The Rake's Unveiling of Lady Belle (22 page)

Belinda stared at Phillip warily. He paced the room and prowled around her like one of the big cats at the Royal Menagerie as it waited for its next meal, and seemed to wonder if a female human would be tasty or filling enough.

‘Why am I not good enough to aid you?' he asked again. The anguish in his voice made her wince. ‘Why?'

‘Oh, Phillip, you are. You are more than good enough. Believe me, it's not that.' She rushed to explain. ‘It's the…the shame of it all. How little my father thinks of me. It hurts.' She could hear that hurt resonate in her voice.

He gathered her into his arms and rubbed his chin on the crown of her head. Belinda sank into his embrace as she relished the warmth, comfort and safety she felt there.

‘Of course it does,' Phillip said. ‘He is no father. He might have fathered you, but there it stopped.'

Belinda sighed. He understood. ‘Exactly, but he still tries to control me, even though he no longer has any jurisdiction to do so. However, it is Penfold—he scares me even more. You look at him and see evil, pure evil. And added to that, he seems to be a man not to take kindly to being thwarted.' She shivered. ‘Why is it that my father thinks men who have seen off five wives will suit me?'

Phillip kissed the top of her head and tightened his arms around her. ‘He doesn't; he thinks they will suit him. Your feelings do not enter the equation. So, there is only one thing to do. Marry me.'

That hurt even though Belinda knew it for the truth. However, to hear her thoughts put into words and spoken out loud made them strike hard and sharp. That those unpalatable things her father decreed were also known and abhorred by Phillip made them ten times worse. ‘But…'

He reached around her and put one hand over her mouth. ‘No buts…marry me here. Tonight, tomorrow, as soon as possible, and we can fight the world and your father together. He won't dare try anything against the wife of a lord of higher rank, nor will he get a penny out of me.'

‘My brothers?'

Phillip raised one eyebrow and then laughed. ‘They are even less likely to challenge me. My reputation does come in handy sometimes. So? You haven't answered me.'

How she'd love to say yes, and know Phillip loved her and that was the reason for the marriage.

‘You don't love me.'

‘No?' It wasn't an affirmative; it was a question. ‘If you say so, ma belle.'

What sort of an answer was that?

‘Your…paramours,' she said in a rush. ‘What will they say?'

‘To you? Nothing. They…' He hesitated and it seemed to Belinda he was picking his words with care. ‘They know the score.'

‘I will cramp your style.'

He smirked. ‘Rubbish. A wife is a help not a hindrance. Marry me, now.'

‘How?' If only it were that easy. ‘We need to have the banns read.' There were so many pitfalls.

‘Not if you have a special licence.' Phillip overruled her first objection.

‘So how do we get one?'

‘We don't.'

Her heart sank. So was it all talk and no substance? ‘Then…'

‘Do you imagine I would not have thought of that? I have it already. Not,' he hastened to add, ‘that I thought it a done deal. I just hoped against hope you would agree.'

‘But you don't want to marry.'

‘Who says?'

‘You. On many an occasion.' Belinda nibbled her lips. Dare she? It would nigh on kill her when he went to another woman, as undoubtedly he would, but the alternatives didn't bear thinking of either.

‘I have said on many an occasion that I do,' Phillip said silkily. ‘Next objection?'

Well yes, but had he asked her knowing she had no intention of agreeing? Belinda's head whirled. Why did she not accept things at face value? Did she not think she deserved the help he offered?

Do it.

She took a deep breath. ‘In that case, my lord, I accept your offer and…and I will be a complaisant wife.' There surely that would let him know she understood his needs? Why did it hurt to say that? It was what he would want, and if he was prepared to marry her, complaisant she would be.

Phillip stared at her and a smile spread over his face before he laughed out loud. ‘Oh I do hope so. Now let us seal our bargain with a kiss.'

He does want it.
Her heart sank, even as her body tingled with the intensity of his kiss and the feel of his staff hardening against her.

What had she agreed to?

‘So I said I would be a complaisant wife and he laughed,' Belinda said in a bewildered voice. ‘And said he did hope so. Now he's gone to the vicarage with Ben to seek out the vicar and arrange a ceremony as soon as possible. Clarissa, I'm worried I'm not doing the correct thing. What if Phillip regrets his altruism? Wishes he was once more without a wife? Parades his women in front of me? Asks me to dress them still? Tell…' Clarissa shut her up by putting both hands over her mouth.

It was nothing like when Phillip did the same thing.

He makes me want to lick and touch; this makes me want to kick and fight.
She waved her hand in the air. Clarissa lifted her hands up a few inches.

‘No more of the stupidity?'

Belinda scowled. ‘It is not…oufft.' She glared at Clarissa, who had once more covered Belinda's mouth, with perhaps more force than necessary. ‘Mrd nh ddbr Rmpp.'

‘Very likely. Now listen to me, Belinda, and listen well. This is my brother you are talking about. I'm ashamed you would think he would do such a thing. He might be a rake, though I do wonder about that at times, but he would never ever be so ungentlemanly as you suggest, and you know it. Don't you?' She moved one hand to shake Belinda by the shoulder.

Belinda nodded frantically, desperate to get air into her lungs. In her annoyance, Clarissa had splayed her fingers and she was in danger of cutting off all Belinda's air supply. It was hard enough to breath through her nose, what with her cough, cold and possible hay fever. To have her nostrils pinched as well was too much to cope with. She fastened her hands over Clarissa's and pulled at them.

‘Then no more.' Clarissa let Belinda prise her hands away and placed them on her hips. ‘Just what were you thinking?'

‘Obviously nothing you approve of.' Belinda sighed. ‘It's just that I am perturbed that I might have forced him to do something he has no wish to. Oh I know he asked me, but…well, it's me. With the baggage of my family.' Why was she still refusing to acknowledge there might have been something deep and meaningful in the reasons behind all the other times he'd asked her to marry him?

‘Set down the rules. I did.' Clarissa giggled. ‘Mind you I broke them.' She blushed and Belinda shook her head. From the little Clarissa had shared, she had completely turned her ideas of what was going to occur in her marriage on its head.

Lucky devil.

‘Lud, Clarissa, I'm glad it has worked out well for you, but I ask you this. Is it fair to ask him Phillip to change every facet of his life?' Belinda lifted her hands in the air, palms uppermost. ‘It's bad enough he feels it necessary to marry me, but to stop being a rake? When he only had to click his fingers and women rush to do his bidding? Because I tell you now, I can't watch that. It would kill me.'

Especially if I knew they were getting what I wasn't.

‘Yet you say you gave him carte blanche?' Clarissa said incredulously. ‘Your brain must be addled.'

‘Well think about it. What else could I do?' Belinda wondered how she could describe the turmoil she experienced to Clarissa. She rubbed her clammy hands over her skirts. ‘He's prepared to marry me to get my father off my back, not for any other reason.' Or was he? Belinda didn't know what to think.

‘Really?' Clarissa's eyebrows almost rose to her hairline. ‘If you say so. Dammit, I promised Ben I wouldn't interfere. However, I will say this: when was the last time he paraded one of his women in front of you? I don't mean the last few you told me about. Tippen was correct. I agree with her that they were window dressing. Those husbands would never stand to be cuckolded, and Phillip would never think to do so to them. We'll ignore the rodent, because he didn't know you were you.'

‘He hasn't.'

‘Exactly. So that is one of your worries dismissed. Now what else was there?'

‘What am I going to wear to my wedding?'

Clarissa smirked. ‘Much better. What did you have in mind? I presume it's no longer sackcloth and ashes.'

Belinda stuck her tongue out. ‘Stop gloating or I'll call you Clary.'

Clarissa opened her eyes wide and wrung her hands in a good imitation of any lady on the stage. ‘Oh no, oh no, my lady, not that. Never Clary. I'll gloat no more. But in all seriousness, I don't think that gown, pretty as it is, is how you want to remember your wedding. Shall we go and look through the gowns you brought with you?'

Belinda agreed. Sprig muslin was perfect for a warm afternoon in the country, but she'd like to look a little more elegant. After all whatever happened afterward, it was important to her that even if it might be for all the wrong reasons, she was marrying the man she loved.

If only I was near my workroom.
There was a length of the palest ivory silk that she would have adored to have with her to make a simple but perfect gown. Sadly she wasn't, so somehow she would have to create the proverbial miracle from whatever was handy.

‘Let's. After all surely there's something in mine—or your—wardrobe that will do?'

‘If not, we will make do somehow, but let's look on the bright side, eh?' Together they headed for the upper floor, and their bedchambers. ‘We'll check your clothes first.'

Two hours later, that bright side seemed to have darkened. Nothing she had brought with her seemed suitable and Clarissa's clothes were in shades suited to her, not Belinda.

‘It's no use, I can not and will not wear something that doesn't make me feel good.' Belinda took a deep breath as she dropped the pretty but, in her mind, average gown down onto the bed, on top of a heap of other equally pretty but not-what-she-wanted gowns and shawls. ‘I might be getting married for all the wrong reasons, but it will be the only wedding day I have. I need something to put into my memory bank, to pull out and remember when things go wrong. What I wouldn't do for that length of ivory silk on my workroom table.'

‘They will not go wrong,' Clarissa said fiercely. ‘I have faith in both of you. And ivory silk is nothing; we will find something. And really, why is the urge for Phillip to want to cherish and protect you wrong?'

‘That's what I'd like to know.'

Belinda spun around to see Phillip propped against the doorjamb with a most peculiar smile playing across his lips, and a length of material in his hands that shimmered as he moved it through his fingers.

Chapter Eleven

The look on Belinda's face was priceless, and worth every second he'd spent persuading Tippen to accept what he intended to do was best for Belinda and to get her to co-operate. It had been a busy few hours rushing from Bruton Street to the archbishop's palace, waiting impatiently for his licence and exchanging platitudes he didn't have time for. At last the archbishop signed his name, sanded the document and handed it over. Phillip gave his sincere thanks, made his farewells, and headed back to Bruton Street where Tippen had his parcel wrapped and ready. He tried futilely again to persuade her to accompany him or follow him to find Belinda. Tippen argued that the best way for her to help was to keep the salon open and running. ‘It will seem all is normal. There are times when we have a special order and Madame Belle is not on show. Hopefully people will think this is one of those times.'

Phillip saw the sense in Tippen's pronouncement, thanked her and headed home.

Now Belinda's jaw dropped as she stared at him open-mouthed and blinked several times. ‘W…where d…did you g…get that?' she asked in a faint voice. ‘Why?'

‘Where? From your workshop before I left London. Tippen needed more than a little persuasion but understood my reasons and agreed. Why? Just in case I found you, persuaded you to marry me and set a date. And I can say with great satisfaction, I have succeeded on all three counts.'

‘Su…three…How? Ahh, the vicar agreed?' Belinda shook her head. ‘Are you sure?'

Phillip laughed and kissed her nose. As ever Belinda wrinkled it.

‘Phi…lip, that tickles.' She batted him away, and he chuckled.

‘Good, because it's the only place I can tickle at the moment. You have until noon tomorrow.'

Belinda opened her eyes wide. ‘Say that again.'

‘Of course,' Phillip said. ‘We wed, in the church in the village, at noon tomorrow. I decided, arbitrarily I admit, it was best not to leave the ceremony too long, just to be on the safe side. My agent Macsporran is concerned your father and brothers haven't given up on finding you. They won't, not yet,' Phillip added quickly as Belinda paled. ‘However, I decided sooner rather than later made sense. It will be so much better when we present a united front. Therefore the wedding is set for noon tomorrow. I thought Ben and Clarissa as witnesses?'

‘Oh yes, of course, there is no one better. But, Phillip, are you certain?'

Why is she so unsure? Have I not shown her what she means to me?

‘Yes,' he said shortly. ‘Can you use this?' He shook the material in the air. It rippled through his hands like waves on the beach.

‘Oh yes, careful, please don't crush it.' Belinda took it from him and put it down very carefully over a chair arm. Something unusual caught her eyes, and she moved closer to examine the material. Then she turned to him. ‘It's sewn into a basic shape. How? Oh, Tippen?'

Phillip nodded. ‘She insisted you wouldn't have time to do more than add to it. Sent her love and said she Darke, Redding and Fairley, along with the Lovetts, are ready to repel all invaders. She's given me a bag of lace and…and…other things. Much too complicated for a mere male to understand. I have to tell you it's only rough-sewn and not to put too much of a strain on the seams or you'll say “I do” with your arse on view. If it were only you and I there, I'd say strain it, please strain it.'