Dying to Marry Him novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: The Open Door

The pews filled while Gilt was still talking.

Monsters came out of the dark between the benches, tall and crooked and polite.

They sat down with their hands on their knees.

"The rule is simple," Gilt told the house. "A bride who wishes to leave says so to the Master, and the Master grants it."

"She walks through the door and goes home. No tricks."

I kept my eyes on the yellow light under the knob.

"On the first night you said a bride who will not make a vow does not stay," I said. "Stay where?"

"Stay is such a flexible word, my dear."

"Then nobody walks through anything until I know what it means," I said, loud enough for the four women behind me.

Gilt spread his ringed hands. "The door is open until dawn, every night. Take all the time you like."

Above us the letters rolled. ODDS ON A BRIDE LEAVING: 2 TO 1.

I walked up the aisle to the wall, and the whole house watched me do it.

The door stood a little open. I put one finger on the edge and pushed.

My kitchen was on the other side.

My laptop sat on the table with the lid up, and the cursor blinked in the middle of the wedding night of book forty-four.

My coffee mug was beside it, and the steam still rose.

I could smell the cold toast I had abandoned.

My throat closed.

"Go," said Rook.

He had not moved from the altar steps. His voice carried to the back of the chapel, flat and clear.

"Sixty-one women have stood where you are standing. Every one of them looked for a way out."

"Rook," I said.

"Go home, Kerensa. You have a kitchen. You have a book to finish."

He said it without any heat at all. "I will grant it, since I cannot refuse."

I turned around.

He stood at the top of the steps with the folded page in his hand, and his face gave me nothing to read.

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