Page 26 of Midnight Rider
She stood beside her father, watching him fidget. His face was red and he looked completely out of sorts. Bernadette thought he was angry at her until she saw him glance at her with mingled concern and apology.
“There’s a scandal unfolding. That damned stable boy overheard us talking this morning,” Colston said through his teeth. “He told avaquero,who shared it with his relatives. Another of them was relating it yet again when one of our visitors who speaks Spanish overheard. He told everyone else. They all know that you were out with Eduardo all night. I’m sorry, girl.”
She went red. Her impulsive behavior had destroyed her reputation. Eduardo might marry her, she might become respectable, but no one would forget that she’d stayed out all night with a man to whom she wasn’t married.
“You hold your head up!” Colston said sharply when he saw her morose expression. “Sure and you’ve nothing to be ashamed of. Don’t you let them look down at you! You’re a Barron. You’re as good as anyone here!”
She wasn’t, and he knew it, but it was the first time he’d defended her in recent memory and it touched her.
“Thank you, Father,” she said.
He looked uncomfortable again. His eyes went to the doorway and he seemed to slump with relief. “He’s come, then.”
She turned and saw Eduardo, elegant in evening clothes and looking every inch the nobleman. He walked straight to Bernadette, without pausing to speak to any of the guests, and his smile was for her alone.
“You look lovely,” he told her, and lifted her hand very correctly to his lips. His head turned toward the assembled guests who were murmuring among themselves. He didn’t have to be told that their secret was now public knowledge. He smiled mockingly at his host. “This would seem to be the best time to make the announcement,” he told Colston. “Don’t you agree?”
“Indeed I do, my boy.” Colston walked to the band and requested silence. When he had the attention of his guests, he motioned Eduardo and Bernadette to join him. Eduardo gestured to his manservant hovering at the doorway with a velvet box in his hands.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I have an announcement to make! I wish to announce the betrothal of my daughter, Bernadette, to Count Eduardo Rodrigo Ramirez y Cortes of Granada, Spain, and the Rancho Econdido of Valladolid County, Texas. I hope that all of you will join me in wishing the happy couple all the best for their future together!”
There was shocked hesitation, then lukewarm applause, and then a roar of applause.
Eduardo and Bernadette exchanged ironic glances. He opened the velvet box his manservant was holding and withdrew a priceless antique gold-and-emerald bracelet which he clasped around Bernadette’s small wrist. That was followed by the heirloom ring, also gold with emeralds. Amazingly, it fit her finger as if it had been made for it.
She looked up at Eduardo, who wore an expression of surprise.
“A good omen,” he said for her ears alone. “It is said that the ring fits a Ramirez bride without adjustment if the match is a good one.” He lifted her hand and kissed the ring.
Colston shook Eduardo’s hand. His eyes were riveted to the jewelry Bernadette was now wearing. “I suppose you realize that she’s wearing a king’s ransom?” he asked softly. “Worth more than enough to restore your fortunes.”
Eduardo looked at him levelly. “These two pieces are all I have left of my father’s legacy,” he said quietly. “They were handed down from the ancestor who had them created from Bolivian emeralds in the sixteenth century for his bride. They carry a curse, that whoever dares to sell them will lose not only his fortune, but his life.” He smiled amusedly. “No one has ever had the nerve to test the curse.”
“I see.”
Bernadette was looking not at the jewels, but at Eduardo, her heart in her big, green eyes.
He looked down at her and saw her expression and his breath caught. He knew, he’d always known, her feelings for him. But now there was a difference in the way he reacted to it. He felt himself shiver deep inside at the hunger that rose like a dry heat in his loins and spread over him like fire. He averted his eyes before the emotion could kindle a visible reaction that would embarrass them both.
There was more applause and the visitors gathered around to see Bernadette’s ring and bracelet, no longer thinking of scandal when there was this juicy new bit of gossip to share with one another and take back to their homes.
“Why, this ring is magnificent!” Mrs. Carlisle said, grasping Bernadette’s small hand in her pudgy fingers. “It must be worth a fortune!”
“It is,” Eduardo replied, looking haughtily down at her. “But to discuss such matters in company is vulgar.”
Turning red with embarrassment, she cleared her throat and put a hand to her fake pearls. Obviously her background and her experience as personal social secretary to one of the Astors had faded in the rough society of southwest Texas.
“Mrs. Carlisle made the arrangements for the ball,” Bernadette said quickly, to save the poor woman any further embarrassment. “Didn’t she do a lovely job?”
The older woman looked as if she might fall on Bernadette with relief.
“The motif is, indeed, elegant,” Eduardo murmured.
Mrs. Carlisle’s pride was restored. She smiled at Eduardo. “If you require any help with the wedding...” she began.
He held up a hand and smiled to soften the rejection. “You are most kind. However, my cousin Lupe will see to the arrangements.”
Mrs. Carlisle looked concerned. “You do realize that even here a wedding of this sort will require a certain...elegance?”