Page 201 of Storm of Bells
‘I saidpedigree,’ Mr Ambroseretorted, face as deadpan as a pot at the scrapyard. ‘Averyfine pedigree.’
‘Hm.’ Lady Samantha gave her son a suspiciouslook—however, she wasn’t very particularly practised at suspicion.All too soon, her expression dissolved into undiluted motherly joy,and she rushed forward to hug him.
‘Oh, Rick! Rick, I’m so happy for you! It’sreally happening!’
I leaned over to Mr Ambrose. ‘Now’s yourchance,’ I whispered. ‘Still want to stick her in a suitcase andsend her off to—’
He kicked my shin. And I, lovingly as ever,kicked back.
‘Nnn! Ow!’ Supporting myself against thedoorframe, I smiled over at Lady Samantha. ‘Was there anyparticular reason you came over?’
‘Reason? Reason?’ Laughing like a littlegirl, she nodded and beamed all over her face as a storm of bellsstarted to ring in the distance. Deep, sonorous church bells. ‘Yes,of course there’s a reason, Lilly dear, yes! It’s time!’
Through Thick andThin
It is time.
Time.
For the wedding.
It almost felt like a dream as I strode downthe corridor with my friends fluttering and twittering around me.The wedding. My wedding. To the man I loved.
I wasin lovewith aman!
My oh my, how the worm turns…
The worm, a.k.a. me, was currently squirmingin a little dressing room right next to my bedroom. Luckily, nobodyelse was there to see me. The others had all gone down, needing tocheck something or other I’d been too panicky to listen to. Ididn’t really mind. I needed some time to keep my rivers of sweatfrom flowing. I didn’t know much about wedding fashions, but thesweat-drenched-hag style probably wasn’t very much in vogue.
‘Calm down, Lilly!’ Still breathing hard, Imarched over to the window and pressed my heated face against thecool glass. Cool just like him. ‘Everything is all right!Everything is all right.’
Behind me, the door opened with a click. ‘Iwouldn’t exactly say that,’ came a terribly familiar voice frombehind me.
I whirled around—and there he stood. LordDaniel Eugene Dalgliesh, eyes blazing a dangerous steel-blue.Although his threatening aura was somewhat undercut by the fact hewas wobbling on two crutches.
‘Feeling better, are you?’ I enquiredsweetly.
His eyes narrowed into slits. From any othernoble, I would have taken this as pompous posturing and shrugged itoff. But Lord Dalgliesh was an entirely different matter.
A tiger is most dangerous when it iswounded.
I couldn’t help smiling.
Good thing you have a lion on your side,Lilly.
‘Smile while you can, Miss Linton.’ Hisoh-so-noble face twisted into an ugly sneer. ‘It won’t last forlong.’
I felt my heart rate picking up again—and,this time, not because of wedding jitters.
‘What do you mean?’ I demanded.
Although I had already a pretty goodidea.
‘What do you think?’ Taking a wobbling stepforward, he jabbed a crutch in my direction. ‘Did you reallybelieve you could attack me and get away with it? If you’d been agood little girl and done as I’d said, I might have held back, butnow…’ His crutch thumped down on the floor, hard, making me jump.‘I’ll destroy you. The both of you.’
A cold shiver went down my spine.
So, of course, I instantly raised my chin indefiance! ‘You can’t! You haven’t been able to for years uponyears, so how would you do it now?’
