Elliott had approved of the subtle changes Lucia had wrought. He liked her new hairstyle and more than appreciated her new clothes.
Lucia had waited only to hear that she was forgiven her interference before embracing the newly married couple, and admitting that it was at her connivance that Carlo had agreed to help ElUott.
*I knew the moment he arrived here on the doorstep, demanding to see Carlo, who he was,' she told Beatrice. 'I saw he loved you, and I knew that you loved him, so...'
They left Italy with regret and many promises to return, and now their taxi was drawing up in front of the Wimbledon house and Beatrice was fighting to control the butterflies running amok in her stomach.
Elliott squeezed her hand reassuringly, and murmured softly,
'It's worse than if we'd run away and were returning to face angry parents, isn't it?'
He was right, and his intuition calmed her. She would never have to stand alone again. She would always have the support and protection of EUiott's
love. She knew she ought to be angry with Ben, but her initial sense of outrage had faded, leaving only sadness and the realisation that from now on she was going to have to let her family stand on their own feet.
A period away from them had made her see them more clearly. They were selfish, and not always charmingly so. Mirry and Seb had kinder, gentler natures than the other two, but Lucilla... Her heart ached for the estrangement between her stormy temperamental half-sister and herself. And Ben... Ben who had been able to twist her round his Uttle finger, and who had callously and deliberately tried to keep her and Elliott apart.
Henrietta would not allow them to get away with too much, she told herself comfortingly. Henrietta would take her place here and give them the stability, the retreat, all of them seemed to need.
Henrietta opened the door to them, her frown changing to a smile as she let them in.
The family were gathered in the kitchen and Elliott tucked her arm within his as they walked in.
'So you've found her,' commented Ben, watching them both with narrowed eyes. 'What took you so long?'
Beatrice longed to retort that it was none of her brother's business, but the warning pressure of Elliott's fingers within her own made her stay silent.
'Nothing that you would consider important,' Elliott drawled laconically, his eyes never leaving Ben's taut face. 'Just a small matter of our honeymoon.'
It was Mirry who reacted first, jumping up to rush over and hug them both. No resentment there, Beatrice acknowledged thankfully.
Lucilla turned her back on them both after one bitterly acid look at Beatrice. Sebastian conquered his initial surprise and came over to kiss her and shake EUiott by the hand.
Ben remained exactly where he was.
She wasn't going to coax or cajole him, Beatrice told herself firmly. Her eyes were open now, and she saw her family as they were really were... not minor gods to be protected and cossetted, but human beings Uke any other... like herself.
'So you let him convince you, did you, Bea?' Ben asked her. There was sadness and pain in his voice, but now Beatrice could see that they were false. She felt anger but suppressed it. In many ways the fault was as much hers as it was Ben's. For too long she had allowed him to manipulate both herself and everyone else around him, until he thought it was his right to dictate her way of life.
Life for all of them was going to have to change. She and ElUott would have their own home, their own hfe. She looked hard at her brother and said calmly, *I think that's our business, don't you, Ben?'
He had the grace to look away from her, and for a moment the tension in the room could almost be felt, but then Mirry broke it, nudging William.
'Did you hear, WilUam? Bea and EUiott are married!'
*So what's new?' he demanded with elaborate calmness. 'I knew EUiott would get her in the end.'
'How?' demanded Mirry, scowhng at him.
*rve watched him playing chess/ was the oblique reply. ^I suppose we'll have to move away from here now and come and live in the Cots wolds with you?' WilUam addressed the question to ElUott, waiting for his reply, as was everyone else in the room.
She and Elliott had discussed this at great length, and now Beatrice waited tensely for their reaction to what Elliott had to tell them. Mingled with her tension was a sense of release and freedom. From now on, with the exception of William, her siblings would have to learn to fend for themselves, and in all honesty she had to admit that to do so would not do them any harm.
'Not necessarily,' Elliott was saying. 'Beatrice and I are quite prepared to make our home here until you finish school. After that... well, if Henry wants to stay on and look after the lot of you, then that's up to her, but let's hope by then Beatrice will have—er—responsibilities of her own, which will mean that you lot can cease looking upon her as a surrogate mother.'
*You mean babies,' said William in disgust, ignoring the looks his sister and her husband were exchanging.
'There, that wasn't too bad, was it?' EUiott asked later when he and Beatrice were alone in their room. 'And William only has another six months or so at school. That will give you plenty of time to make whatever alterations you like to the Cotswold house.'
'Did you really mean what you said about keeping this place on and paying Henry to look after them?' Beatrice asked her new husband dreamily.
Tm not being as altruistic as it sounds. That way I don't get them descending on us for long rests between productions. I'm a selfish man, Bea, just as selfish as the rest of your family, and I want you all to myself... at least for the next year or so.'
*It might already be too late,' Beatrice reminded him demurely. 'How do you think you'll take to being a father?'
He cut off her teasing words with the warm pressure of his mouth.
Downstairs Sebastian looked sympathetically at his twin and said reasonably, 'Come on, Ben, you must have known you couldn't win. You got rid of the others easily enough, but Elliott was a different proposition, and she's happy with him. We couldn't have held on to her for ever, you know. I've been given a couple of free tickets for the new production. Want to come with me?'
*Why not?' Ben agreed lazily. 'After all, there's nothing to keep me here.'
Upstairs EUiott looked tenderly into Beatrice's eyes.
'He'll get over it, you know. He's young and arrogant and in the long run it will do him good to know that he can't win every time, and I promise you I won't rub it in.'
'You're being very generous, ElUott. When I think of how easily...'
'Shush! That's all over now, and as for being generous, I can afford to be. I've got you.'
'For always,' she breathed against his mouth.
His arms tightened possessively around her.
'It'd better be, because I'll never willingly let you go.'
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Daughters four by Dixie Lee McKeone
She set out to matchmake for her sister, but reckoned without the Earl
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Contrary Lovers by Clarice Peters
A secret marriage contract bound her to the most interfering man she'd
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Miss Dalrymple's Virtue by Margaret Westhaven
She needed a wealthy patron—and set out to buy one with the only thing
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The Parson's Pleasure by Patricia Wynn
fate was cruel showing her the ideal man, then making it impossible
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Gothics
Shadow over Bright Star by Irene M. Pascoe
Did he want her shares to the silver mine, her love—or her life?
Secret at Orient Point by Patricia Werner
They seemed destined for tragedy despite the attraction between
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Pages
Back Cover
Some Sort of Spell Page 15
