ring as they began to take to the floor. 'For better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health'—
'You are breathtaking.' His eyes were waiting for her glance. 'Ethereal, exquisite, so delicately beautiful I'm afraid you might break.'
'Don't.' It was too much after the day before, spoken as it was in a deep, husky voice that sent shivers down to her toes and made her weak.
'I'm sorry.' His expression instantly hardened into granite, the familiar mask hiding his emotions as he looked away from her and round the crowded dance-floor. 'I didn't realise my mere words would be so distasteful.'
'They aren't.' She didn't know what to say, how to handle this powerful, hard man who could turn from ice to fire and then back again all in the same breath and leave her trembling in confusion. 'It's just that…'
'Just that?' he asked softly, his eyes veiled as he looked down into her troubled face. 'Just that you're frightened, nervous, wondering how you're going to face the night ahead and all the other nights?'
'I didn't say that.'
'Don't be frightened, my formidable little wife. Physically, at least, we will be compatible,' he said thickly. 'I will make you want me as you've never dreamed it possible to want a man, in spite of how you feel about me in the cold light of day. You will tremble in my arms, plead, moan for that which only I can give. I promise you that.'
'Carlton…' She was trembling already, the dark, fiery side of him that she had only glimpsed now and again raw and naked in front of her eyes as his gaze roamed over her face and body with a hunger that was voracious and quite at odds with the very English, formal tailed suit.
'I've wanted you from the moment I saw you,' he whispered softly as the other dancers swirled and moved around them. 'From the second I saw your photograph on David's desk.'
'My photo?' She tried to pull away a little but he was holding her too tightly, his hand like a band of steel on her waist and his body rigid as he crushed her closer against him, careless now of the beautiful dress.
'You were sitting with Jennifer in some park or other and while she laughed into the camera, her face tilted for the best pose, you gazed into the lens like a little lost dove, your eyes wide and beckoning and your hair loose about your shoulders like raw silk. As it will be tonight.' His gaze moved to the tiny curls and waves on top of her head which had taken the hairdresser over an hour to accomplish.
How could he love one woman and want another the way he wanted her? she asked herself bitterly. Were all men like this? Able to detach their bodies so completely from their emotions? Her eyes chilled with resentment and humiliation and she turned her head away, her body stiff and unyielding and her face cold with hidden pain.
'Stop frowning.' The expression on his face as she raised her eyes to his again made her catch her breath. There was hunger there, rage, a strange kind of bitterness and, she would almost have thought, pain. 'This is your wedding-day; you are the radiant bride. At least try to act the part for a few hours, if only for David's benefit.' He gestured with the merest inclination of his head towards her father, sitting at the top table in the distance, and she saw that although he was talking to Joseph his eyes returned every few seconds to her face and his lined face was worried.
From that point she threw herself into the allotted part with all her might, circulating on Carlton's arm and chatting happily with all their guests, her lips smiling, her eyes bright and her nerves stretched to breaking-point Just before they left the party later that evening she found herself in a quiet corner with David, her facial muscles aching with the effort it had taken to keep the smile in place all day.
'Is everything all right, lass?' He took one of her hands in his as he looked into her face. 'You seem a sight too het up to me.'
'It's my wedding-day, Dad.' She forced a light laugh from somewhere. 'Surely a girl has a right to be excited on her wedding-day?'
'And that's all it is?' he asked quietly. 'There's nothing wrong?'
'Nothing.' If he said much more with that loving look on his face she would burst into tears, she thought frantically, and then all this would be for nothing. He mustn't find out the truth or the price she had paid to give him peace of mind.
'Have you ever seen such a beautiful bride?' Carlton's deep voice over her shoulder made her sag with relief as her father's eyes moved from her face and up to his.
'Never.' The two men smiled at each other before Carlton's hand under her elbow raised her gently to her feet.
'Time to say our goodbyes, darling,' he said smoothly.
The last twenty minutes seemed the worst but at last it was over and she went upstairs with Jennifer, who was going to help her change in the room that Carlton had reserved, before they left the hotel, where the festivities were going to continue into the early hours.
'You looked lovely today, Katie.' As Jennifer unhooked the tiny buttons at the back of the dress and helped her step out of it, her voice was full of reluctant admiration. 'Things went OK last night, then?' she asked with heavy casualness.
'Yes.' As the flurry of silk and lace was laid on the sofa at her side Katie reached for the simple cream linen dress and jacket she had chosen to wear and slipped into the dress quickly. 'Help me take the flowers out of my hair, would you? This tiara is fixed with a thousand pins; it kept slipping out of my hair without them.'
'You don't want to talk about it?' Jennifer asked quietly.
'No.' Katie turned and looked her sister straight in the eye. 'Not now, not ever. It's OK and I want to leave it at that.'
'Fine, fine.' Jennifer's hands deftly removed the tiara without disturbing the upswept curls. 'I'm sure you know what you're doing,' she said tartly, with a faint trace of spitefulness.
As she left the lift in the reception area a few minutes later, Jennifer just behind her, and caught sight of Carlton, big and dark as he towered over all the other men present, Katie thought that she had never in her life been less sure of what she was doing than right now. She loved him. She ached with love for him and as she walked to his side and he smiled down at her, devastatingly attractive in his dark morning suit, she felt a sudden fierce determination to make things work whatever the cost, to turn this fiasco around and make him if not happy, then at least content.
That spirit of sacrificial nobility lasted exactly five minutes until Carlton shook hands with Joseph, who had been his best man, and then turned to take Maisie in his arms, kissing her gently before whispering something quietly in her ear that made the lovely brunette flush and drop her eyes shyly.