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  Ignoring everything except that Luc was alive and had come back to her.

  “Oh, God, Luc, are you hurt?” Worried now that she might have been squeezing an injured rib, she quickly ran her hands along his body as Shayne came forward.

  Trying to catch his breath, Luc managed to look at her. His stare was blank. “Luc? Who’s Luc? And who are you? Do I know you?”

  For one horrible moment, she thought he had amnesia again. But then she saw the gleam in his eye as he said, “I’m going to have to kiss you again. Maybe that’ll jar something in my memory.”

  “I’ll jar your memory all right.” Laughing, she slipped her arms around his neck again. Her heart felt as if it was brimming over. “I’m so glad to see you, I’m not even going to kill you for putting me through that. I’ll wait until later.”

  The wobbly feeling that had draped over his body was beginning to recede. It had been touch-and-go for a few minutes in the mine. A few minutes in which he thought he wasn’t getting out. Entertaining thoughts of his own mortality; what he regretted most was not having told her he loved her.

  “Couldn’t you kill me after the wedding?”

  Her eyes widened. “What wedding?”

  “Our wedding?”

  It was in the form of a question because even now he wasn’t sure of the outcome, of her answer. He’d made up his mind this morning after making his confession to Jacob that he was going to ask Alison to marry him. He was going to ask, but what if she said no?

  After his experience in the mine, he knew he wasn’t about to take no for an answer.

  Alison stared at him, stunned. This seemed to come out of nowhere. She was afraid to let her heart absorb the words. Afraid because she wanted this so much.

  She cocked her head, studying him. “Are you sure you’re not experiencing amnesia?”

  “I’m sure.” He wiped his hand against his jeans before touching her cheek. “But if you say yes, I’m bound to experience a little euphoria. What do you say, Alison? You want to make an honest man out of me?”

  “C’mon, Alison, say yes!” someone in the crowd coached. “Don’t leave him hanging.”

  She laughed at Luc’s play on words. “It’s usually the woman who needs to be made honest.”

  “In my case, it’s me,” he told her.

  She grew serious. He’d made a lovely gesture, owning up to the truth. She knew what that had to have cost him. Nobody likes looking foolish. “Jacob told me you made a clean breast of it. He knows we’re not married.”

  “Yet,” Luc stipulated. His eyes made an eloquent plea.

  Temptation hovered over her, urging her to accept. But this was said in the heat of the moment and she didn’t want him regretting it once the dust had settled. It cost her, but she gave him every opportunity to recant.

  “Luc, you just had a harrowing life-and-death experience. Don’t say anything hasty you might regret.”

  “If you don’t marry him, you want to marry me?” another one of the volunteers asked, only to have Ike shove him aside good-naturedly.

  “Shut up and let them work this out,” he ordered.

  “I’ve never said anything hasty in my life,” Luc told her. “And I’m not going to regret it, now or ever. I made up my mind to ask you this morning, before I heard about the cave-in.” He took her hands into his, holding them to his chest. “I want you to stay here with me after your internship is over. I don’t want you to go back to Seattle, Alison. If you go, what will I do with my heart?”

  Her own heart caught in her throat, this time held there with happiness.

  “Say yes already, darlin’,” Ike urged her, unable to take this any longer. “You know you want to.”

  The smile in her heart rose into her eyes. “Yes, I know I want to.”

  Catching her up in his arms, Luc raised her up high before enveloping her in a warm, if dusty, embrace.

  “You’re all invited to the wedding,” he announced to the crowd. And then he smiled down into her face. “But not to the honeymoon.”

  A chorus of moans echoed around them as he kissed her, but neither of them heard.

  Epilogue

  The butterflies that sailed by above her head just as she entered the tent where she was to dress had nothing on the ones that were breeding in her stomach. With wings that were at least a yard wide, they were flapping for all they were worth.

  She’d been here before, on the threshold of marriage. But the last time had been riddled with fear and a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach that she was making a huge, horrible mistake.

  That feeling was absent now. Instead, there was an excitement, an eagerness and yes, a colossal case of nerves.

  What if she wasn’t—?

  But she would be, Alison silently swore to herself. She would be a good wife. Luc’s wife. It had a lovely ring to it.

  She glanced down at her hand. The antique band she’d grown so accustomed to wearing in such a short time was gone from her finger. Luc would be giving it to her officially in just a little while.

  Her finger might have felt as if there were something missing, but her heart didn’t. For the first time since she could remember, her heart felt…fearless. She felt fearless. And so happy she could burst.

  “You beam any harder and those people waiting out there are going to think they’ve got two suns instead of one,” Sydney told her.

  “Let ’em.” Alison couldn’t keep the sparkle out of her eyes. “This has been a long time in coming.”

  After a while, Kevin popped his head into the camping tent that Ike and Shayne had put up for her less than an hour ago. “Almost time, Aly.”

  And then he saw her, really saw her. His little sister looked radiant. All the secret fears he’d had about this whirlwind courtship and wedding vanished. He knew now what a proud father of the bride felt. “Oh, baby, you look beautiful.”

  Alison smoothed down the skirt of her mother’s wedding gown. Lily had brought it in her suitcase. The first time she married, Alison had worn her own. A simple little thing she’d bought herself, a dress that could be reused. Looking back, it was as if she’d known the marriage was doomed from the start and that at least the dress could be salvaged out of the fiasco.

  But this time she’d known she would get married in her mother’s wedding gown. For luck. Forever.

  She looked down at it now. “It does look pretty, doesn’t it?”

  “I wasn’t talking about the dress.” Kevin felt a tightness in his throat. “Does Luc know how damn lucky he is?”

  With Sydney’s help, Marta spread out the train behind Alison. “If incessant talking and bragging about Alison is any indication, I think he might suspect.” She cocked her head, listening. “Uh-oh, I think I hear your husband starting his fancy fingering at the keyboard.” She winked at Sydney. Kevin and Ike had brought Sydney’s beloved piano out into the field so that Alison and Luc could have music when they said the fateful words that pledged them to each other.

  Sydney paused to listen. She winked at Alison. “Sounds like ‘The Wedding March’ to me.”

  Kevin presented his arm to the bride. He told himself he wasn’t going to cry. It would only embarrass Alison. But his eyes were smarting. “Ready?”

  She took a deep breath. “Yes, I am.”

  They left the tent slowly, with Marta, Sydney and Lily marching down the makeshift aisle before her in the wildflower-strewn field. It was the only place large enough to accommodate all the people Luc had invited.

  And then it was Alison’s turn. Alison’s turn to grab the brass ring.

  Luc turned from the altar and watched her approach. He knew she was beautiful, had thought so from the moment he had looked up at her in that alley and thought she was an angel. But the sight of her now, holding herself like a queen and coming toward him, left his mouth dry. And his heart brimming.

  And then she was beside him, with the reverend saying the words that would seal him to her in the eyes of the state, the church and all their
friends and family. Putting into reality what had been true from the first moment they had been together.

  “…And I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may—” The reverend stopped and laughed. Not waiting for the man’s instruction, Luc had taken Alison into his arms and was kissing her. In the background, Shayne began playing “Moon River,” just as Luc had instructed him to. “I see you’re already moving on ahead.”

  And they intended to keep right on doing just that. For the rest of their lives.

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-7029-3

  FOUND: HIS PERFECT WIFE

  Copyright © 2000 by Marie Rydzynski-Ferrarella

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Silhouette Books, 300 East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017 U.S.A.

  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

  This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

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