The Youngest Bridesmaid by Sara Seale Page A

his mood changed with alarming swiftness from tolerance to anger.
    “ We ’ re not back in the nursery now, Tibby, ” he said with all his old arrogance. “ You will have to control your jealousy if you want to remain with us. ”
    “ Jealous! Me? ”
    “ Yes, you, and I won ’ t tolerate it. You ’ ve been the only woman here for too long, and you know it. You might have a more generous welcome for my wife than this. ”
    “ The wife you should have married would never have lived here, ” the old woman muttered bitterly. “ Rune was quite safe from her sort. She ’ d know her right place in your life. Threw you over, Piers, didn ’ t she, like her mother served your father, and, you, for sheer spite, took the little cousin who most likely doesn ’ t know she ’ s born. ”
    “ That ’ s enough! ” Piers shouted, and at the same time Lou, distracted almost to tears, cried: “ Oh, please stop, both of you. I don ’ t care where I sleep, if that ’ s what ’ s started all this. Miss Tibby, I ’ m sorry if you resent me, but please, please go away now. ”
    The old woman ’ s shadow was gaunt and for bidding on the wall as she moved towards the door and her cold eyes flicked over Lou without sign of apology.
    “ Very well, ” was all she said, and she silently left the room.
    “ Don ’ t try to soften Tibby by apologizing for yourself. She ’ ll only despise you, ” Piers said, and at last Lou ’ s crumbling defences broke.
    She stood with the tears pouring down her face and great tearing sobs choking the words she hurled at him. Wasn ’ t it enough, she cried, that she had married him to save his face and her cousin ’ s threatened disgrace? Hadn ’ t she deputized long enough for another woman, wearing her clothes, borrowing her identity, asking for little in exchange but kindness and consideration?
    “ It ’ s all your fault! ” she fin i shed. “ The almighty Merrick arrogance that thinks money can buy anything ... the disregard for any feelings but your own. Melissa ’ s well out of it ... sheer spite, that old woman said ... well, it isn ’ t very nice to be married for spite ...”
    He had listened without interruption, his eyes changing from surprise to gravity as they watched her face. Once or twice his mouth tightened as if with pain, and once or twice he smiled with faint indulgence.
    “ Well, now— ” he said when she had finished, “ —how you do surprise me, Cinderella. I wouldn ’ t have thought you had such venom in you. ”
    “ Venom? ”
    “ Well, perhaps that ’ s a little strong—such bottled-up resentment, shall we say? Do you really think I married you to spite Melissa? ”
    “ I—I didn ’ t say that. ”
    “ But w ho else could I spite, if that was my reason? ”
    She was silent, and he took her hands, feeling how cold they were, and led her into the other room. When he had gently thrust her into a chair by the fire he fetched brandy from an old wine cooler which also appeared to hold the usual bathroom assortment of bottles and first-aid appliances, and while she sipped her drink, changed over the suitcases from one room to the other, and removed the clean pyjamas already laid out on the turned-down bed which Lou saw was a twin to the one next door.
    “ Yes, the other one belongs in here, ” he said, observing her look. “ I only had it moved out because if you sleep alone a second empty bed is depressing, don ’ t you think? Shall I unpack for you? ”
    It was such an uncharacteristic domestic suggestion that she smiled through her tears, but shook her head. He was, she knew, giving her time to recover composure by making casual, mundane observations as he moved between the two rooms, and she was touched by a forbearance she had not learnt to expect from him.
    “ Tomorrow we ’ ll get properly organized, ” he said, unlocking her cases for her. “ Tibby must have misunderstood my instructions. ” It was a kindly prevarication, she thought,