Page 125 of Bride By Mistake
“Nell?” She knew who Nell was; the wife of one of Luke’s closest friends, Harry. But her lack of dress wasn’t really the problem. It was a useful excuse, that was all.
Bad enough to be shabbily dressed in the heart of fashionable London, but on top of it all, Bella was as nervous as a mouse about meeting Luke’s friends and family en masse.
The foreign girl who trapped their darling into an unwanted marriage. The shabby foreign girl. But Luke was oblivious.
“Nell and Harry will be staying at Lady Gosforth’s. You’ll like Lady Gosforth. A right old tartar, but underneath she’s got a heart of gold.” Before Bella could say a word, Luke stuck his head out of the window and shouted directions to the postilion.
“How do you know this Nell would be willing to lend me a dress?”
He snorted as if the idea of Nell’s refusing was ridiculous. “Nell’s more your style, too. She’s an elegant little thing. You’ll like Nell. She’s like you, a horsewoman to the fingertips.” He sat back and then gave a crack of laughter.
“What?”
“I can’t wait for my friends to meet you.”
“Why?” she asked suspiciously.
“I told them to expect a demure and obedient little convent girl, someone who’d been patiently sewing samplers all these years.”
She snorted.
He laughed again. “Exactly! They’re going toloveyou.”
She smiled and gazed out of the window. Of course it would be nice if his friends loved her, but she really didn’t care. There was only one man she wanted to love her, and he was oblivious.
They reached Lady Gosforth’s town house, but to Luke’s dismay they found that Nell, Harry, and Lady Gosforth had already left for the pre-ball dinner. Even Lady Gosforth’s dresser had gone out for the evening.
“However, Cooper, Lady Nell’s own maid, is upstairs, Lord Ripton,” Lady Gosforth’s butler said. “Would you like me to summon her?”
“The very thing, Sprotton. Fetch her down at once,” Luke said, and in a short time a pretty, young, smartly dressed maidservant appeared.
Luke explained what was wanted. Cooper looked at Bella and her eyes lit. “Oh, sir, I think I have the very thing. And no, miss, I mean m’lady, Lady Nell wouldn’t mind a bit. In fact when we got the dress home, we decided the color wasn’t quite right on her. It’ll be perfect for you, miss, trust me.” She ushered Bella upstairs and Luke went around the corner to his lodgings to change.
In thirty minutes, Cooper did what Luke had failed to do in several weeks of marriage: convinced Bella of the benefits of having a good maid.
Bella stared at her reflection in the looking glass. “It’s a miracle,” she breathed. If the girls in the convent could only see her now. Less than half an hour, and yet nobody would have guessed that Bella hadn’t spent half the day primping.
Cooper laughed. “No, m’lady, but it’s a fact that this dress suits you better than it ever did Lady Nell.”
“It’s the dress and the magic of Cooper,” Bella insisted. The dress, in green and bronze silk, fitted her perfectly, as did the corset designed for the dress. She didn’t look skinny anymore; she looked… slender. And elegant. Even fashionable. And with a delicious hint of bosom.
Cooper had done something magic with her hair, too, braiding it in an elegant variation of her usual coronet, and weaving in bronze and green and cream ribbons.
A whiff of the hare’s-foot over her complexion, the merest breath of rouge on her cheeks and lips, and Bella barely recognized herself. It was about as far from the way she’d looked when she’d met Luke at the convent as it was possible to be. Thank goodness.
“Now for a shawl,” Cooper said, opening a chest.
“What about this?” Bella produced her cream silk shawl.
“Oh, m’lady, it’s gorgeous,” Cooper breathed. “I’ll just press the wrinkles out of it, and it’ll be perfect.”
“And… pearls?” She took out her mother’s pearls.
“Perfect, m’lady, just perfect. You look an absolute picture, if you don’t mind me saying.”
Bella took a deep breath before she began the descent down the stairs. Dressed like this, she felt up to any gathering of friends and relatives. She hoped Luke approved.
She was a third of the way down when Luke appeared at the foot of the stairs. Bella almost stumbled. He’d always looked handsome, but now, freshly shaved and dressed in full formal evening dress, he looked utterly magnificent.
