“Best to hope Jeremy Carstairs remains a gentleman,” Allegra laughed. “You make yourself sound soworldly-wise, Sirena, but you were as big a virgin then as I am now.”
Sirena nodded. “Of course I was,” she agreed with a smile. “I love Ocky so much that I could not deceive him that way, and I didn’t.”
“What is it like to bein love?” Allegra asked her cousin.
“Are you in love with the duke?” came the question.
“I don’t know,” Allegra said. “I like him except when he becomes pompous; and I actually find that I miss him now that I am back at Morgan’s Court. I have never thought I should fall in love, whatever that may be, but I should like to know what it is like. It would seem to me that the emotion called love isn’t very practicable, or particularly sensible. I shall not expound my views as you have heard them often enough, but I am still curious.”
“Love,” Sirena said slowly, “is caring for someone even more than you care for yourself. It is wanting that person happy. It is the ability to give of yourself totally without losing yourself. I don’t know if that makes any sense to you, Allegra, but it is the best explanation I can give you.”
“I understand, or I think I do, and yet I don’t,” came the reply. “Perhaps it is better that I remain in ignorance. The duke feels as I do, and does not love me, nor will he ever love me.”
“And yet you will marry him,” Sirena said sadly.
“He is handsome and charming,” Allegra said. “He respects me, and will make an excellent mate, Sirena.”
“And you can give yourself body and soul to him without love?” It seemed so cold, and yet she well knew that most marriages among those of their class were made for reasons other than love. She loved Allegra.She wanted her to have the happiness that she now possessed.
“Oh, Sirena,” Allegra comforted her cousin. “I am content with everything. Quinton is kind. Hunter’s Lair is beautiful. What more is there to life than that?”
“I suppose you are right, Allegra, even if it troubles me,” Sirena said, and she gave her cousin a little smile.
“You were ever the romantic, Sirena dearest,” Allegra teased.
“And you were ever the sensible one,” Sirena replied.
“Madame Paul will be here tomorrow,” Allegra said. “Your gown is to be pale blue to match your eyes, and my wedding dress will be white and silver lace. I can hardly wait to see it!”
“You always loved new clothes,” Sirena laughed. “I vow you will leave instructions about what to bury yourself in one day.”
“I certainly will!” Allegra agreed, and then she laughed, too. “Can you imagine us as old ladies, Sirena? You will still be the romantic, I suspect, and I shall be quite crotchety, waving my cane about.”
“What cane?”
“The one with the silver dragon’s head I intend having when I am a dowager. It will be polished black ebony with its silver dragon. Perhaps I shall have a whole dragon, and not just its head. Its silver body and tail could curl about my walking stick. I shall wave it at everyone who displeases me.”
Sirena laughed harder. “Ohh, Allegra,” she said, “you can be so amusing when you choose to be.”
“I am quite serious, cousin,” came the answer.
“You wouldn’t wave that cane at the duke, would you?” she asked, her blue eyes twinkling mischievously.
“Particularly at the duke,” Allegra said. “He can bevery aggravating at times. But on the whole he has been quite nice to me.”
“All husbands can be difficult on occasion,” Sirena said.
“You speak with such authority,” Allegra teased her.
“Well I have been married almost four months,” Sirena replied.
It was as if they had never been apart. The next few weeks sped by. Madame Paul arrived with her assistant, Mademoiselle Francine, to do the final fittings for the wedding. She clucked with disapproval when she found Allegra had lost almost a full inch in her waistline. She purred with pleasure that Sirena, despite her delicate condition, fit perfectly into her gown.
“Another month, however,chérie,” she told Viscountess Pickford, “and it would be another story, I fear.”
Three days before the wedding Viscount Pickford arrived with the duke to escort the bride and her family back to Hunter’s Lair. Allegra found her heart beating a bit faster at just the sight of Quinton Hunter. Still, they greeted each other with restraint; she curtseying, he bowing and kissing her hand.
“What is the matter with them?” Sirena whispered to her husband.
