A Gift for a Princess Read online

  With trembling fingers she unknotted the string and removed the plain wrapping. An English translation of The Princesse de Clèves. “Oh!” she said. “Thank you.”

  “I have a feeling you’ve read it. Am I right?”

  “Yes.”

  “I guessed it was for Mrs. Harden that you sought the book, but I believe you need a copy of your own.” Speechless, she stared down at the leather bound volume. His voice dropped. “You wanted to be a princess.”

  Her head jerked up and she saw warmth in his gaze, and knowledge. “How?” she breathed.

  “When you fell I recognized your gown. The yellow and blue ribbons.”

  Her eyes fell to the trim around the hem of her best dress. “Marseilles prostitutes,” she said with a nod. Was that how he regarded her?

  “Will you come with me to another room now?”

  Lavinia was busy with other guests, but Susanna knew she’d be keeping an eye on Mr. Wynford. She led him down to the small sitting room on the ground floor and lit a couple of candles.

  “Mr. Wynford,” she began, taking a deep breath.

  ”Susanna, I think you should call me Simon.”

  “No. I think we should forget the whole matter, pretend it never happened.”

  “I’m afraid I can’t.” Oh God! Did he want to repeat their tryst? There was definitely a glint in his eye. She wasn’t at all sure she owned the fortitude to refuse.

  “Susanna,” her name in his deep voice was like a caress. “Will you do me the honor of being my wife?”

  Her legs gave way and she perched on the edge of a hard little settee, staring at her lap. Two ribbons, one yellow, one blue, flowed from her waist. She examined them with dedicated concentration, noting a slight fraying on one side of the yellow.

  “No,” she said after a long pause, and it was the hardest speech she ever made. “Thank you, but no. It wouldn’t be right. Are we to spend our lives together because of a foolish accident? If I hadn’t tripped you wouldn’t have known. Most certainly you wouldn’t have made such an offer.”

  “You think not?” he said.

  Still not daring to look she shook her head. He crouched beside her, disentangled the ribbons from her fingers and enveloped her hands in his grasp. His were warm and a little rough. “As we left the box I was already planning how I would find you again. When I realized who you were I felt nothing but joy that my masked lover was a lady I knew and esteemed.”

  At last she raised her head and looked into eyes of no ordinary blue and a smile so tender it set her heart madly thumping. “You may be right that I wouldn’t have offered for you, Susanna Burley, but only because I was a fool. I didn’t know that I loved you, and have for weeks.”

  She tried to speak but nothing came out.

  With one finger he traced the edge of her upper lip. “I was blind. Until I saw you masked I hadn’t realized you have the most beautiful mouth I’d ever seen.”

  She managed a fragile smile.

  “I can’t wait to kiss you,” he continued. “I’ve been thinking of little else for the past two days. But first I’d like to ask one question. I wasn’t in disguise that night. Why did you let me make love to you?”

  Her mouth was dry and she had to force the words out. “Because I wanted to.” She paused, and continued in a whisper. “Because I wanted you, just for one night. Because I love you.”

  “I’m afraid you’re going to have to endure me every night for the rest of our lives because, after that, a simple ‘no’ will not suffice.”

  Her heart expanded with joy. “Yes,” she said. “Yes, I will marry you.”

  ♦♦♦♦♦

  Although Susanna had fully recovered her powers of speech, they spent the next fifteen minutes not speaking at all, until interrupted by Lavinia. Fortunately they were both still fully dressed. Lavinia’s first instinct was to eject her treacherous cousin from the house, but she changed her mind when she considered the probable reaction of her other guests.

  This was a good thing since Simon discovered that it was impossible to obtain a special marriage license on Christmas Day because the Archbishop of Canterbury’s office was closed. One day of the year, Susanna remarked, that she’d expect clergymen to be working. Susanna became Mrs. Simon Wynford a week later and they lived happily ever after.

  Lavinia caught the eye of another customer for her husband’s paintings, a banker. After their marriage she became a popular hostess in City circles and entertained numerous professional men, none of whom expected her to read the books they discussed.

  Juliana Merton’s book business continued to struggle, until one day a marquis with flashing blue eyes and a shocking reputation walked into the shop…