The Captain's Christmas Bride (22 page)

While they all carried on arguing and struggling, he picked up his telescope.

‘I’m off to London, to make my fortune,’ he declared, tucking the sequinned duck under his arm. When he set off, the tavern wenches, the innkeeper, and his wife all trotted along behind him, making increasingly frantic efforts to get free.

‘I have to say they’re doing this remarkably well,’ her father leaned to murmur in her ear. ‘To look at them, anyone would think they really were caught in some spell and couldn’t break free.’

‘Yes,’ she replied. ‘Especially considering they haven’t rehearsed it. Well, not Uncle Henry and Aunt Constance, anyway.’

‘Hmm...but then the tale of the Golden Goose is pretty well known. And your Aunt Constance has a fondness for charades and such like. Always shines at this sort of thing. But you have to hand it to your husband. The way he is strolling along, all unconcerned, as though he’s barely aware of them...’ He chuckled. ‘Capital entertainment the young ones have got up, this year. Capital.’

Julia’s sense of isolation grew even worse as her father gave his seal of approval to the pantomime which was causing her such anguish. She felt mocked, too, by the servants’ gales of laughter at the sight of their betters apparently helpless under the force of the witch’s spell.

Only her Uncle Algernon appeared to find the whole thing the least bit unsettling.

‘Young man,’ he said, from the chair where he was sitting on the sidelines. ‘Your behaviour is disgraceful. How could you lead these innocent, impressionable girls into such an escapade? Have you no shame? And as for you...’ he turned on Aunt Constance ‘...at your age you ought to know better.’

For one moment, everyone tried to stifle their laughter. Uncle Algernon’s face had gone purple and his jowls were quivering ominously. He had never looked more like a bishop, ranting against the sinfulness of the younger generation than he did in that instant.

‘Leave off cavorting in the streets,’ he bellowed. ‘And return to your home!’

He reached out to seize Aunt Constance, and compel her to do as he bid her. Only some force greater than him appeared to pluck him from his place and join the tail of people magically glued to Alec. The audience laughed even harder than before when they realised that far from condemning the jollity he was, actually, joining in. And Julia finally understood Uncle Maurice’s cryptic remarks about Uncle Algernon, in relation to Nellie’s ability to make a man do anything.

Aunt Joan stood up next, wringing her hands. ‘Have you no thought to your position? What will the archbishop think if he hears you’ve taken part in a silly jest like this? Sit down, sit down!’

‘I only wish I could.’ He panted, pretend-struggling to get free.

‘Of course you could. Stop this play-acting nonsense at once!’

‘If you think I wouldn’t rather be sitting next to you,’ he said as Alec tugged him towards the fireplace, ‘then you are very much mistaken. Instead of acting like a shrew, why don’t you try helping me to get free?’

‘Oh, this is ridiculous,’ she snapped, grabbing his arm as he went past her chair for the second time. And then shrieking as she appeared to get stuck, too. The audience, seeing that Aunt Joan’s pious show of outrage was also part of the act, roared with appreciative laughter.

‘Frances, Frances,’ Aunt Joan wailed, as she was dragged past her sister-in-law’s seat. ‘Help!’

‘Me?’ Aunt Frances said, placing one elegant hand on her bony chest. ‘I don’t see what I could do. But, I suppose...’ she sighed with an air of resignation ‘...I must do what little I can.’ She set her face, rose elegantly to her feet, and took hold of the sleeve of Joan’s gown. And became part of Alec’s human tail, too.

‘Stephens,’ she cried, holding out her free hand imploringly. ‘You are the only one strong enough to help.’

With an air of determination, the enormous footman surged to his feet as the tail swept past his chair, stepped up behind Aunt Frances, and manfully seized her round the waist. With the inevitable result.

‘Take your hands off me,’ Aunt Frances protested, trying to swat at him with her fan over her shoulder.

‘Sorry, ma’am,’ replied Stephens, going rather red in the face, but remaining firmly glued to her back, with his meaty great arms wrapped round her waist.

At that point, even Julia’s father burst out laughing.

‘Never knew the dried-up old stick had it in her.’ He chuckled.

Only Julia sat stony-faced as Alec led his victims round the furniture, in and out of the pillars, and over various obstacles. Because it was clear to her that various members of the audience had been primed to join in, even though they weren’t in costume. Or, if not, then they were all just joining in what was swiftly descending into something rather like a cross between a child’s game of follow-my-leader, and a riotous, drunken sort of country dance. Everyone, it seemed, was thoroughly enjoying themselves.

Except her.

But at length, Alec came to a standstill in front of the thrones on which she and her father were sitting.

‘Your majesty,’ said Alec to Papa as he swept a low bow—causing incidental havoc amongst his human tail. ‘I have come to London to seek my fortune. Do you, perchance, have a ship I can command?’

It was just as well he was keeping his eyes fixed doggedly on Papa. This was the closest she’d been to him for days. And that time he’d been shouting at her, red-faced and furious. Back then, it had been relatively easy to maintain a sort of dignified indifference. But oh, how hard it was tonight to resist the temptation to slap his face. Could she get away with it, as part of the performance? Probably not. Everyone, but her, seemed to know the part she was supposed to perform. And unless Freddie handed her a card with stage directions on, she couldn’t slap her husband without letting everyone know how deeply upset with him she was.

Tremors started up in her stomach, and her knees. Tremors of hurt, and confusion, and thwarted rage. Ruthlessly, she slammed the lid on all her feelings. Reached for the ice she’d imagined flowing through her veins earlier. She would remain cold, and unmoving, no matter what he said or did. No matter how close he stood. No matter how much her hands longed to reach out and...touch him, move him, make him look at her, notice her.

At this point Freddie handed her father a card with a few words written on it.

‘Oh. Do I have to say these lines?’

Well at least Papa wasn’t in on the jest Alec seemed determined to play on her. Papa clearly hadn’t been to any rehearsals, nor had any idea what he was supposed to do or say next.

Papa fished out his spectacles, hooked them over his ears, and peered at the wording on the card. ‘I see,’ he said, raising his eyebrows and giving Alec a cool, considering look.

‘“I do not have a ship for you to command,”’ he read aloud. ‘“Even though you appear to have mustered your crew already.”’ He eyed the trail of people who were apparently bound to him by some form of enchantment. ‘“But I have something far better for you. My daughter.”’ He waved his hand in her direction. ‘“She isn’t happy. In fact, she hasn’t smiled for a year and a day. And I have vowed to give her hand, and half my kingdom, to the man who can make her smile.”’

Alec stepped back—causing all his magically stuck followers to stagger back like drunken shadows—and looked her up and down.

Julia braced herself. So far he’d used the form of the play to make some very pointed statements. And now he’d got the perfect opportunity to tell everyone exactly what he thought of her. She wouldn’t be a bit surprised if this version of the Golden Goose ended with the sailor saying not even a princess and half the kingdom was worth sacrificing his happiness for, and going off to sea with her entire family stuck to the duck he held under his arm.

‘Well, it’s very kind of you to offer me the hand of your daughter, but—’

No matter what he said next, she would not let anyone know he’d hurt her. She would
not
.

‘I don’t think I’m the proper sort of husband for her. For she’s a princess, and I’m just a poor sailor. Very poor. Too poor to really think about marrying anyone, let alone a princess.’

Benjamin put another card into Papa’s hand.

‘“You will not be a poor man once you marry my daughter,”’ said Papa. ‘“I have told you, I will give you half of my kingdom.”’ Just as he’d been obliged to do in real life.

‘That’s all very well,’ repeated Alec with a stubborn glint in his eye. ‘But what sort of a man marries a woman just to get his hands on her money? A blackguard, that’s who!’

‘“Are you by any chance,”’ read Papa, ‘“reluctant to marry my daughter? Do you find some fault in her?”’

Ah. That was a question he’d never asked before. They’d both been so determined, her father and Alec, to hush everything up and avoid scandal, that Alec’s feelings about what he had to do had never been taken into consideration. At last he was getting the chance to tell everyone what he really thought about being press-ganged into marrying her.

She braced herself as Alec turned his head, and finally looked at her. Really looked at her.

‘No,’ he said stoutly. ‘I find no fault in her at all.’

What? Julia blinked. That wasn’t at all the kind of thing she’d expected him to say.

‘She is the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.’

He said it with such sincerity she almost believed him. Except that she could hear a caveat in the tone of his voice.

‘It’s just that...’

Ah. Here it came. The excuse for avoiding an entanglement with her. She stiffened her spine and gave him her coldest, hardest look.

‘Well, how could a simple sailor like me possibly make a princess happy? I wouldn’t know how. I’ve no experience with women, you see, having spent all my adult life at sea.’

As excuses went, it was brilliant, she had to give him that. Just the sort of thing a sensible man would say to a monarch when he wished above all else to disobey a decree without suffering a painful penalty.

Benjamin handed her father yet another card.

‘“Then this shall be your quest,”’ said Papa. ‘“You must discover what it takes to make my daughter happy. Or suffer banishment from my kingdom. And deliver up to me, as compensation for my disappointment, the golden goose.”’

Alec turned to the tail of people following him. ‘Some of you are women,’ he said with an air of desperation. ‘What do you think would make her happy?’

‘Money,’ declared Uncle Henry, ignoring the fact that he wasn’t a woman.

‘Lots of stamina in the bedroom,’ declared Aunt Constance, shooting him a withering look.

‘No, no, it will be money,’ put in Electra, as one of the tavern wenches. ‘It was what we wanted, wasn’t it? Money to buy fine clothes.’

‘Yes, of course it’s money,’ said Uncle Henry impatiently. ‘Though my last mistress told me the only thing that would make her happy was a box at the opera, it was the position of it, which would show I’d opened my purse to her, she really wanted.’ Which inflammatory remark caused her Aunt Constance to reach over the tavern wenches and cuff him round the ear.

‘You are all idiots,’ snapped Aunt Frances. ‘Every woman wants to be loved, of course. Tell her you love her, young man, and give her a kiss, and I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if that doesn’t break the spell holding us here.’

There was a murmur of agreement from his captives, which rippled through the audience, too.

With a sinking heart, Julia foresaw the end of the play. As in the ways of many of these sorts of tales, the kiss of ‘true love’ would break all the spells, and they would all be supposed to live happily ever after.

The trouble was, this wasn’t a story. Well, it was a story, but it was her life, too. And she didn’t think she could possibly play-act at the happy ending, when she was pretty certain that her own life was never going to have any such thing.

Chapter Fourteen

‘P
rincess,’ said Alec, sweeping her a bow, and thereby compelling his human tail to do the same. ‘I love you.’

Freddie handed her a card upon which one word was written.

‘“Stuff!”’

‘I knew you’d say that,’ said Alec.

Freddie handed her another card.

‘Of course you did,’ she said waspishly—without bothering to even glance at the lines. ‘Since you have clearly written the script to suit yourself.’

‘Indeed I have. Nevertheless, it is true.’

Freddie nudged her, silently urging her to read the words she was supposed to say once he’d had his turn.

‘“You cannot possibly love me,”’ she read woodenly. ‘“We have only just met. You know nothing about me.”’

‘I know you are beautiful,’ said Alec. ‘And that everyone here wants you to be happy again. Don’t you?’ he said over his shoulder to his train.

Some called out ‘Oh, yes, your Highness.’ Others, ‘We do!’

‘See? They all love you, too. And not one of us would love you if you didn’t deserve to be loved.’

In bewilderment, she reached for the next card Freddie was holding out to her. She could no longer work out what was real, and what was play-acting any more. And, as she looked at the words written there, her eyes began to sting. How could he expect her to speak
these
lines, in public?

But Freddie was looking up at her expectantly, and her father was, too, and so were all the servants. She couldn’t simply break down in tears, or get up and run out, as though she had no more backbone than a serving maid.

Lifting her chin, she read the words out loud.

‘“The ones I loved the most are the very ones who robbed me of my smile. They put a curse on me.”’ It was true, though how on earth Alec had worked it out was beyond her. Yet somehow, tonight, he’d managed to make her feel exactly as she’d done as a child. Isolated. Unloved by relatives all too busy fighting their own battles to spare any time for her. She’d been so starved of affection, real affection as a child, she’d snatched at the friendship Marianne and David had appeared to offer. And ended up so fuddled by David’s deception she’d ended up trying to compromise him into marriage. And then fallen so hard for Alec, that his rejection hurt worse than anything that had gone before.

‘“Beware,”’ she finished, her voice fading to a hoarse whisper, ‘“lest the curse fall upon you, too.”’

‘It already has,’ said Alec. ‘I’m bound to you forever. Whether you love me or not. Just as surely as these poor souls are stuck to the Golden Goose.’

‘Are you...are you really comparing me to a goose?’

‘Oh, hang the goose,’ said Alec, tossing it aside. His captives all collapsed in various directions, with varying degrees of artistry. Aunt Frances, she noted, who’d landed firmly in the burly footman’s lap, didn’t appear to be making any effort to disentangle herself.

‘Don’t shut me out any more,’ Alec said, reaching up to cup her cheek and turn her head in his direction when she would have carried on watching the antics of his newly released prisoners. Anything was better than facing him in the wretched state she was in.

‘I know I’ve been a fool,’ he said. ‘But if you would only give me another chance I will spend the rest of my life making you happy.’

‘You...’ Tears clogged her throat. She didn’t know whether Freddie had another card for her or not. All she could see was Alec, standing there looking as though he was playing the part of the romantic lead in a silly pantomime.

‘How can you do this to me?’

A look of panic came over Benjamin’s face. He searched frantically through the cards in his hand. Alec placed a hand on his shoulder. ‘We’ve got beyond that now, lad.’

‘What do you mean?’ Her heart was thundering so hard it was making her feel almost ill. ‘I don’t understand what is going on. How can you use this play to...to...?’

‘How could I not?’ Alec got a very determined look in his eye. ‘I humiliated you in public. Don’t you think you deserve a public apology?’

An apology? ‘Is that what this is?’ She looked from him, to her family members, who were struggling to untangle themselves from the undignified poses in which they’d landed. Apart from Aunt Frances, that was.

‘Oh, for heaven’s sake, forgive him,’ said Aunt Frances, her normally porcelain cheeks turning a surprisingly rosy red. ‘Hasn’t he grovelled enough?’

Grovelled? How had he grovelled? In which part of the play had he done that? Had they been watching the same performance as her? She pressed a hand to her forehead, wondering if she’d become ill, and this was all part of some fevered dream.

‘Tell her, right now, you are sorry you made such a to-do over the kiss,’ said Aunt Constance fiercely. ‘I told him it was nothing to make such a fuss about,’ she said to Julia. ‘Everyone kisses everyone at Christmas time. That’s what the mistletoe is for. It’s just a bit of fun.’

Julia’s cheeks were burning. How could everyone speak about the incident with Eduardo, so openly, in front of the servants like this?

But then she caught sight of Lizzie, wringing her hands and looking as though she was about to step forward and say something, too.

And no matter how hurt she was at the way Alec had acted, she couldn’t let the girl throw her reputation away. A married woman could get away with a bit of dalliance. But once a girl of marriageable age got a reputation for being fast, it would stay with her, and blight any chance for future happiness.

As she floundered for a response that would neither be a complete capitulation, nor land Lizzie in hot water either, Freddie nudged her, a triumphant grin on his face. Then he handed her another card.

‘“I can see that you have gone to a great deal of trouble to prove your love for me,”’ she read. ‘“You have got all my family to help you make your apology.”’ She supposed he had. Even Nick and Herbert had taken part in this pantomime. A thing they’d always said was too demeaning before. She looked up from her lines to where her older brothers were standing watching her, their expressions inscrutable. Then across to where her aunts were helping each other up, smoothing down their rumpled gowns, and generally looking very pleased with themselves.

‘We all love you,’ said Alec, simply. ‘And we all felt it was high time we showed you how much,’ he finished in a rush.

They...they
all
loved her?

Suddenly, she saw the entire production in a different light. He’d said he was merely a sailor, with no skills he could use on land, with nothing to offer her, in fact. She’d assumed he was saying he was hankering to go back to sea, but, could he have been trying to say he felt worthless? Undeserving? Was that why he’d had her play the part of a princess? And dressed in ragged clothing, and gone on a quest to try to win her hand?

‘This whole performance—the duck, and the clowning around—it was all for me?’

There was a chorus of agreement.

‘You are such a dear girl,’ said her Aunt Frances unexpectedly. ‘Always trying to see the best of people. Though,’ she finished tartly, ‘I’ve never been able to stomach the way you let people take advantage.’

‘It’s more a case of never having a cross word for anyone,’ Aunt Joan said in her defence.

‘You all make her sound like some kind of...pudding heart,’ said Nick crossly. ‘And she isn’t. She’s pluck to the backbone.’

‘Nicky?’ She couldn’t believe he’d say such a thing of her. She always thought he’d despised her.

‘Don’t look so shocked,’ put in Herbert. ‘We may not like the way Father always favours you over us, but it don’t change the fact you are our sister.’

Suddenly she recalled the way Nick had objected to Alec sitting so close to her at the breakfast table, before he’d realised they were betrothed. At the time, she’d just thought he was being his usual quarrelsome self. But he had, now she came to think of it, been sort of...protective.

And both her older brothers had dressed up and sat in the front row of the chapel when she married, rather than go out hunting, which she was sure they would have preferred. She’d only seen their sour expressions, and recalled the mutterings about her marrying for love, but that didn’t alter the fact that they’d put in an appearance.

‘Family,’ put in Uncle Algernon. ‘Nothing more important. We need to stick together. And you young people,’ he said, advancing on Alec and her, ‘need to patch up your quarrel. We all want you both to be happy. Especially me, since I married you. Don’t want your marriage going cold less than a week after you spoke your vows.’

‘Yes, come on,’ said Nick with a touch of impatience. ‘Tell him he’s forgiven and make friends. Good God, girl, you don’t want to end up with a marriage like mine, do you?’

She glanced across the room to where Ellen had given a stricken gasp. Nick sought refuge in his brandy glass. The way he always did.

But Ellen was watching him with a thoughtful expression on her face.

‘Well, what do you say?’ Alec asked gently.

‘I... I’ve forgotten what the question was,’ she admitted. She could scarcely believe that Alec had managed to get her entire family to help him make a public apology for losing his temper with her. Nor that they’d responded with such enthusiasm.

Her family. Who usually sniped and moaned the entire time they were forced into proximity with one another. All united in the affection she’d never really seen they had for her.

‘Why don’t you just read the lines I’ve written for you?’ Alec suggested.

In a daze, she looked at the card Freddie was pressing into her hand.

‘“Though you are but a poor sailor, and I am a princess,”’ she read, ‘“I do consent to be your wife. On one condition.”’ She paused, as instructed by the script, for Alec to make his response.

‘And that is?’

‘“That you never give me cause to regret it.”’

‘I never shall. Never again,’ he vowed.

Then he drew her up out of her throne, and into his arms, and kissed her, to the sound of applause and cheering from the entire cast of players, the audience, and the stage hands.

‘And they all,’ she dimly heard Benjamin say, ‘lived happily ever after.’

* * *

She hadn’t known how she would react at this point. Had been afraid she wouldn’t be able to act at all. And indeed, she couldn’t. The moment his lips touched hers—no, before that—the very second he pulled her into his arms, it felt so good that she simply surrendered. Surrendered to the feeling that she was where she belonged again. After being out in the cold, and alone, she’d come home. Home to Alec.

Tears seeped from her eyes as she put her arms round his neck and kissed him back. What point was there in clinging to pride? What use was there in quibbling about the fact that he was apparently forgiving her for something she hadn’t even done? What man wouldn’t have believed the evidence of his own eyes? When it had come so soon after her previous episode of loose behaviour in that very same place, he was bound to put two and two together and make five.

At least he’d gone to a lot of trouble to make the apology. And had done it in public. And enlisted the aid of her entire family.

How could she help loving such a...forgiving man? Even if he was so wrong about needing to forgive her? Most men were, after all, nearly always wrong about something.

The audience, meanwhile, were not only applauding, and cheering, but, as their kiss went on and on, also whistling and stamping their feet.

It was beginning to go beyond the bounds of what could be considered appropriate.

Alec seemed to think so, too, because he broke off kissing her, gave her a brief, hard hug, and spun her round to face the cheering audience.

‘Come, take your bow,’ he said, leading her by the hand to where the rest of the cast were forming up into a line.

Once more, she wasn’t sure if this was an act, or her real life, or what, as they all bowed several times.

Then the orchestra played a sort of fanfare, and her father got to his feet. He held up one imperious hand, and everyone went quiet.

‘Well, I must say, that was a most unusual performance. Something quite out of the ordinary.’

He looked pretty much as she felt. As if he wasn’t sure whether he approved or not. But then he appeared to make up his mind.

‘But I’m sure you will agree with me that it provided a very fitting end to this season of, er...’ He shot Nick a slightly perplexed frown. ‘Of goodwill. And now—’ he resumed his attitude of total command ‘—refreshments will be served in the supper room, while the nursery party retire to their beds.’

His cool words reminded the servants in the audience of their duties, and they got to their feet and scuttled off to their allotted tasks, either to serve supper to the family, or to put their children to bed.

The cast began to disperse, too, discarding costumes, laughing, and congratulating the young people, and each other, on a successful performance.

Alec took her by the arm and tugged her behind the woodland backdrop.

‘Julia?’ He searched her face intently. ‘Did you mean it? That kiss? I thought at the time—’ He broke off, to wipe away a tear from her cheek. ‘But you still don’t look happy. I’d hoped this was a reconciliation. I’d hoped...’

It was his own face that he wiped then. Wiped it clear of expression. ‘I can see that I hoped for too much. But at least you are speaking to me now. That is a start.’

‘I would have spoken to you at any time these past three days if you’d made any attempt to speak to me first,’ she hissed. Only a thin screen separated them from everyone else. She could hear snatches of conversation. So she was certain others would be able to hear them, too, if they didn’t keep their voices down.

‘But you couldn’t be bothered. You were too busy...’ She waved her hand at the room he’d spent so much time transforming into the set for his pantomime. ‘Creating all this!’

‘You would have forgiven me, if I’d just come to you and told you I was sorry for the way I spoke to you?’

‘I...’ She considered. Flung up her chin. ‘I might have done.’

‘Yes, you might have done,’ he said grimly. ‘Because you are very forgiving. I saw the way you wanted to make peace with Marianne, in spite of everything, but that wasn’t enough for me. You deserve better. I needed to show you that I really, really meant my apology, and wanted to start afresh.’ He gripped both her hands. ‘And I do want to start afresh, Julia. I know I made a mull of things, but doesn’t that tell you something?’