Page 25 of Midnight Rider

“It’s white,” she told him. “With pink silk roses and tiny blue bows.”

“How very appropriate,” he murmured. “The Ramirez betrothal bracelet is emerald-studded gold. And the ring is a single emerald stone, very old. I will give them to you tonight, at the ball.” He lifted her small hand in his and brought it softly to his mouth, kissing it warmly. “Until later,querida.”

CHAPTER SIX

WITHMATCHINGEXPRESSIONS,Bernadette and her father watched Eduardo ride off. Neither spoke for a minute.

“I thought he wanted nothing to do with marriage to you,” Colston said stiffly.

She smiled to herself. “So did I.” She turned and stared at her father curiously. “He thought you’d decided he wasn’t good enough for me.”

“No!” he burst out, horrified. “Surely not!”

She relented when she saw the worry on his face. “It’s all right, Father. I told him that you never thought any such thing, and that you had a high regard for him.”

“Sure and that’s a relief,” he said, dragging out a handkerchief to wipe his sweaty brow. He glanced at his daughter. “He stayed away. I thought he was telling us in a nice way that he’d changed his mind about you.”

“Eduardo would never have done it in that way,” she said, mildly surprised. “He’d have come to you and told you if he had changed his mind.”

“I suppose he would, at that.” He put his hands behind him and clasped them as they walked. “How did the talk of marriage come about, then?”

“We were talking about the foreign visitors. He was angry that I ran away,” she added without saying why. “He said that if I have to marry a title, it can be his. He needs a loan and you need a titled son-in-law. This way, you both get what you want.”

His small eyes narrowed. “So we would. But what do you get out of it?” he asked suspiciously.

“What I want most in the world,” she said simply.

“And that is...?”

“Eduardo,” she replied with soft dignity. She turned toward the house.

He actually chuckled. “Whist, and isn’t that a story, when you’ve been like worst enemies for years! What happened out there?” he asked after a minute.

“Nothing very dramatic, I’m afraid,” she lied with a straight face. “He saved me from freezing. Maybe from dying. It was very cold and I hadn’t packed enough blankets.” She laughed. “He brought some.” She didn’t add that they’d shared them.

He looked different, almost guilty, and he wouldn’t meet her eyes. “Herr Branner and Signore Maretti left for the train depot shortly after you ran for the hills.” He stiffened a little. “I very much regret Herr Branner’s behavior. But he did seem interested in you, and Eduardo didn’t. But as God is my witness, girl, I never expected you to do something that dangerous and foolish.” He glanced at her and away again. “I hope you know that I’d much rather have Eduardo for a son-in-law. I respect him. He was rather formidable when he came to your rescue.” His features brightened. “By heaven, he was.” He chuckled, lapsing back into the familiar brogue. “Bristling with fury, and steam coming from his ears, he was. I never expected him to blow up like that on your behalf, girl. I suppose it’s not just my money that he wants, after all.”

She smiled shyly. “I think he does like me...a little. It’s no love match, as he says, but we have things in common.” Her gaze fell to the ground. “We’ll get by.”

Her father shortened his strides and sighed. “I know it isn’t precisely what you want, girl, a loveless match. But sometimes we have to settle for what we can get. Not all of us are lucky enough to find a love like I had with your mother.”

His face hardened as he said it, and Bernadette knew that the truce was over. She lifted her long skirts and, calling a brief goodbye, lit out for the kitchen and the safety of Maria’s company.

Maria was over the moon about the news.

“Oh, so furious, wasel conde,” she enthused as she cleared a space on the table for the platter of meat she’d just cooked. “He stalked in here after he spoke with your father and the foreign gentlemen and when he saw that nothing was left from our meal, he said that he would go to town and get food to carry with him, because he knew you would be as hungry as you would be cold.”

“I was, despite what I took with me,” Bernadette said. She blushed. “I didn’t mean to cause so much trouble. I was very upset.”

“And so wasel conde,” Maria added with a grin that showed her perfect white teeth. “Then, when you did not come home all night,” she added, “your father became very stiff and worried.” She shrugged. “I, of course, knew that the proprieties would be observed, whatever the situation.El condeis a gentleman, a man of quality. He would do nothing to stain your reputation.”

“He didn’t,” she agreed. “But it wouldn’t do for anyone to know that we were alone last night, so he is telling everyone that he took me to his home to stay with a cousin of his with whom I am friendly. This morning he brought me home.”

Maria grinned. “A lovely tale. And of course, no one will doubt it!”

* * *

SOMUCHFORTHATOPTIMISM,Bernadette thought later, when she was standing at the doorway of the ballroom in her lovely new dress and dozens of shrewd eyes watched her with suspicion and faint contempt.

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