Tempest(56)
Since she didn’t have a lady’s maid at the Ocean Breeze, Cathy usually asked one of the chamber maids to help with her corset when she dressed in the morning. Tonight, they had all gone home, so she pushed the buzzer for the kitchen and waited to see who would turn up.
“You rang, my lady?” came Theo’s voice from the corridor.
“Oh, Theo! Isn’t there a female in the hotel?”
“They’re all occupied with dinner preparations, I’m afraid. Do you need help with your corset? I have sisters, you know. I can do it.”
“Wait!” She stepped into her gown and drew it around her so that it only gapped open in back, where the corset laces waited for him. “All right, come in.”
He wore a bemused expression as he approached her. “God help me if your husband turns up. He’d surely challenge me to a duel and carve my heart out with his rapier.”
“Don’t be silly. He’s not that terrifying, is he?”
Theo waggled his eyebrows and laughed. “Oh, yes, completely.” He took the laces in his hands and instructed, “Inhale, my lady.”
Cathy braced herself against the bureau as the corset tightened around her, and then she felt him fastening the tiny hooks that marched down the back of her gown of cream silk embroidered with fragile seed pearls. “But Theo, he knows better, don’t you think? About you, I mean.”
“I doubt it. The fact is, I am sure that Raveneau realizes I would have fallen in love with you long ago if it weren’t impossible. Men sense these things.”
She felt her cheeks grow warm and was grateful that she was turned away from him. “You’re just being kind. You and I have been friends from the moment we met, and that’s often a more durable relationship, don’t you think so?”
“I do. That’s why I’ve settled for it so happily.” He straightened the seams of her gown and patted both of her shoulders. “There you go. You look exquisite.”
“It’s kind of you to say so.” Turning, she looked at her reflection in the mirror and realized that she scarcely recognized the woman gazing back at her. She was slender yet shapely, with beautifully expressive brown eyes and delicate features. It seemed that the former roundness of her face had been gradually replaced by finely etched bone structure. Her upswept hair, always uncooperative in Newport, was fuller and wavier in this tropical climate, and there were tendrils curling softly around her face. The Worth silk gown, with its fragile batiste overlay and trails of seed pearls, clung almost provocatively to her curves.
“You know it’s true, don’t you?” Theo prompted gently.
A rosy glow spread across her cheekbones. “You have no idea the things my mother has said to me all my life about my looks. I am so used to seeing her shaking her head hopelessly at the sight of me, instructing me to stand up straighter or smile differently or eat less in an effort to improve my shape. Do you know she made me wear a rod at home for my posture?” Sighing, she shook her head a little. “Now, I’ve realized that it’s up to me to create my own opinion of myself, and I’m working on that.”
“Good girl. There’s a man waiting for you tonight who clearly adores you.”
“Well, I must confess that I’m still afraid to believe that...”
“Give him a second chance. Don’t we all deserve that?”
Cathy had a sudden memory of sitting with Adam on Christmas Eve, opening the unexpected gift from her father. What had Adam said to her then? “Give the poor fellow a chance... No one’s perfect.” As she stared into space, reliving the moment with new meaning, a shiver ran down her back.
“I’m going then,” Theo called brightly as he made his exit. “I’m afraid you’re on your own from now on tonight!”
Chapter 31
Standing on a broad stone terrace that overlooked the Atlantic Ocean, Adam Raveneau listened to the rhythmic pounding of the waves and enjoyed a moment of keen anticipation. Palm trees swayed above the beach and, in the distance, the tall-masted Golden Eagle was silhouetted against a silvery full moon as it rested at anchor beyond Cobbler’s Reef.
The sun, a magenta ball of fire, was just sinking into the ocean. It was a magical evening.
All his plans were now in motion. Glass hurricane lamps were lit, the intimate round table was set with fine linens and crystal, and Josephine and her helpers were working in the kitchen. Adam waited, aching to see Cathy, to look into her eyes, to touch her fingers.
When the landau came into sight in the distance, his heart leaped. The carriage kept to the coast road, hugging the cliffs, leaving a cloud of coral dust in its wake.
Entering the mansion, Adam descended the hand-carved mahogany staircase and glanced around the grand entrance hall. When he’d decided that Crowe’s Nest would be the site of his romantic evening with Cathy, he hadn’t counted on the effect that years of emptiness would have on the mansion. There had been almost as much cleaning to do as in his law office in Bridgetown, but he’d done it gladly. Making the entry hall and verandah presentable for this evening had been a labor of love.
Now the landau was drawing up the semicircular drive to the front entrance. As it came to a stop and Simon climbed down to open the door for Cathy, Adam went out to greet her.
She peeked out of the carriage door, wide-eyed and more beautiful than he could have dreamed. Unable to help himself, he let his gaze roam from her softly upswept hair, down over her expressively radiant face and the gossamer gown that blew softly against her form, to the glimmer of seed pearls that embroidered the hem of her petticoat. Closing the distance between them as Simon stepped back, Adam held out a dark, strong hand to her.
“Welcome to Crowe’s Nest, Lady Raveneau.”
Cathy’s heart swelled as she met his tender gaze. This was the sort of fantasy that she always had imagined happening to other girls, but never to her. In his black and white evening clothes, he looked more like a character from a romantic novel than someone from her very own life. “I’ve been wondering where Simon was taking me,” she admitted, putting her hand in his. “I had envisioned a simple dinner... perhaps at a hotel—”
“Simple? For you? Nothing of the kind, Cathy. You had told me that you wanted to come here...”
As they walked up the steps, she murmured, “I didn’t imagine anything quite so special.”
“Nothing I could possibly do would be special enough for you.”
His penetrating eyes sent a tremor of arousal through her. “Adam, do you remember the night we met... when we talked in the Chinese teahouse at Beechcliff?”
“Remember? I have relived every moment of that night more times than I can count.”
The corners of her mouth turned up. “Sometimes I remember it, too. From the moment you called me Cathy, I think I was under your spell.”
Torches were lit on either side of the doorway, flickering in the soft evening breeze, and they paused there. Adam restrained himself from gathering her into his arms and covering her mouth with his. Instead, he continued to hold her hand, caressing her tender palm with his thumb. “And now?” he whispered. “Have I broken the spell beyond repair?”
“Well, the notion of a spell isn’t quite right for a marriage, is it?”
“Cathy, you must know what I mean.”
She stood up a little straighter, her eyes clear. “I suppose I wouldn’t be here tonight if I’d given up all hope...”
“Good.” He nodded slowly, letting her words sink in. “Let’s go upstairs, and have dinner, shall we? I think it’s time we became reacquainted.”
Cathy looked around as they entered the mansion, taking in the arrangement of freshly cut hibiscus, peacock flowers, lilies, and red lobster-claws. “You have been busy! Hasn’t Crowe’s Nest been uninhabited?”
“I wanted this evening to be perfect.”
“Adam, before I forget, I must thank you for the schoolbooks that Byron brought today. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate them... and your thoughtfulness.”
“It was a small gesture compared to what you are doing for June and her friends.” He took her arm as they went up the wide stairway. “But, while we are speaking of gratitude, I owe a huge debt to you for your kind treatment of Paul today. I know that it can’t have been easy, given the circumstances, and I apologize for not being present. You shouldn’t have been put in that position.”
When she looked up, she saw that he was watching her expression with deceptively keen eyes. What did he hope— or fear— to see? “Don’t apologize. He is a little boy and quite innocent in the tangle of our adult lives. Is he better?”
“Yes, just a bit sleepy, still.” He paused, considering for a moment whether to say more. “Actually, since I was busy with these preparations, Byron brought him here this afternoon. They’re upstairs.”
Cathy brightened. “May I see him, please? I should feel so much better to see for myself that he is all right.”
This wasn’t part of the romantic, intimate evening Adam had planned, but he nodded. It was difficult for him to forget the shadow in Cathy’s eyes when she had been in Paul’s presence in the past. He had been hoping that, if he could win her love again, the situation with Paul could be slowly resolved over time. “How can I refuse?”