Cards & Caravans by Cindy Spencer Pape

Author:Cindy Spencer Pape
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-03-25T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

Belinda had expected her second wedding to fly by in a daze. Instead each moment seemed to pass by in a measured pace, as if some greater power had determined that every second be imprinted upon her mind. She was dressed in a borrowed crinoline, new silk stockings from someone’s bags and a pair of Melody’s shoes that only pinched a bit. On the top half she wore a silk shift under her old cotton corset, and her grandmother’s garnets. Her hair was pinned up in an elaborate arrangement decorated with roses. Rather than be given privacy while she dressed, she greeted a small but steady stream of other women who popped in to pay their respects to the MacKay ladies as they arrived.

Her wedding guests included not just one, but two duchesses, the wife and mother of the current duke of Trowbridge, roughly the same ages as Connor’s grandmother and mother. The next duchess, now Marchioness Lake, was a fireball a little older than Belinda, who arrived with a camera. Belinda had seen one of Marchioness Lake’s books of photography in Shadwick’s little lending library, but she hadn’t connected the name of Connor’s friend with the famous photographer until the plump, exuberant woman asked if she could document the wedding in pictures. She also plopped her six-month-old son, Ned, into Belinda’s arms with no apparent concern whatsoever. Belinda leaned down and sniffed the tot’s soft brown hair and sighed. How she’d love to have one of these for her own.

There was also Caroline Hadrian, Lady Northland, a blonde sprite who arrived with a tiny girl in her arms. Caro, as she asked to be called, didn’t look much older than Belinda herself, but had a married daughter and another of maybe twenty, along with what seemed like a dozen younger ones, including the babe in her arms. Her ginger-haired daughter Winifred was wed to an inspector who’d been knighted, so the younger woman was Lady McCullough. The abundance of titles made Belinda’s head spin, which only got worse when she realized that in a few hours, she’d be among them, as the youngest Lady MacKay. At that point, Geneva gave up keeping track.

A boy—young man, really—in a military uniform and with hair almost as fair as Caro’s poked his head in the door and called to Caro. “Mum, Will wants to go play with the dogs and Sylvie is out in the garden. I can’t keep track of all of them, Piers has disappeared into the library and Papa is closeted somewhere with Sir Fergus.” The lad didn’t even blink at seeing a strange woman in her underthings—although the satin corset cover and petticoats concealed more than some of Belinda’s simple skirts and shirtwaists.

“I’ll go help.” Nell, Lady Northland’s second daughter, said. Nell was as dark and exotic enough to be from India or Persia. She lifted her youngest sister and settled the baby on her hip. “It was lovely to meet you, Belinda. I hope you and Connor are very happy.

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