Becoming Belle by Nuala O'Connor

Author:Nuala O'Connor
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group
Published: 2018-08-07T19:27:26+00:00

A UNION

Flo pulled Belle’s cherry-print gown over her head and helped her into her costume, a vast concoction of Venice lace and furbelows that, in truth, looked more bridal than the dress she had just taken off. Flo’s own wedding to Seymour had been tiny and swift, too, but she didn’t mind that—she had never enjoyed fuss. But Belle, with her fairy-tale heart, surely deserved more than a registry office and to have to work on her wedding night.

“How are you, old girl?” Flo asked as she tugged at Belle’s bodice to make it sit nicely. Belle smiled like a soused pilchard and pulled herself out of some reverie, making Flo laugh. “Ah, I don’t think I have to worry, it’s as if you’re under a spell.”

Belle blinked. “I feel charmed, Flo. Full up and fevered and content.”

“What about tonight? Does it vex you to be here at the theater, to have to perform?”

“No, we knew it would be this way, William and I.” Belle lifted her sleeve to examine the pearl clusters sewn onto it; she shook them and they clattered pleasantly. “I will work until he can negotiate taking over the estate in Galway from the earl.” She pursed her lips, “Or until he inherits.”

Flo’s heart plummeted. “So you really do mean to leave England?”

“Eventually, yes. Until then I will perform and we will do nicely.”

Flo propelled Belle to stand in front of the mirror, the better to fix her hair and have Belle approve of what she did. She stood behind her sister and gazed at her reflection.

“We’ve become modern women, Belle.”

“Did it occur to anyone that Kate Penrice’s daughters were capable of such a thing?”

Flo giggled, thinking of their mother’s strong thumb and her attempts to instill what she saw as her own noble values in her girls. Her narrow codes. “Isn’t it grand that we’ll soon be ushered into the eighteen nineties? What fun!”

Belle leaped to her feet, put her hands to her hips and twisted her heels outward. “The knock-kneed nineties.”

Flo cavorted like a pony. “The knees-up nineties.”

The two sisters laughed and collapsed into each other’s arms.

Flo smelled Belle’s powdered cheek, breathed deep on her skin. “You’re happy, dearest?”

“I am, Flo. Extraordinarily happy.”

“Then we both are.” Flo hugged Belle tight. Everything was changing again, but wasn’t that just the way life unfurled, mysterious and unknowable, a glorious adventure? Belle and she were married ladies now; life must prance on in whatever way it would. Yes, she and Seymour squabbled, but it went to their bones and created a welcome sizzle between them. Seymour was a good stick and Flo loved him. She had not the dreamy-eyed match that Belle enjoyed with William, but her marriage was adequate. Seymour earned a steady wage and he doted on her; she could not hope for more. Flo shook herself and held Belle away from her, keeping her hands on her sister’s hips. “Come, Lady Dunlo,” she said, “your public is gasping for a taste of you.” She shimmied her palms up and down Belle’s waist.

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