Page 40 of Midnight Rider

“Bad luck,” she said after a minute, “for you to see me in my gown...before we’re married.”

“So they all say,” he agreed. “I’m not superstitious. Nor should you be. Breathe slowly.”

Bernadette thought how handsome he looked in his morning coat; he was the very picture of sartorial elegance. The white shirt complemented his dark complexion and made his black eyes even more brilliant.

“You look so nice,” she said.

He smiled. “And you do, too.” He pursed his lips as he studied the amazing detail of the dress. “The gown is exquisite. From Paris?”

“Why, no,” she replied and smiled gently. “From Madrid.”

He was surprised.

“It was a model, from a new Spanish designer. I fell in love with it in the shop and had to have it.”

“It suits your fairness.”

“Thank you.” She sat up slowly, able to breathe a little more easily. “There. I’m better. I feel a little light-headed, but that’s all.”

He chuckled. “I will hold you up, if necessary.”

She smiled at him, thinking about the wonderful life they were going to share as she let him help her to her feet.

Holding her gaze intently, he lowered the thin veil over her face. “The next time I look upon you,” he said softly, “it will be when I lift this veil, and see you for the first time as my wife.”

“I can hardly wait,” she said huskily.

“Nor can I.” He lifted her soft hand to his mouth and kissed it just above the knuckles. “Now, let us leave quickly, before any other misfortunes disrupt our plans!”

He hustled her out the door, past his stunned grandmother and cousin, and down the long staircase.

“You have broken tradition,” thecondessagrumbled as she followed along behind them. “It is bad luck for a man to see his bride in her finery!”

He turned and looked first at thecondessaand then, angrily, at a subdued Lupe. “It is worse luck for the bride not to be able to appear at the ceremony. I told you,” he chastised Lupe, “that heavy perfume would bring on an attack, did I not?”

Lupe clasped her hands tightly and tried to look dignified. “I forgot. I apologize most humbly.”

“I think it would be best for you to start thinking about your return journey to Spain,” he said unexpectedly. “I am certain,” he added with a smooth smile, “that you would not want to impose upon a newly married couple.”

Lupe went pale. Thecondessaactually gasped. “Eduardo, you forget to whom you speak!” she snapped with curt authority. “This American woman has bewitched you, that you would speak so rudely to a member of your own family!”

“Bernadette is more saint than witch. She will shortly be my wife,” he added in a soft but menacing tone. “And I will expect her to be treated by my family with the courtesy that is her due. Come, Bernadette.”

He escorted her outside to the waiting carriage. The patient driver inquired sincerely about her health, having been told the reason for the delay, and helped her into the carriage with Lupe and thecondessa.Eduardo was to follow in another carriage, a separation that made Bernadette uneasy. Lupe was still saturated with perfume.

The door closed and the carriage began to move. The gloves came off at once. Thecondessagave Bernadette a glare that would have felled a lesser woman.

“Of all the nonsense!” she exclaimed angrily. “That you should be the cause of such shame to Lupe!”

Bernadette, feeling much better from the effects of the medicine, smiled coldly at the old woman. “You may think that I am entirely ignorant of your mischief, but I am not quite so thick. You have done nothing for weeks but try to stop my marriage to Eduardo. You have schemed and plotted and behaved like a minion of the devil in pursuit of your own goals! You are a vicious and manipulative old woman who wants to order the lives of everyone around you. And you,” she added, turning to Lupe as thecondessaall but choked on her tongue, “are a rattlesnake masquerading as a woman! You knew that perfume would hurt my lungs, and you wore it deliberately. You are no better than that black scorpion beside you! Neither of you has any right whatsoever to treat Eduardo like a child to be pushed into marriage with a candidate of your choosing! He is a fine and honorable man! What a pity the same cannot be said for his family!”

“You brazen hussy!” thecondessacried in a high-pitched tone. “All of the county knows that you were out in the desert alone all night with my grandson! The servants whisper of it, they gossip! Your good reputation is ruined, and that is the only reason he is marrying you!”

Bernadette lifted her chin proudly, although the insult had made her cheeks pale. “Nothing happened in the desert that night that I would be ashamed for people to know about,” she lied convincingly. “But it is not for that reason that Eduardo is marrying me,señora.He needs a substantial loan to repair the damage his mother did to the ranch, to keep it solvent. My father is the only hope he has of getting it.”

Thecondessawas taken aback. “My grandson could come to me if he needed money,” she snapped.

“He could. But why would he, when you would surely insist that he marry the pit viper beside you in order to acquire it?”

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