold

  (Book One of the Searching for a Highlander series)

  The Highlander’s Keep

  (Book Two of the Searching for a Highlander series)

  The Highlander’s Home

  (Book Three of the Searching for a Highlander series)

  My Laird’s Castle

  (Book One of the My Laird’s Castle series)

  My Laird’s Love

  (Book Two of the My Laird’s Castle series)

  My Laird’s Heart

  (Book Three of the My Laird’s Castle series)

  Caving in to You

  (Book One of the Love in the Old West series)

  A Home in Your Heart

  (Book Two of the Love in the Old West series)

  Forever Beside You in Time

  Moonlight Wishes in Time

  (Book One of the Moonlight Wishes in Time series)

  Under an English Moon

  (Book Two of the Moonlight Wishes in Time series)

  Following You Through Time

  (Book Three of the Moonlight Wishes in Time series)

  A Train Through Time

  (Book One of the Train Through Time series)

  Together Forever Across Time

  (Book Two of the Train Through Time series)

  A Smile in Time

  (Book Three of the Train Through Time series)

  Finding You in Time

  (Book Four of the Train Through Time series)

  A Fall in Time

  (Book Five of the Train Through Time series)

  A Summer in Time

  (Book Six of the Train Through Time series)

  Train Through Time Series Boxed Set

  (Books 1–3)

  Across the Winds of Time

  A Wedding Across the Winds of Time

  (Novella)

  Love of My Heart

  Historical Romance

  Anna and the Conductor

  The Earl’s Beloved Match

  (Novella)

  The Dishonest Duke

  Short cozy mystery stories by Minnie Crockwell

  Will Travel for Trouble series

  Trouble at Happy Trails (Book 1)

  Trouble at Sunny Lake (Book 2)

  Trouble at Glacier (Book 3)

  Trouble at Hungry Horse (Book 4)

  Trouble at Snake and Clearwater (Book 5)

  Trouble in Florence (Book 6)

  Trouble in Tombstone Town (Book 7)

  Trouble in Cochise Stronghold (Book 8)

  Trouble in Orange Beach (Book 9)

  Trouble at Pelican Penthouse (Book 10)

  Trouble at Island Castle (Book 11)

  Trouble at Yellowstone (Book 12)

  Trouble at Devils Tower (Book 13)

  Will Travel for Trouble Series (Books 1–3)

  Will Travel for Trouble Series (Books 4–6)

  Will Travel for Trouble Series (Books 7–9)