Читать книгу The Regency Season: Convenient Marriages: Marriage Made in Money / Marriage Made in Shame - Sophia James - Страница 14

Chapter Six

‘No, this is a far better colour on you, Amethyst. See how the gold brings out the shade in your eyes.’ Lady Christine Howard smiled as she wound a darker gold band about the neckline. ‘With just a bit of manoeuvring we can lower the bodice and attach it. If I fashion it carefully, it will fold like this to show off your curves.’

Lord Ross’s sister was like a small whirlwind, her clever fingers pushing the fabric into a shape that was indeed flattering.

‘You do not think it a little daring?’

‘Absolutely not. Compared to some of the other gowns on display you will look like a novice newly released from a French convent.’ Christine laughed loudly and Amethyst joined in. Nowhere at all lingered the depression or sadness that her brother had spoken of, though the large ruby ring she wore on her marriage finger alluded to a lost betrothed.

‘The trick of it is to believe you are the most beautiful woman in the room and act like it.’

Amethyst’s face fell. Such a thing sounded impossibly difficult.

‘Your hair will need to be done differently, of course, to have any hope of pulling it off. The wig must go.’

‘You knew I wore one?’

‘Does not everybody? You could look so much prettier than you do now with it gone and I love the art of dressing hair.’

Like a shop dress form, Amethyst was pulled this way and that and the strangest thing of it all was that she was beginning to actually enjoy the unfamiliar pampering and the rapid conversation.

‘Your husband-to-be has most of the women of the ton panting after him and why would he not, for he is beautiful.’

‘Too beautiful for me.’

The words were out before she realised she had said them, but Christine appeared completely unfazed.

‘You hide what you have, that is the trouble, but it is time to come out from the shadows. More importantly you have a fortune and is that not what all of the men of the ton need these days? I know Lucien does. It is a great pity you do not have a sister for then he could marry her and we would be related and no longer poor. I do hate how money, or rather the lack of it, defines one.’

‘In my circle of acquaintances it doesn’t, really.’

‘That is why you are such a refreshing find, Amethyst, and why I like being here to help you.’

Christine reached into the case she had brought with her for another piece of fabric, this time the lightest shade of red and held it to Amy’s face. ‘Next time you buy a gown, choose this shade. See how it suits your skin? What colour is your real hair, by the way, or do you have none?’

Because there was no artifice or malice in the question Amy undid the pins and lifted the dull brown wig away, fluffing out her curls beneath.

‘There was a carriage accident,’ she explained as Christine stood in silence. ‘It has only just begun to grow back properly again.’

‘I did not expect you to be so blonde,’ the other woman finally said. ‘Has Montcliffe seen you without your wig?’

‘No.’

The resulting laughter worried her. ‘Then we will be able to greatly surprise him come Saturday and I for one cannot wait to see the look on Lady Charlotte Mackay’s face when she understands what she is up against.’

‘I have met her already.’

‘Where?’

‘In the park riding the other day. She barely talked to me.’

‘That is because she is formidable and scary and so are all her friends. So be warned, while she is undeniably beautiful, she also finds people’s weaknesses and uses them to her full advantage. Word has it she wants Lord Montcliffe back and will do anything to achieve her goal, so don’t be fooled. Beneath her pale and refined appearance lies a character of pure steel.’

‘She would not have been pleased to see our marriage notice in the paper, then?’

‘Indeed. It is a wonder Lady Mackay has not been around here already saying all that she imagines you would want to hear whilst searching around for the secrets that you don’t want revealed.’

Gerald Whitely.

The thought struck Amethyst with a blinding ferocity. How easy would it be for her to find out about him? A cloud of worry descended, though when Christine brought forth a folded cloth threaded with glass-headed pins, she decided not to think about her many problems.

Gerald belonged in the past and that is where she wished for him to stay. Nobody in the ton had the slightest idea of who the Camerons were and where they had come from. She would tell Daniel, of course, about her first husband and a few of her reasons for being most grateful when he had died, but that was all.

Perhaps she could have a conversation with him about it all at the ball on Saturday. If she asked the Earl to take her home afterwards that might give her a moment of privacy to try to make him understand the nature of her past.

When Christine indicated that she had finished attaching the band of cloth to her gown Amy turned to the mirror and was astonished. The gold in the silken cloth brought out the colour in her eyes and her hair and made her complexion appear almost flawless.

‘I cannot believe that this is me.’

‘It will be even better on Saturday,’ her new friend returned, ‘because I will put your hair up like this and fashion it with flowers.’

Clever fingers arranged the curls in a way that gave the impression of far more hair than she had and Amethyst smiled.

‘See,’ Christine exclaimed. ‘With a simple smile everything comes together in exactly the way that it should.’

* * *

On the evening of the Herringworth ball Daniel Wylde and Lucien Howard waited in the salon downstairs with Robert Cameron.

‘My daughter will be down presently. Your sister, Lord Ross, is helping her to dress as we speak and I have been banned from going anywhere near the upstairs bed chambers.’

Looking at a clock on the opposite wall, Daniel nodded. It was still considered early in society terms and so they had all the time in the world to wait. Besides the brandy that Robert had plied them with upon their arrival was both smooth and rich.

He wondered as he took the first sip whether he should have asked his sister Gwen to help Christine with Amethyst’s preparation for the ball, but dismissed the thought as most unworkable. Perhaps after the wedding he could make certain that both Gwen and Caroline spent more time with them at either Montcliffe Manor or Dunstan House in the hope that his mother’s influence over the young girls might lessen. He envied Lucien for the smooth ease of the Howard family dynamics, in spite of Lucien’s contrary grandfather.

‘I have not known Amethyst to take quite this much trouble with her appearance before.’ Robert Cameron was peering at the clock.

‘It will be the influence of my sister, Mr Cameron, for she is meticulous in her observation of detail. Your daughter will not have a chance to take breath once Christine hits her stride.’

‘Well, people and things have been coming and going all day, my lords. Let us pray she won’t be disappointed with the outcome for her hair is still so...’ He stopped and fidgeted with the brandy bottle, seeming uncertain in the present company as to whether he should go on or not.

‘Short.’ Daniel finished the sentence off. ‘She told me of it whilst we were riding in the park the other day.’

Robert Cameron smiled and leant back in his chair. He was still far too thin, but he looked healthier and more relaxed. ‘Then that is a relief to hear, for I doubt my daughter has confided in anybody else and sometimes I wish she would.’

‘You have no other relatives at all?’

‘None. I was an only child and so was Susannah.’

Daniel thought for a moment how freeing that must be in the light of all the difficulties with his mother. Lucien’s frown had deepened, though. The Howards had generally always been a close-knit family and he was probably wondering at how the Camerons could have been so isolated. Robert, however, was expounding on their aloneness in a voice that sounded worried.

‘The business has taken much of our time, you see, but in the past week I have sold a great deal of it off to a competitor who has always expressed an interest in buying it. I hope now that Dunstan House might be my principal place of residence, a quieter life with the horses, you understand. A home where we might become part of a community.’

Their conversation was interrupted by a butler who appeared at the door. ‘Miss Cameron and Lady Christine have instructed me to tell you that they are ready, sir.’

The rustle of silk was followed by small steps on the marble floor and then his wife-to-be was before him. Daniel could barely recognise her.

Gone was the dull brown lustreless wig, replaced by light blonde curls tucked up into a band of small yellow roses, the honey, straw and gold of her tresses making her dark eyes and eyebrows stand out in a way they had not before. In the light of the candles her skin looked transparent, the previously sallow tone of her skin transformed now into almost alabaster.

Daniel found himself on his feet, speechless at the transformation. Her golden gown clung, too, displaying the curves only hinted at in the shapeless clothes she normally favoured. She filled out the bodice of her dress admirably though her waist was tiny. When she saw where he looked she began to speak immediately.

‘Christine assures me that this neckline is most tasteful and not at all racy and that other women wear far more revealing outfits.’ Her fingers tugged at the darker shade of material that swathed the bodice. Gloves, the lightest of gossamer lace, barely covered the glow of her skin.

‘You look...different.’ He hardly recognised his own voice as the dimples marking her cheeks deepened, her bones elegant and sculpted in the light. Her lips were painted with a quiet pink and it emphasised the fullness of them. He could barely breathe properly with the transformation.

Palms open, she gestured to the dress. ‘This is the result of hours and hours of work on Christine’s behalf, I am afraid, my lord. Tomorrow I shall be just as I was.’

But for Daniel time seemed to stand still, caught in astonishment and trepidation. Before Amethyst Cameron might have been largely invisible in a society ballroom, but now...now the knives could be out and sharper than they might otherwise have been.

When he glanced across he could see the same sort of astonishment on Lucien’s face that must have been evident upon his own. Christine simply looked as though she might laugh out loud.

God, he wished they did not have to go out at all, society and its expectations bearing down upon them with all its infatuation with beauty and grace. Her father was watching him too, eyes keen and his smile broad, giving Daniel the impression that he had known all along how truly lovely his daughter was.

‘I think we should ask Lady Christine to help again in the preparation for the wedding day, my dear. You have not looked so pretty in an age and I want a full report tomorrow on all the happenings at the ball,’ Robert said.

Only pretty? Daniel swallowed the words back and looked over at Lucien. There was a definite challenge in his green eyes.

‘I am more than certain tonight shall prove a most interesting experience, Mr Cameron.’ Lucien’s drawl was slow and languid.

* * *

‘Lord Montcliffe, Miss Amethyst Cameron, Lord Ross and Lady Christine Howard.’

As their names rang out across the ballroom the conversations filling the generous space quietened and heads turned their way.

This was exactly what Amethyst had been dreading, this exposure coupled with a public knowledge that she was from the lowly echelons of trade. She held in her breath and wondered if she might ever release it.

‘I always pretend there is a field of grass before me at this moment,’ Christine trilled, ‘and that the colourful gowns are flowers. And I never look anyone in the eye.’

Despite her trepidation Amethyst smiled and the awful horror of being so very visible faded into something she was more able to cope with. Daniel did not look even vaguely nonplussed by all the attention. Rather he seemed almost bored, an Earl who had graced countless ballrooms and endless society functions just like this.

His world, Amethyst thought. His heritage. Today he wore a large ring on the first finger of his left hand. She had not noticed him sport any jewellery before and this one was substantial— the crest impaled with a lion in red on one half and a series of white crosses in gold on the other. The family badges of a noble birth passed down from father to son. Just another small token of an exalted lineage and a further example of how unsuitably matched they were.

She had decided in the end not to wear any jewellery at all, letting the golden gown speak for itself with its intricate folds and detailing, but in this room with all the glamour of the ton she wondered if such lack was a mistake. Here, she felt out of place, the lessons from Gaskell Street leaving her totally unprepared for such opulence. She wanted to take Daniel’s hand and hold it close, an anchor in a world that was foreign and a man who could easily overcome any difficulties. But she did not, of course, for he had moved away slightly, making no attempt to claim her.

As they came to the group of people standing at the bottom of the steps she smiled politely and waited for Daniel to speak.

‘When did you get back, Francis?’ he asked one of the men.

‘This afternoon.’

‘And your cousin?’

‘Was long gone and had left no word of her return.’ His eyes flicked towards Amethyst, the startling depths of hazel guarded and questioning. ‘The ton is abuzz with your news, Montcliffe. Rather hasty, I might add, given that when I saw you last week you made no mention of a would-be wife.’

Lucien laughed. ‘The call of rich and beautiful is a strong one, Francis, as I am sure you must appreciate. Were you not on exactly the same mission in Bath?’

The words were both familiar and strange to Amethyst. Lord Ross could hardly think her beautiful, but she was rich. And was this Francis trying to find his own wealthy intended?

Of a sudden the hazel eyes of the stranger softened and he bowed his head towards her.

A mark of war lashed the newcomer’s left cheek in one cruel and unbroken line, leaving her to wonder at the pain that such a wound must have inflicted. If he noticed her looking, he made no reaction to show that he cared.

‘We were all at school together and followed each other to the battlefields,’ Daniel explained. ‘Overfamiliarity sometimes breeds a contempt of manners, but I am certain my friend will remember his soon.’

This time a true smile creased the ruined face. ‘I beg your pardon for my rudeness, Miss Cameron. My name is Lord Francis St Cartmail, Earl of Douglas, and I am more than interested to know if you have sisters?’

‘I have already explored that avenue, Francis,’ Christine quickly informed him. ‘For my brother, you understand. But sadly she is an only child.’

‘Then we still have to find our own fortunes, Luce.’

Laughter ensued, mirth that was neither embarrassed nor apologetic. The sort of laughter that told Amethyst these were friends who were in it for the long haul, thick or thin, good or bad. And it seemed that each warrior before her was also facing financial ruin.

The war, she wondered, or the war wounds? It cannot have been easy for them to come back into the glittering perfection of the ton from the hell of a Peninsular Campaign. Who would understand what they had been through and what they had seen, save for those who had returned with them. Forging bonds, closing the ranks. There was an ease in shared sorrow.

Compared to these three, the other men here looked effeminate and affected. She also saw the interest of many of the ladies in the assembly stray in their direction, some glances hopeful and shy whilst others were more bold and direct. When Daniel’s arm unexpectedly touched hers she looked down, his large fingers encased in a glove, the fabric of his jacket contrasting against her shimmering gown. A connection, amidst all the movement and chatter, the spark of a vibrating energy running into her fingers. Almost burning.

He must have felt it too because he pulled away, the contact lost, but not before she saw shock in his eyes.

A waltz began to be played by a string quartet stationed at the head of the room. A Viennese waltz played quickly. She had danced to this in her room in Mayfair as a practice. Back-two-three. Back-two-three. Her heart raced even faster when Daniel turned and asked her to dance.

* * *

Daniel found it difficult to know exactly what to make of Miss Amethyst Cameron as she came into his arms, her wheat-gold curls piled beneath yellow rosebuds and the gown of a darker hue sending the shade of her eyes to a burnished velvet.

She did not look as if she belonged here amidst the ton and the ballroom and the vacuous pursuits of those with little else save social soirées to occupy their time. She was so much more than that—an interloper who would bide here for a while just to watch it all.

It was the strength in her that made the others look weaker, he decided, for women who needed men to survive had a certain brittle incompetence that was shown up by Amethyst’s independence. His arms tightened about her.

‘Thank you for coming.’

‘You thought I might not?’

He smiled and led her into the dance. ‘I watched you practising the waltz the other night from the street. Your shadow had fallen against the curtain.’

Her breath stilled, puzzlement making her pull back a little. ‘Why were you there?’

‘I was walking. I walk sometimes when I cannot sleep and when the sense of life is questionable. My wanderings brought me to Grosvenor Square.’

‘Then, given our unusual marriage contract, you must have found yourself exercising a lot of late, my lord. I might add that practice does not make one perfect so I hope my lack of prowess as a dancer doesn’t disappoint you.’

The imbalance was back, clawing into reason, her eyes full of laughter tonight and as close as they had been when he’d kissed her. He wanted to again. God, how he wanted to.

‘This marriage is not all about the money, Miss Cameron. Your father’s offer was unexpected and generous, but...’ He stopped and looked away.

‘You did not have to take it?’

Shaking his head, he brought her closer, but wrapped together in the arms of a crowded room there was so little space to be honest.

He liked the way she smelt and felt, he liked how her head fitted just beneath his chin and how the warmth of her skin came through the gossamer lace of her gloves.

Perfect.

Hell, he was turning into a man he did not recognise, the soldier in him submerged beneath another force. He could feel her breath against his throat, too, and the small intimacy held him in thrall.

‘Your hair looks nice.’ He could have phrased it better, he supposed, could have talked of the colour or the curl or the way it matched her skin, could have used the flowery words that women were supposed to like. But she answered before he could dredge up more.

‘Christine hid the shortness in the flowers.’ Her eyes met his own. ‘It must be exhausting to be a constant part of an assembly such as this, my lord? So much attention upon us and so much expectation.’