Beth sat quietly contemplating a tasteful arrangement of delphiniums.What she had long suspected was true. There was only one person in theworld she could meet with on terms of equality and honesty these days. Themarquess.
It should be an excellent basis for marriage, but in fact she feltdreadfully alone.
In time, like a child, Beth was bathed? dried, and perfumed. Her hairwas trimmed and arranged so as to display the tiara to the greatestadvantage. She was then dressed in white satin, with an overdress ofValenciennes gathered into scallops all around the hem and flowing into atrain at the back. She was festooned with the diamonds around her neck andher wrists, a brooch between her breasts, and drops trembling like tearsfrom her earlobes. The beautiful tiara held a filmy veil on her curls.
When she looked at herself she found the usual magic had worked. Likeall brides, she was beautiful. She even looked worthy of the heir to adukedom. She wished she felt anything like she looked.
She was escorted downstairs by the duchess and a cluster of bridesmaidsof good family ? young women she scarcely knew at all. She made her curtsyto the Regent and received his fulsome compliments with admirablecalm.
To orchestral music she walked into the crowded ballroom beside thegargantuan figure. She felt scarcely a twinge of nerves. Dread of thecoming night numbed her to all other problems.
Because of the Regent all the guests paid homage as they passed, adizzying, jewel-encrusted wave rippling the length of the room toward themarquess. And he looked far too magnificent for little Beth Armitage tohandle.
His wedding attire was almost as fine as hers. His knee breeches wereof white satin and his jacket of cream-gold brocade. His buttons werediamonds set in gold, and a magnificent blue diamond shot fire from amongthe folds of his cravat. But he was perhaps more brilliant than hisadornment. His hair was spun gold in the thousand candles, and his eyeswere sapphires. He took her hand from the Prince and kissed it. The warmthlingered there throughout the ceremony.
Beth said her vows firmly, as did the marquess. She wondered if attimes the beautiful words threatened to choke him as they did her. Itseemed almost sacrilegious what they were doing, and yet she knewmarriages based on practicality rather than love were not uncommon.
“With my body I thee worship . . .” That wasn’t what he intended to dowith his body at all, and everyone here knew it. She hoped the horribleLord Deveril was not here to point out again the reality behind theglitter.
Another reception line, and now ? extraordinarily ? she was “my lady.”The Marchioness of Arden. It all seemed laughably unlikely. When she hadtouched hands, it seemed, with the whole world, there was a moment’srespite before the toasts and the dancing. The marquess summoned twoglasses of champagne and drank his as if he needed it. Beth did the same.She was wise enough by now not to gulp it, but she was surprised by howsoon the glass was empty.
When another waiter stopped nearby, she replaced her empty glass andtook a full one. The marquess looked at her in surprise, then took anotherglass himself and raised it. “To marriage,” he said.
Beth raised her glass and threw a challenge. “To equality.”
He sighed. As she drank down that glass, too, he said, “I hope youate.”
“I had a tray in my room,” said Beth with perfect honesty. Sheneglected to tell him she’d hardly been able to force down a scrap. Shetook the indirect warning, however, and resisted the temptation to takeanother glass. She could already feel some effect from the wine, andthough it was pleasant, she didn’t want to overdo things. She imagined thenew marchioness falling flat on her face and giggled.
She heard the marquess give a faint groan. He took her hand. “Comealong. We’re supposed to be at the head of the room for the toasts.”
He led her there in the old style, hand in hand, and the crowd partedbefore them like the Red Sea. There were further murmured congratulationsand the usual wedding asides ? “lovely bride,” “so handsome,” “sofortunate,” “must have cost a fortune.”
“What do you think must have cost a fortune?” she asked him quietly.“My dress or your jacket?”
“Your diamonds,” he said.
“Did they?” she queried, glancing at her glittering bracelet. “PerhapsI should give them to the poor.”
He didn’t react. “I’d only have to buy you another set and another andanother until we were in the back slums ourselves.”
She glanced at him and saw he was, in a sense, serious. The pride ofthe de Vaux demanded that the ladies be festooned with a fortune in gems.“I wonder,” she mused, “how many diamond parures stand between us andpoverty?”
“If you put it to the test we will find out. And I’m glad,” he saidwith a smile, “that you finally feel one of the family.”
Beth felt a chill at how easily that “us” had slipped out. And yet itwas ridiculous to keep fighting against reality.
They had arrived at the dais which had seats for the Regent, the dukeand duchess, and themselves. They took their places as the loyal toastswere made, which meant Beth consumed yet more champagne, When the toastswere to herself she did not drink but found herself increasinglylight-hearted.
By the time the music started for their minueta deuxshe was not at all nervous.
As the first bars played she and the marquess executed full courtobeisance to the Regent. Then they turned to face each other. As shecurtsied to her new husband Beth remembered his warning about this danceand thought it strange. It was certainly interesting to be performingbefore hundreds of people but it was, after all, just a dance.
It was not, after all, just a dance.
Beth had forgotten the intensity of focus of the minueta deux.Monsieur de Lo had been able to stare into her eyesthroughout a performance without disturbing her in the least; now shefound the need to maintain eye contact with the marquess made her heartrace.
The stately movements had them circling one another, shifting andchanging, eddying like leaves on restless water, touching only to spinaway again. And always, his blue eyes speaking secrets into hers. Herbreathing became shallow, her nerves were sensitized so that even theswirl of her silk skirts against her skin sent shivers through her. Whenthey came together, when his fingers took warm grasp of hers, it was as ifthey bonded; when they parted it was as if something whole had been tornapart.
