Celeste Bradley - [Heiress Brides 01] by Desperately Seeking a Duke Page B

Calder’s arms.
    He clenched his teeth.
    Only a fortnight left until the wedding. Then she would be Calder’s wife and even Rafe’s shaky morals did not sink that low.
    He hoped.
    PHOEBE EMERGED FROM the shop with her gift in her reticule, looking about for the others. Next to the gentleman’s shop was a hat shop—a bit of clever salesmanship, really, when one considered that few gentlemen truly had the patience required for a decent bout of hat shopping.
    When Phoebe peeked through the front window, she saw that Tessa and Deirdre were already happily engaged in lively debate over … feathers? Even Sophie was wistfully fondling a sweet concoction of straw and ribbon. What fun! Phoebe moved to the door and even had her hand on the knob—

    Until she smelled the chocolate.
    Chocolate was one of her secret sins—really her only sin these days, unless one counted a tendency toward unvoiced sarcasm. She managed to hide the occasional caustic thoughts that crossed her mind, but she had never quite conquered the longing for all things wastefully pleasurable.
    There was not a large selection of sweets available in Thornton—aside from rose-petal gelatin—nor was the vicar one to waste money on such decadent luxuries, so her opportunities to submit to this particular vice were few and far between.
    With one last longing glance into the hat shop, Phoebe set off to find the source of that delightful scent.
    Now before her eyes, there rose a miracle of self-indulgence and pleasure. A confectioner’s, a real sweet shop of the sort she’d only heard of. The tiny place wasn’t much larger than a market stall, but it was filled from ceiling to floor with the sin of gluttony—sin shimmering with crystallized sugar, sin tinted in every color of the rainbow. The heady scent of sugar and cocoa was intoxicating now, making Phoebe’s knees weak with desire.
    A woman popped up from behind a rack of red twists. Her pink cheeks and white hair made her seem like just another sweet. Her blue eyes twinkled and her smile dimpled when her gaze fell upon such an avid customer.
    “Stopped in for a treat,’ave ye, pet?”
    Phoebe fell instantly in love—with the shop, its proprietor, and with the rows upon rows of gleaming treats before her eyes. From the amber of caramel to the deepest coffee-color of fine chocolate, everything looked entirely and completely heavenly.
    There was a spare farthing in her reticule—“spare” meaning that it had no immediately useful purpose. It sang to her, a high sweet note that said, “Spend me!”
    A moment later Phoebe was skulking guiltily back the
way she’d come, a tiny paper twist of purchased candy in her hand and the first taste of chocolate on her tongue. Oh, it had been years . She must consume it quickly, for she could imagine what Tessa would have to say about it. For Tessa, the figure was paramount. Nothing, not wine or beef or cakes, could be allowed to come between a woman and the tightest laces of her corset.
    Phoebe turned the last corner quickly—and nearly choked on her first taste. Her three companions gazed at her curiously.
    “Where have you been?” Tessa’s eyes were narrowed. “What do you have there?”
    With a tiny silent mew of loss, Phoebe dropped the paper twist of candy behind her back and stepped on it. She spread her hands before her. “I don’t know what you mean. I was only looking for a hack to take us home.”
    Tessa gazed at her sourly. It only made Phoebe think longingly of lemon drops.
    “Hmm. Well, I suppose we ought to begin our preparations for this evening. Let us go home then.”
    Phoebe allowed herself to be towed away, casting only one longing glance over her shoulder at delicious sin left undone, squashed on the pavement.
    Through the milling crowd she thought she saw someone stop and bend to pick up her discarded paper twist. Then skirts and parasols came between.
    Phoebe sighed. When would she learn? Sin didn’t pay.

Chapter Fifteen
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