Page 14 of Spellbound
Perhaps, she thought, Amarantha had been correct and she would be the one to break the curse. By marrying for convenience and the protection of her already tenuous reputation, she was diverging from all that gone before her.
“That is the answer,” she whispered. “That is how he will be spared. I will simply not love him. And I will not let him love me. Help me, Amarantha, help me to be strong when I am tempted to give in to such tender feelings. Help me.”
After a long moment, staring out her window at the still darkened sky, she turned away and found Eugenie standing in the doorway. Over her arm, she had draped a far too fashionable gown in claret silk. “No. Absolutely not. I will not take your charity.”
“It isn’t charity,” she said. “It’s your something borrowed. You will wear it for your wedding, you will return it when you can. And you will be the most beautiful of brides.”
She wanted that. She wanted to look beautiful and to feel, at least for that moment, that she was just like any other bride, even if the marriage to come was far from traditional. “Thank you, Genie. Thank you for being such a dear, dear friend despite the risk it poses to you.”
“And what risk does your relationship with Mr. Crane pose? Because his injury was not the result of an accident… What happened?”
“I cannot tell you. It’s all still a bit murky for him, his memory of the event is not entirely clear… but it is clear enough to know that Reverend Stalker was behind it. I fear that his contempt for me has progressed into true hatred. Dangerous hatred. And now violence.”
“You think the vicar attacked him?”
“We were together,” Bella explained. “He had asked me to take a walk with him. Instead, I invited him to walk with me. My plan had been to extinguish his interest in me by making him pick stinkhorn mushrooms.”
Eugenie’s eyes widened, then she burst out laughing. “You are quite devious, Belladonna! Heavens, that was a clever bit of strategy. Although it appears to have been a doomed effort.”
Bella grinned ruefully. “So it was. He’s very determined and very persuasive.”
“I imagine he would be. Handsome men typically are, and he is a rather exceptional specimen.”
“Genie!”
“I do miss my husband, Bella, but that doesn’t mean I’m blind. As to that, I’m hardly a maternal figure, but if you have questions about what will happen on your wedding night, I will muddle through my mortification to answer them.”
Bella crossed the room and took Genie’s hands in hers. “No. I do not have any questions. I’ve had a much more complete and likely scandalous education than most young ladies… Amarantha did not believe that ignorance was a necessity for virtue.”
Genie breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank heavens for that. Let me help you into this dress then we’ll do something with your hair. I’d like for him to be completely stunned when he sees you today. Not that he wasn’t stunned the first moment he saw you.”
Suspicion reared its head again. “You planned this.”
“No. I hoped,” she said. “I created an opportunity and I hoped that the pair of you would act accordingly. And you have. Matchmaking isn’t always being meddlesome. Sometimes it’s just standing back and allowing people to find their way.”
FOURTEEN
It was astonishing how much one’s condition could improve in the span of twenty four hours. How much of that was due to the natural process of healing and how much of it was due to the remedy that Belladonna had left for him to take was something he could not say. Whatever the foul smelling concoction contained, it had certainly eased the terrible pain in his head.
Now, in his landau, he traveled to Mrs. Frye’s home to collect his bride to be. He was more eager than he cared to admit. Certainly he was more eager than Belladonna would welcome. He wasn’t certain of the source of her reticence, but it was quite obvious to him that there was something holding her back. There was something that she feared. Until he figured out precisely what that was, then there would be no chance for them to take this strange arrangement and transform it into a real marriage—something that would be fulfilling and lasting.
The carriage slowed as it turned onto the narrow lane that led to Mrs. Frye’s front door. When it finally halted, he climbed out, leaving the driver to wait with the vehicle while he collected Belladonna. But it wasn’t Belladonna or even Millworthy, Mrs. Frye’s trusty servant, who opened the door. It was Mrs. Frye herself.
“Mr. Crane, you are remarkably prompt. Belladonna is nearly ready. She should be down shortly. Won’t you join me in the drawing room until then?”
“Certainly, Mrs. Frye. I’d be delighted for a bit of company while I wait.” He wasn’t actually. He was fairly certain that he was about to be interrogated.
“Would you care for some tea?” She asked, her tone perfectly cordial. It was the gleam in her eyes that told a very different tale.
“No. I think not. I rather imagine it would get in the way of answering all the questions I am certain you mean to ask,” he replied.
Her lips curvedin a bemused smile. “I do like you, Mr. Crane. Make no mistake about that. If I hadn’t had a feeling about you from the start, I would never have arranged that little gathering here a few days ago. Mind you, I hadn’t thought things would progress quite so quickly. I do have concerns. As anyone would. Belladonna is very dear to me.”
“I can only imagine. She is quite dear to me already. While the events are unfolding at a rather brisk pace, have no doubt, Mrs. Frye, that the appropriate sentiments are behind them all. I am not only marrying Belladonna because of the compromising situation we found ourselves in. In truth, I had proposed to her before you and my sister had arrived. I’ve never known anyone like her. I am nearly forty years old and I have, in all those years, never encountered anyone even remotely as remarkable as she is.”
Mrs. Frye’s expression never wavered, but a certain hardness entered her eyes. “Because of her unique abilities?”
“No. Not in the least. Because her very presence soothes my soul. That is the only thing that matters.”
