Page 45 of Irish Rose
“You’ve had it on for an hour. Haven’t you looked?”
“No.” It was foolish to cry now, but she felt the tears sting her eyes. “Thank you.” She was grateful the music stopped while she still had control. “I’ll be back in just a minute.”
“You’d better be. I’ll be damned if I’ll deal with this crowd alone.”
She tucked her thumb into her fist so that she could run it along the ring as she hurried upstairs. She just needed a minute, Erin told herself. To compose, to adjust, to believe.
Stepping inside the bedroom, she leaned back against the door and caught her breath. Tonight, she thought, this would be her room, just as Burke would be—was—her husband. She would sleep in this bed, wake in it, tidy the sheets, fuss with the curtains. And one day it would become usual.
No, she thought with a laugh, and hugged herself. It would never become usual. She wouldn’t let it. From this day on her life would be special. Because she loved and belonged.
Touching her cheeks to be certain they were cool and dry, she started to open the door. A trio of women were passing on their way downstairs.
“Why, for his money, of course.” This from a woman Erin recognized from Adelia’s party, one with beautiful white hair and a watered-silk suit. “After all, she hardly knew the man. Why else would she marry him? You don’t think she came all the way from Ireland to settle for keeping his books.”
“It seems strange that Burke would marry her, a nobody, when he could have had his pick of some of the most acceptable women in the area.” The leggy blonde from the party fussed with the snap of her purse.
“I thought they made a lovely couple.” The third woman merely shrugged as the white-haired matron looked down her nose. “Really, Dorothy, a man hardly marries without reason.”
“No doubt she’s got a few tricks up her sleeve. It’s one thing to get a man into bed, after all, and another to get him to the altar. Men are charmed easily enough, and bore just as easily. I imagine he’ll be finished with her in a year. If she’s as smart as I think she is, she’ll tuck away a nice settlement—starting with that ring he gave her. Ordered it from Cartier’s, you know. Ten thousand. Not a bad start for a little farm girl from nowhere.”
The blonde fussed with her hair as they approached the head of the stairs. “It should be interesting to see her struggle to climb the social ladder in the next few months.”
“She’s not one of us,” the white-haired woman announced with a flick of the wrist.
Erin stood with her hand on the knob and watched them descend the stairs. Not one of them? Through the first shock came the tremble of anger. Well, damned if she wanted to be. They were nothing but a bunch of gossiping old broody hens with nothing better to do than make cruel remarks and speculate on the feelings of others.
For his money? Did everyone really believe she’d married Burke for his money? Did he? she wondered with a sudden and very new shock. Anger drained as she let her hand slip off the knob. Oh, sweet God, did he? Was that what he’d meant when he’d said he could give her what she wanted?
She put her hands to her cheeks again, but they were no longer cool. Could he believe that her feelings were tied up in what he had instead of what he was? She hadn’t done anything to show him otherwise, Erin realized with a sinking heart.
But she would. Lifting her head, she started out of the room. She would show him, she would prove to him that it was the man she had married, not his fine house or his rich farm. And to hell with the rest of them.
When she descended the steps this time, she didn’t look like the pale, innocent bride. Her color was high, her eyes dark. She might not be one of them, she thought, but she would find a way to fit in. She would make Burke proud of her. Forcing a smile, she walked directly to the woman in watered silk.
“I’m so glad you could come today.”
The woman gave Erin a gracious nod as she sipped champagne. “Wouldn’t have missed it, my dear. You do make a lovely bride.”
“Thank you. But a woman’s only a bride for a day, and a wife for a lifetime. If you’ll excuse me.” She crossed the room, her dress billowing magnificently. Though Burke was surrounded, she moved directly to him and, putting her arms around him, kissed him until the people around them began to murmur and chuckle. “I love you, Burke,” she said simply, “and I always will.”
He hadn’t known he could be moved by words, at least not such well-used ones. But he felt something shift inside him as she smiled. “Is that a conclusion you just came to?”
“No, but I thought it past time I told you.”
He thought he’d never nudge the last guest out the door. No one loved a party and free champagne like the privileged class.
Erin stood in the center of the atrium with her hands clasped together. “It’s going to take an army to put this place to rights.”
“No one’s walking through that door for twenty-four hours.”
She smiled, but the fatigue and nerves were beginning to show. “I should go up and change.”
“In a minute.” Before she could move, he took both her hands. “I should have told you how beautiful you are. I can’t remember ever being as nervous as I was when I stood down here waiting for you.”
“Were you?” Her smile came fully now as she pressed against him. “Oh, I was scared to death. I nearly picked up my skirts and bolted.”
“I’d have caught you.”
