Edith Layton by To Tempt a Bride Page A

up in front of her. The family had planned a quiet evening, so she’d given her maid the night off. But she wasn’t such a grand lady that she’d call her maid back for something as trivial as putting on a gown. Although, she thought as she stopped prancing, now she wished she had her maid help’s in dressing. She wanted to look so fine tonight.
    She lowered the gown and stared at her reflection. It was daunting. She wanted to see a vision. She saw only her naked self with a really nice gown in her hand.
    “Are you ready, Camille?” Nell asked from outside her door.
    “Just a minute!’ she answered. She raised her arms and dropped the gown over her head like a curtain and wriggled until it seemed settled in all the right places. She did up her buttons, hopping in place as she sought her slippers and slipped her feet into them. Then she drew her sash tight and tied it. She glanced in the looking glass. It would do.
    Camille pulled up her hair, hastily tied it with a ribbon, then shook her head like a dog shedding water, trying to get her curls to bounce the way her maid did when she made up her hair. She blew out a breath and sent a strand up off her face so she could see how she’d done.
    Her hair looked tousled, as though she’d just gotten out of bed. But men were said to like that. She could only hope the style looked casual instead of sloppy. She took a deep breath, noted how that made her breasts rise and fall, and nodded to herself. There was no more she could do. The rest was up to fate. And Eric.
    “Right,” she called. “Come in.”
    The door opened and she saw Nell. Nell’s gown was blue too. It was another of Belle’s cast-offs, but it suited Nell perfectly, making her eyes seem to gleam bright as sapphires. Her hair was drawn back in a smooth ebony sweep, making her lookcool and pure, like a medieval portrait of the Madonna. But her figure made her look more like Mary Magdalene.
    Camille forced a smile. “I’m done,” she said, repressing the “for” that almost slipped from her lips. “Let’s go.”
     
    Eric himself greeted his guests at the door.
    “Mission accomplished,” he told Miles. “Little girl found. Nell,” he said gravely, taking her hand in his, “we’ve located your cousin Dana, your nearest kin. He’s here, and he’s anxious to see you.”
    Nell, Camille thought, merely looked anxious. Understandable, of course. She was about to meet the man who would have absolute control over her life for the next three years and possibly forever. This was the fellow who was her male next of kin. As such, if he consented to take her in, he would have the power to dower her, marry her off, or force her to remain a spinster. That was enough to make anyone anxious. What if he was an opportunist? Or a monster?
    Camille bit her tongue. She tried to force herself to stifle all the plans that flew to her mind, plans to rush to the rescue if the man seemed unfit. Eric, Miles, and Rafe would be very capable of doing that. Nell was in good hands, no matter whose hands they placed her in. Given the girl’s recent outrageous comments about women and their choices, Camille couldn’t help thinking that was a very good thing.
    Eric showed them into his salon. Nell stood staring, seemingly dazzled by the company. Camille knew almost all of them. Two she hadn’t seen in a while, her brother’s friends: the dark, lean, elegant, long-nosed earl of Drummond and his lovely wife, Alexandria.
    But another dark gentleman was far more interesting to Camille, because he was a stranger.
    He turned to look at them as they walked into the room. He was as well dressed as the other men, if a little more soberly, all in black, except for his high white neckcloth. Though not as tall as any of them either, he looked extremely fit. His black hair was brushed till it shone. Though his aquiline nose was a trifle large for his face, his other features were regular and his mouth well shaped. In all, he was handsome