The Dreadful Debutante (20 page)

She marched up to him and confronted him. “Traitor!” she growled.

“Oh, it is you, my lady,” he said mildly.

“I will call for the constable and have you arrested,” raged Lady Jansen. “I will get my money back.”

“As you will,” said Mr. Diggs indifferently. “But what will you tell him, and what proof do you have? The story of your malice is only gossip at the moment, but the minute you call the constable, it will reach the newspapers and be there in black and white for the whole country to read.”

She stared at him in baffled fury. He touched his hat and walked away from her along the waterfront until the darkness swallowed him up. She was never to see him again.

The marriage of the Marquess of Grantley was a small but elegant affair. Church weddings were not fashionable, but predictably the couple had therefore decided to have a church wedding. Only close members of the family had been invited, but society crowded outside St. George’s, Hanover Square, to get a look at this pair who had caused so much gossip. Because of the speed of the wedding, bets were being laid at White’s as to whether the bride was already pregnant or not, a fact that the marquess had wisely kept from Mira.

The ceremony was moving because of the couple’s obvious love for each other. Mrs. Anderson wept quietly all the way through it, but the dowager marchioness was dry-eyed. She had done very well by affecting to be delighted with Mira, but she still thought her son was making a disastrous mistake. Mrs. Markham was weeping with sheer relief. She had lived in dread every day right up to the wedding that the fiery Mira would suddenly tell her the whole thing was off.

Mira was small and dainty in white Brussels lace and for once did not feel at all sad about or jealous of the admiration her beautiful sister was receiving as bridesmaid.

The wedding breakfast, held at the dowager marchioness’s, was accounted a pleasant affair, and then the guests crowded outside to wave good-bye to the married couple.

Charles took Drusilla’s hand in his and heaved a sigh. “How much in love they are! And so content with each other! I do not think that pair will ever exchange a cross word in the whole of their marriage.”

“I saw the way you looked at that pretty little Miss Fanshaw, and I didn’t like it one bit,” Mira was saying fiercely.

“Your own behavior was so bad, I wonder you dare to criticize mine,” retorted the marquess moodily.

“What do you mean,
my
behavior?”

“You kissed young Danby on the cheek. He wasn’t even a guest but waiting in the crowd outside. You had to run forward and kiss him.”

“He looked so sad, like a dog.”

“I do not care how sad he looked. As my wife you must behave yourself from now on.”

“How dare you bully me and order me about. I will not have it. I will not stand for it!”

“Mira, we are quarreling already. Kiss me.”

“No! This is an open carriage and everyone is looking.”

“Coward!”

He took her hand in his and pressed it. “Mira, my love…”

“Oh, we must not quarrel, Rupert,” cried Mira. “It breaks my heart.” She flung herself into his arms, and he kissed her fiercely.

A stern governess walking two young ladies stared at them in horror and tried to cover her charges’ eyes with her hands all at one time.

“Do not look,” she admonished them. “It’s that dreadful debutante! Such a bad example!”