‘Do you remember that last time we were all together in this room?’ Dominic murmured suddenly. ‘You came in through those doors, Madeline, wearing that exquisite lime gown, with your hair billowing about your shoulders and your eyes huge and frightened in your too pale face—and my heart stopped dead as I looked at you—you looked so hauntingly, tragically beautiful!’
Louise and her father had decided to hold the wedding reception at the country club because it was far better equipped to deal with the hundreds of guests they’d invited. Madeline’s gaze took the journey she remembered taking that fateful night four years ago, and she sighed quietly.
‘You were very angry with me, as I recall it.’ She smiled a little sadly at the memory and leaned closer into the comforting frame behind her.
‘I was a lot of things that night, Madeline,’ Dom stated a little grimly. ‘I was angry, yes, but I was also seething with the jealousy that seeing you in that young swine’s arms filled me with, frightened by what was happening to us both—and so damned enchanted by you that I couldn’t even control myself enough to leave you alone. Perhaps if I had, things wouldn’t have got so out of hand as they did. By the time I took you on to the dance-floor, I felt so battered by my emotions that I just let rip with them.’
‘We made a terrible scene that night,’ she recalled.
‘We certainly did,’ he agreed. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever felt so ashamed of myself as I did afterwards,’ he added grimly. ‘But there you were, a tragic vision at my feet in billowing silk, your beautiful head bowed in abject remorse and—dammit, Madeline, but I could have sworn you were mocking me!’
A smile touched her beautiful mouth. ‘I was,’ she said, as she went to pull away from him. ‘Look, Nina is ready to go and change. I’d better—’
‘What do you mean, you were?’ he demanded, grabbing her wrist to stop her running away.
Madeline turned, her dark hair twisted elegantly on the top of her head, the Edwardian style of her cream silk gown giving her that air of majesty the people here in Lambourn had been forced to acknowledge as part of the new and dauntingly sophisticated Madeline over the last six weeks.
But the smile she laid on Dominic was old Madeline to the core. ‘You didn’t think I would let you get away with all those insults you’d thrown at me without giving you something back by return, did you? Trust your instincts where I’m concerned, my darling,’ she wisely advised. ‘They’re invariably right.’
‘You were mocking me!’ he growled.
‘Of course,’ she drawled, blue eyes mocking him even now. ‘I’ll see you later, hmm?’
‘Then why did you run away afterwards?’ He wasn’t about to let her go until she’d told him everything.
Madeline levelled thoughtful eyes on him for a moment. He was angry with her, and she hadn’t wanted that, not tonight. Tonight was supposed to be special. Their night—their secret night. ‘Because,’ she said quietly, very quietly, ‘I knew you would never forgive me for that last trick. It was just too public—even for a bad Madeline trick.’ Her mouth twisted in a moment of self-contempt then straightened again. ‘You told me to grow up, remember? So I went away to do just that, and grow up I did.’
‘But I’d forgiven you by the next morning, dammit!’ he rasped. ‘It was myself I had
difficulty forgiving, not you!’
Without either of them being aware of it, Dominic’s voice had risen, and already several people were glancing curiously their way, seeing another Stanton-Gilburn scene was in the making.
Then Madeline heard someone groan out an, ‘Oh, no,’ and recognised Vicky’s pained voice.
Her eyes lifted pleadingly to Dominic’s. ‘Dom…?’ she sighed in tired warning.
His gaze flicked impatiently around the suddenly quietened room, seeing what Madeline could not see since she had her back to the groups of people all watching them, and he let out a short sigh as he brought his wry gaze back to hers. ‘Tell me,’ he murmured quite casually, ‘are you the new Madeline tonight, or the old one—only sometimes I find it impossible to tell the difference.’
Madeline pretended to consider the question before answering. ‘A bit of both, I think,’ she decided. ‘I have been for several days now.’ Her blue eyes teased him gently. ‘It’s almost as if the one sort of blended in with the other, one dark and stormy afternoon about two weeks ago, and since then I have difficulty myself trying to separate them.’
He laughed, not loudly but in a soft, indulgent kind of way, ‘Well, whoever you are, I think I should warn you that there is a small convention of Stantons and Gilburns making their hurried way over here.’ Once again his eyes flicked to a point just beyond her right shoulder then came back to her. ‘I’m afraid it’s truth or consequence time, darling,’ he warned her drily.
‘Oh.’ Her lovely face lost its teasing smile. ‘I didn’t want this, Dom.’
‘Then come here to me, and let me deal with it.’ The hand still clasping her wrist drew her back against him and twisted into a strong hand-clasp, and by the time their two families arrived in varying stages of concern and irritation Madeline was being held securely at Dominic’s side, his arm bent possessively around her waist so that their clasped hands rested on the flat of her stomach.
Edward Gilburn glanced from one studiedly expressionless face to the other, then muttered angrily, ‘What the hell do you two think you’re doing?’
Madeline turned a brilliant smile on the apprehensive Nina. ‘Hello, darling! Shouldn’t you be thinking of getting changed quite soon?’ Her smile shifted to Charles. ‘You’ll miss your flight if you don’t hurry.’ There was still a small chance she could divert this, she thought hopefully.
But Perry joined the group, his hazel eyes enjoying the fun. ‘Problems, anyone?’ he innocently enquired.
‘Not if these two are kept at separate ends of the room, no,’ muttered Vicky, glowering at them.
‘You have to be kidding,’ Perry laughed, glancing down at their clasped hands then up at Madeline with a faint enquiry. She glanced at Dominic, also in enquiry, and he smiled down at her in rueful defeat. She looked back at Perry, also in rueful defeat, and everyone else looked at them in growing bewilderment. ‘You may as well get it over with, you know,’ he advised softly.
‘Get what over with?’ snapped Vicky impatiently.