Almost Heaven Part 8

"Don't, please," Elizabeth interrupted. "You know I could never take money from you. Among other things, I wouldn't be able to pay it back. The trust should cover Havenhurst's expenses, but only barely. For now, my most pressing problem is to find some way out of this coil my uncle has created."

"What I cannot understand is how your uncle could consider these two men suitable when they aren't. Not one whit."

"We know that," Elizabeth said wryly, bending down to pull a blade of gra.s.s from between the flagstones beneath the bench, "but evidently my 'suitors' do not, and that's the problem." As she said the words a thought began to form in her mind; her fingers touched the blade, and she went perfectly still. Beside her on the bench Alex drew a breath as if to speak, then stopped short, and in that pulsebeat of still silence the same idea was born in both their fertile minds.

"Alex," Elizabeth breathed, "all I have to-"

"Elizabeth," Alex whispered, "it's not as bad as it seems. All you have to-"

Elizabeth straightened slowly and turned. In that prolonged moment of silence two longtime friends sat in a rose garden, looking raptly at each other while time rolled back and they were girls again-lying awake in the dark, confiding their dreams and troubles and inventing schemes to solve them that always began with "If only. . ."

"If only," Elizabeth said as a smile dawned across her face and was matched by the one on Alex's, "I could convince them that we don't suit-"

"Which shouldn't be hard to do," Alex cried enthusiastically, "because it's true."

The joyous relief of having a plan, of being able to take control of a situation that minutes before had threatened her entire life, sent Elizabeth to her feet, her face aglow with laughter. "Poor Sir Francis," she chuckled, looking delightedly from Bentner to Alex as both grinned at her. "I greatly fear he's in for the most disagreeable surprise when he realizes what a-a"-she hesitated, thinking of everything an old roue would most dislike in his future wife- "a complete prude I am!"

"And," Alex added, "what a shocking spendthrift you are!"

"Exactly!" Elizabeth agreed, almost twirling around in her glee. Sunlight danced off her gilded hair and lit her green eyes as she looked delightedly at her friends. "I shall make perfectly certain to give him glaring evidence I am both. Now then, as to the Earl of Canford . . ."

"What a pity," Alex said in a voice of exaggerated gloom, "you won't be able to show him what a capital hand you are with a fis.h.i.+ng pole."

"Fish?" Elizabeth returned with a mock shudder. "Why, the mere thought of those scaly creatures positively makes me swoon!"

"Except for that prime one you caught yesterday," Bentner put in wryly.

"You're right," she returned with an affectionate grin at the man who'd taught her to fish. "Will you find Berta and break the news to her about going with me? By the time we come back to the house she ought to be over her hysterics, and I'll reason with her." Bentner trotted off, his threadbare black coattails flapping behind him.

"That only leaves the third contender to discourage," Alex said happily. "Who is he, and what do we know of him? Do I know him?"

It was the moment Elizabeth had been dreading. "You never heard of him until a few weeks ago, when you returned."

"What?" she asked, nonplussed. Elizabeth drew a steadying breath and nervously rubbed her hands against the sides of her blue skirts. "I think," she said slowly, "I ought to tell you exactly what happened a year and a half ago-with Ian Thornton."

"There's no need to ever tell me if it will cause you unhappiness to speak of it. And right now, we surely ought to be thinking of the third man-" "The third man," Elizabeth interrupted tightly, "is Ian Thornton."

"Dear G.o.d!" Alex gasped in horror. "Why? I mean-" "I don't know why," Elizabeth admitted with angry confusion. "He accepted my uncle's proposition. So it is either some sort of complete misunderstanding or it is his idea of a joke, and neither makes much sense-"

"A joke! He ruined you. He must be a complete monster to find it amusing now."

"The last time I saw him, he did not find the situation amusing, believe me," Elizabeth said, and, sitting down, she told the whole story, trying desperately to keep her emotions under control so that she would be able to think clearly when she and Alex finalized their plans.

Chapter 9.

Berta, we've arrived," Elizabeth said as their traveling chaise drew up before the expansive estate belonging to Sir Francis Belhaven. Berta's eyes had been squeezed closed for the last hour, but Elizabeth saw her bosom rising and falling with rapid, shallow breaths and knew she was not asleep. Berta had been terrified at the prospect of playing the role of Elizabeth's aunt, and none of Elizabeth's soothing or promises had eased her fear one bit in the last several days. She had not wanted to come, and now that she was there, she was still praying for deliverance.

"Aunt Berta!" she said forcefully as the front door of the great, rambling house was swung open. The butler stepped aside, and footmen hurried forward. "Aunt Berta!" she said urgently, and in desperation Elizabeth reached for the maid's tightly clenched eyelid. She pried it open and looked straight into a frightened brown orb. "Please do not do this to me, Berta. I'm counting on you to act like an aunt, not a timid mouse. They're almost upon us."

Berta nodded, swallowed, and straightened in her seat, then she smoothed her black bombazine skirts.

"How do I look?" Elizabeth whispered urgently. "Dreadful," said Berta. eyeing the severe, high-necked black linen gown Elizabeth had carefully chosen to wear at this, her first meeting with the prospective husband whom Alexandra had described as a lecherous old roue. To add to her nunlike appearance, Elizabeth's hair was sc.r.a.ped back off her face, pinned into a bun a la Lucinda, and covered with a short veil. Around her neck she wore the only piece of "jewelry" she intended to wear for as long as she was here-a large, ugly iron crucifix she'd borrowed from the family chapel.

"Completely dreadful, milady," Berta added with more strength to her voice. Ever since Robert's disappearance, Berta had elected to address Elizabeth as her mistress instead of in the more familiar ways she'd used before.

"Excellent." Elizabeth said with an encouraging smile. "So do you."

The footman opened the door and let down the steps, and Elizabeth went first. followed by her "aunt." She let Berta step forward. then she turned and looked up at Aaron, who was atop the coach. Her uncle had permitted her to take six servants from Havenhurst, and Elizabeth had chosen them with care. "Don't forget," she warned Aaron needlessly. "Gossip freely about me with any servant who'll listen to you. You know what to say."

"Aye," he said with a devilish grin. "We'll tell them all what a skinny ogress you are-prim 'n proper enough to scare the devil himself into leading a holy life."

Elizabeth nodded and reluctantly turned toward the house. Fate had dealt her this hand, and she had no choice but to play it out as best she could. With head held high and knees shaking violently she walked forward until she drew even with Berta. The butler stood in the doorway, studying Elizabeth with bold interest, giving her the incredible impression that he was actually trying to locate her b.r.e.a.s.t.s beneath the shapeless black gown she wore. He stepped back from the door to permit them to enter. "My lord is with guests at the moment and will join you shortly," he explained. "In the meantime, Curbes will show you to your chambers." His eyes s.h.i.+fted to Berta and began to gleam appreciatively as they settled on her plump derriere, then he turned and nodded to the head footman.

With a white-faced, tight-lipped Berta beside her, Elizabeth climbed the long flight of stairs, glancing curiously about her at the gloomy hall and the crimson carpet on the steps. The carpet was thick and soft at the edges, attesting to its original cost, but it was threadbare beneath her feet and in immediate need of being replaced. There were gilt sconces on the wall with candles in them, but they had not been lit, and the staircase and landing above it were shrouded in darkness. So was the bedchamber she'd been a.s.signed, Elizabeth realized as the footman opened the door and ushered them inside.

"Lady Berta's chamber is just through this door," the footman spoke up. Elizabeth squinted, peering in the darkness, and saw him walk over to what she a.s.sumed must be a wall. Hinges creaked slightly, hinting at the fact that a door had just been opened by the footman.

"It's dark as a tomb in here," she said, unable to see more than shadows. "Will you light the candles, please," she asked, "a.s.suming there are candles in here?"

"Aye, milady, right there, next to the bed." His shadow crossed before her, and Elizabeth focused on a large, oddly shaped object that she supposed could be a bed, given its size.

"Will you light them, please?" she urged. "I-I can't see a thing in here."

"His lords.h.i.+p don't like more'n one candle lit in the bedchambers," the, footman said. "He says it's a waste o' beeswax."

Elizabeth blinked in the darkness, tom somewhere between laughter and tears at her plight. "Oh," she said, nonplussed. The footman lit a small candle at the far end of the room and left, closing the door behind him. "Milady?" Berta whispered, peering through the dark, impenetrable gloom. "Where are you?"

"I'm over here," Elizabeth replied, walking cautiously forward, her arms outstretched, her hands groping about for possible obstructions in her path as she headed for what she hoped was the outside wall of the bedchamber, where there was bound to be a window with draperies hiding its light.

"Where?" Bert asked in a frightened whisper, and Elizabeth could hear the maid's teeth chattering halfway across the room.

"Here-on your left." Berta followed the sound of her mistress's voice and let out a terrified gasp at the sight of the ghostlike figure moving eerily through the darkness, arms outstretched. "Raise your arm," she said urgently, "so I'll know 'tis you."

Elizabeth, knowing Berta's timid nature, complied immediately. She raised her arm, which, while calming poor Berta, unfortunately caused Elizabeth to walk straight into a slender, fluted pillar with a marble bust upon it, and they both began to topple. "Good G.o.d!" Elizabeth burst out, wrapping her arms protectively around the pillar and the marble object upon it. "Berta!" she said urgently. "This is no time to be afraid of the dark. Help me, please. I've b.u.mped into something-a bust and its stand, I think and I daren't let go of them until I can see how to set them upright. There are draperies over here, right in front of me. All you have to do is follow my voice and open them. Once we do, 'twill be bright as day in here."

"I'm coming, milady," Berta said bravely, and Elizabeth breathed a sigh of relief. "I've found them!" Berta cried softly a few minutes later. "They're heavy-velvet they are, with another panel behind them." Berta pulled one heavy panel back across the wall, and then, with renewed urgency and vigor, she yanked back the other and turned around to survey the room.

"Light at last!" Elizabeth said with relief. Dazzliing late afternoon sunlight poured into the windows directly in front of her, blinding her momentarily. "That's much better," she said, blinking. Satisfied that the pillar was quite st.u.r.dy enough to stand without her aid, Elizabeth was about to place the bust back upon it, but Berta's cry stopped her. "Saints preserve us!" With the fragile bust clutched protectively to her chest Elizabeth swung sharply around. There, spread out before her, furnished entirely in red and gold, was the most shocking room Elizabeth had ever beheld: Six enormous gold cupids seemed to hover in thin air above a gigantic bed clutching crimson velvet bed draperies in one pudgy fist and holding bows and arrows in the other; more cupids adorned the headboard. Elizabeth's eyes widened, first in disbelief, and a moment later in mirth. "Berta," she breathed on a smothered giggle, "will you look at this place!"

Mesmerized by the gilt ghastliness of it all, Elizabeth slowly turned in a full circle. Above the fireplace there was a gilt-framed painting of a lady attired in nothing whatsoever but a sc.r.a.p of nearly-transparent red silk that had been draped across her hips. Elizabeth jerked her eyes away from that shocking display of nudity and found herself confronted by a veritable army of cavorting cupids. They reposed in chubby, gilt splendor atop the mantel and the bed tables; a cl.u.s.ter of them formed the tall candelabra beside the bed, which held twelve candles-one of which the footman had lit-and more cupids surrounded an enormous mirror; "It's. . ." Berta uttered as she gazed through eyes the size of saucers, "it's. . . I can't find words," she breathed, but Elizabeth had pa.s.sed through her own state of shock and was perilously close to hilarity.

"Unspeakable?" Elizabeth suggested helpfully, and a giggle bubbled up from her throat. "U-Unbelievable?" she volunteered, her shoulders beginning to shake with mirth.

Berta made a nervous, strangled sound, and suddenly it was too much for both of them. Days of relentless tension erupted into gales of hilarity, and they gave in to it with shared abandon. Great gusty shouts of laughter erupted from them, sending tears trickling down their cheeks. Berta s.n.a.t.c.hed for her missing ap.r.o.n, then remembered her new, elevated station in life and instead withdrew a handkerchief from her sleeve, dabbing at the comers of her eyes; Elizabeth simply clutched the forgotten bust to her chest, perched her chin upon its smooth head, and laughed until she ached. So complete was their absorption that neither of them realized their host was entering the bedchamber until Sir Francis boomed enthusiastically, "Lady Elizabeth and Lady Berta!"

Berta let out a m.u.f.fled scream of surprised alarm and quickly s.h.i.+fted her handkerchief from the comers of her eyes to her mouth.

Elizabeth took one look at the satin-clad figure who rather resembled the cupids he obviously admired, and the dire reality of her predicament hit her like a bucket of icy water, banis.h.i.+ng all thoughts of laughter. She dropped her gaze to the floor, trying wildly to remember her plan and to believe she could make it work. She had to make it work, for if she failed, this aging roue with the penchant for gilded cupids could very likely become her husband.

"My dear, dear ladies." Sir Francis ?? as he hastened forward, "what a long-awaited delight this is!" Courtesy demanded that he acknowledge the older lady first, and so he turned to her. Picking up Berta's limp hand from her side, he pressed his lips to it and said. "Permit me to introduce myself. I am Sir Francis Belhaven."

Lady Berta curtsied her fear-widened eyes fastened on his face, and continued to press her handkerchief to her lips. To his astonishment, she did not acknowledge him at all; she did not say she was charmed to meet him or inquire after his health. Instead, the woman curtsied again. And once again. "There's hardly a need for all that." he said. covering his puzzlement with forced joviality. "I'm only a knight, you know. Not a duke or even an earl."

Lady Berta curtsied again, and Elizabeth nudged her sharply with her elbow. "How do!" burst out the plump lady.

"My aunt is a trifle-er-shy with strangers," Elizabeth managed weakly.

The sound of Elizabeth Cameron's soft, musical voice made Sir Francis's blood sing. He turned with unhidden eagerness to his future bride and realized that it was a bust of himself that Elizabeth was clutching so protectively, so very affectionately to her bosom. He could scarcely contain his delight. "I knew it would be this way between us-no pretense, no maidenly shyness," he burst out, beaming at her blank, wary expression as he gently took the bust of himself from Elizabeth's arms. "But my lovely, there's no need for you to caress a hunk of clay when I am here in the flesh.

Momentarily struck dumb, Elizabeth gaped at the bust she'd been holding as he first set it gently upon its stand, then turned expectantly to her, leaving her with the horrifying-and accurate-thought that he now expected her to reach out and draw his balding head to her bosom. She stared at him, her mind in paralyzed chaos. "I-I would ask a favor of you, Sir Francis," she burst out finally.

"Anything, my dear," he said huskily.

"I would like to-to rest before supper,"

He stepped back, looking disappointed, but then he recalled his manners and reluctantly nodded. "We don't keep country hours. Supper is at eight-thirty." For the first time he took a moment to really look at her. His memories of her exquisite face and delicious body had been so strong, so clear, that until then he'd been seeing the Lady Elizabeth Cameron he'd met long ago. Now he belatedly registered the stark, unattractive gown she wore and the severe way her hair was dressed. His gaze dropped to the ugly iron cross that hung about her neck, and he recoiled in shock. "Oh, and my dear, I've invited a few guests," he added pointedly, his eyes on her unattractive gown. "I thought you would want to know, in order to attire yourself more appropriately."

Elizabeth suffered that insult with the same numb paralysis she'd felt since she set eyes on him. Not until the door closed behind him did she feel able to move. "Berta," she burst out, flopping disconsolately onto the chair beside her, "how could you curtsy like that-he'll know you for a lady's maid before the night is out! We'll never pull this off."

"Well" Berta exclaimed, hurt and indignant. "Twasn't I who was clutching his head to my bosom when he came in."

"We'll do better after this," Elizabeth vowed with an apologetic glance over her shoulder, and the trepidation was gone from her voice, replaced by steely determination and urgency. "We have to do better. I want us both out of here tomorrow. The day after at the very latest."

"The butler stared at my bosom," Berta complained. "I saw him!"

Elizabeth sent her awry, mirthless smile. "The footman stared at mine. No woman is safe in this place. We only had a bit of-of stage fright just now. We're new to playacting, but tonight I'll carry it off. You'll see. No matter what it takes, I'll do it."

When Elizabeth finally descended the stairs on her way to the dining room she was two hours late. Deliberately.

"Good heavens, you're tardy, my dear!" Sir Francis said, shoving back his chair and rus.h.i.+ng to the doorway where Elizabeth had been standing, trying to gather her courage to do what needed to be done. "Come and meet my guests," he ,said, drawing her forward after a swift, disappointed look at her drab attire and severe coiffure. "We did as you suggested in your note and went ahead with supper. What kept you abovestairs so long?"

"I was at prayer," Elizabeth said, managing to look him straight in the eye.

Sir Francis recovered from his surprise in time to introduce her to the three other people at the table-two men who resembled him in age and features and two women of perhaps five and thirty who were both attired in the most shockingly revealing gowns Elizabeth had ever seen.

Elizabeth accepted a helping of cold meat to silence her protesting stomach while both women studied her with unbidden scorn. "That is a most unusual ensemble you're wearing, I must say," remarked the woman named Eloise. 'Is it the custom where you come from to dress so . . . simply?"

Elizabeth took a dainty bite of meat. "Not really. I disapprove of too much personal adornment." She turned to Sir Francis with an innocent stare. "Gowns are expensive. I consider them a great waste of money."

Sir Francis was suddenly inclined to agree, particularly since he intended to keep her naked as much as possible. "Quite right!" he beamed, eyeing the other ladies with pointed disapproval. "No sense in spending all that money on gowns. No point in spending money at all."

"My sentiments exactly," Elizabeth said, nodding. "I prefer to give every s.h.i.+lling I can find to charity instead."

"Give it away?" he said in a muted roar, half rising out of his chair. Then he forced himself to sit back down and reconsider the wisdom of wedding her. She was lovely-her face more mature than he remembered it, but not even the black veil and sc.r.a.ped-back hair could detract from the beauty of her emerald-green eyes with their long, sooty lashes. Her eyes had dark circles beneath them-shadows he didn't recall seeing there earlier in the day. He put the shadows down to her far-too-serious nature. Her dowry was creditable, and her body beneath that shapeless black gown . . . he wished he could see her shape. Perhaps it, too, had changed, and not for the better, in the past few years.

"I had hoped, my dear," Sir Francis said, covering her hand with his and squeezing it affectionately, "that you might wear something else down to supper, as I suggested you should."

Elizabeth gave him an innocent stare. "This is all I brought." "All you brought?" he uttered. "B-But I distinctly saw my footmen carrying several trunks upstairs."

"They belong to my aunt-only one of them is mine," she fabricated hastily, already antic.i.p.ating his next question and thinking madly for some satisfactory answer.

"Really?" He continued to eye her gown with great dissatisfaction, and then he asked exactly the question she'd expected: "What, may I ask, does your one trunk contain if not gowns?"

Inspiration struck, and Elizabeth smiled radiantly. "Something of great value. Priceless value," she confided.

All faces at the table watched her with alert fascination particularly the greedy Sir Francis. "Well, don't keep us in suspense, love. What's in it?"

"The mortal remains of Saint Jacob." Lady Eloise and Lady Mortand screamed in unison, Sir William choked on his wine, and Sir Francis gaped at her in horror, but Elizabeth wasn't quite finished. She saved the coup de grace until the meal was over. As soon as everyone arose she insisted that they sit back down so a proper prayer of grat.i.tude could be said. Raising her hands heavenward, Elizabeth turned a simple grace into a stinging tirade against the sins of l.u.s.t and promiscuity that rose to a crescendo as she called down the vengeance of doomsday on all transgressors and culminated in a terrifyingly lurid description of the terrors that awaited all who strayed down the path of lechery-terrors that combined dragon lore with mythology, a smattering of religion, and a liberal dash of her own vivid imagination. When it was done Elizabeth dropped her eyes, praying in earnest that tonight would loose her from her predicament. There was no more she could do; she'd played out her hand with all her might; she'd given it her all.

It was enough. After supper Sir Francis escorted her to her chamber and, with a poor attempt at regret, announced that he greatly feared they wouldn't suit. Not at all.

Elizabeth and Berta departed at dawn the following morning. an hour before Sir Francis's servants stirred themselves. Clad in a dressing robe, Sir Francis watched from his bedchamber window as Elizabeth's coachman helped her into her conveyance. He was about to turn away when a sudden gust of wind caught Elizabeth's black gown, exposing a long and exceptionally shapely leg to Sir Francis's riveted gaze. He was still staring at the coach as it circled the drive; through its open window he saw Elizabeth laugh and reach up, unpinning her hair. Clouds of golden tresses whipped about the open window, obscuring her face, and Sir Francis thoughtfully wet his lips.

Chapter 10.

The Country seat of Lord John Marchman, Earl of Canford, was a place of such unhampered, unplanned, raw beauty that Elizabeth temporarily forgot the purpose of her visit as she stared out the window. The house was the largest she'd ever seen-a sprawling, half-timbered Tudor structure-but it was the grounds that held her enthralled. Weeping willows marched along a stream that ran through a park at the front of the property, and lilacs bloomed unhampered and untamed beside the willows, their soft colors blending in natural splendor with blue columbine and wild lilies.

Before their chaise drew to a complete halt in front of the house a door was already being flung open, and a tall, stocky man was bounding down the steps.

"It would appear that our greeting here is going to be far more enthusiastic than the one we received at our last stop," Elizabeth said in a resolute voice that still shook with nerves as she drew on her gloves, bravely preparing to meet and defy the next obstacle to her happiness and independence.

The door of their chaise was wrenched open with enough force to pull it from its hinges, and a masculine face poked inside. "Lady Elizabeth!" boomed Lord Marchman, his face flushed with eagerness-or drink; Elizabeth wasn't certain. "This is indeed a long-awaited surprise," and then, as if dumbstruck by his inane remark, he shook his large head and hastily said. "A long-awaited pleasure, that is! The surprise is that you've arrived early."

Elizabeth firmly repressed a surge of compa.s.sion for his obvious embarra.s.sment, along with the thought that he might be rather likable, "I hope we haven't inconvenienced you overmuch," she said.

"Not overmuch. That is," he corrected, gazing into her wide eyes and feeling himself drowning, "not at all."

Elizabeth smiled and introduced "Aunt Berta," then allowed their exuberant host to escort them up the steps, Beside her Berta whispered with some satisfaction, "I think he's as nervous as I am."

The interior of the house seemed drab and rather gloomy after the sunny splendor outside. As their host led her forward Elizabeth glimpsed the furnis.h.i.+ngs in the salon and drawing room-all of which were upholstered in dark leathers that appeared to have once been maroon and brown, Lord Marchman, who was watching her closely and hopefully, glanced about and suddenly saw his home as she must be seeing it. Trying to explain away the inadequacies of his furnis.h.i.+ngs, he said hastily, "This home is in need of a woman's touch. I'm an old bachelor, you see, as was my father,"

Berta's eyes snapped to his face. "Well, I never!" she exclaimed in outraged reaction to his apparent admission of being a b.a.s.t.a.r.d.

"I didn't mean," Lord Marchman hastily a.s.sured, "that my father was never married. I mean"-he paused to nervously tug on his neckcloth, as if trying to loosen it-"that my mother died when I was very young, and my father never remarried. We lived here together."

At the juncture of two hallways and the stairs Lord Marchman turned and looked at Berta and Elizabeth. "Would you care for refreshment, or would you rather go straight to bed?"