Page 31 of The Cornish Bride

The Misses Sedgewick,Honoria and Lucinda, two ladies who might have been cut from the same forbiddingly austere cloth, beamed with toothy delight when Ysella entered their shop. Like a couple of crows, all their plumage was black, a sharp contrast to the shelves of brightly colored silks and satins that adorned their shop.

At the very back, in the gloom furthest from the shop window, sat the row of little apprenticed seamstresses who did most of the work. Morvoren had once persuaded Kit to help the families of these girls, all of them younger than Ysella, with a gift of food when they’d produced her very first ball gown. Perhaps Ysella, too, might send them some food if they produced the gown she wanted. Not that her main purpose was to purchase a new gown, but there was no harm in getting one anyway, as that would add color to her story. Kit would be most surprised, and probably suspicious, if she came back without having ordered one.

“I’m afraid I don’t have much time today,” she said, her gaze sliding to the door. Would Oliver dare to come right into the shop to find her? Not many men liked to dally in a women’s dressmakers. Although Kit had never been bothered about doing so. If Oliver did, though, she didn’t want to be still taken up with choosing her gown. “Perhaps you could show me the latest fabrics you have in stock?” She had a picture of the gown she wanted folded in her reticule. “I have the design here.”

Oliver had made no appearance by the time Ysella had selected a peacock blue satin. She held up the picture she’d brought. “Like this, with embroidery around the hem and on the bodice in a slightly paler shade of blue. That will be perfect.”

Miss Honoria made a show of measuring Ysella again, although they well knew her measurements as they’d made all her gowns for her first season.

“A fan to match, and slippers?” Miss Lucinda asked, holding up the suggested fan.

Ysella nodded, throwing yet another anxious glance towards the door. What if he wasn’t coming? What if that dreadful boy had just gone off with his sixpence and thrown her letter away? It would be just like a boy to have done that. Oliver might have given up on her and returned to London to look for some other young lady to pay his attentions to. She might never see him again.

“And you said a layette for the new little heir?” Miss Honoria said. “How many gowns do you require?”

“Um, four,” Ysella said, plucking a number out of the air. “Bonnets too. Slips, bootees, several shawls.” What else did babies need? She should have paid more attention during her trips to the nursery. “Napkins?” So long as she didn’t have to sew any of it, she’d be happy.

Wait. Was that Oliver strolling across the wide street in the direction of the shop. “I think that will do,” Ysella gabbled in her haste to be finished. “Please add all this to my brother’s account. I must go now.” And with that, she swept out of the shop with the timorous Ellen trailing in her wake.

Oliver met her on the wide pavement outside. “Why, Miss Carlyon,” he said with a bow. “How unexpected it is to meet you here.”

Ysella beamed at him. “It’s quite all right, Oliver. Ellen knows everything. She won’t say a thing. I sent Martha to visit her sister, as she couldn’t be relied upon not to report back to my mother and brother.”

His smile became a grin, his eyes hot with a passion that set Ysella’s impressionable heart a-pounding. “Well, in that case, perhaps you’d like to take my arm and we’ll stroll along the street with your maid in attendance. All very respectable.”

Ysella took his arm with relish, and, with Ellen trailing the ten paces behind Ysella had instructed, they made their way down the wide main street towards the western end of town.

“I didn’t think you’d be able to come,” Oliver said, after a few moments, keeping his voice low despite the distance between them and Ellen.

“I wasn’t sure I’d be able to either. But everything fell into place just when I needed it to. Kit thinks I came to order a new gown and baby clothes for his new heir.”

“And did you?”

She chuckled. “Of course I did. I’m not stupid. He’d be bound to notice if the gown and baby things don’t turn up in a few days.”

Oliver covered her hand with his. “I’m sure your new gown will be most becoming.” He paused. “Although, of course, you need nothing like that to make your appearance attractive to me.”

A little wriggle of excitement shivered through Ysella’s stomach and descended. What was this feeling she was having in a part of her that was so private she didn’t even have a name for it? How was being with Oliver making her feel like that? Whatever it was, she was very much enjoying it.

“You will have the opportunity to see my new gown when I return to Town,” she said, trying to avoid thinking about that disturbing sensation. “I’m sure we’ll be able to go back there soon. Every day, Morvoren seems improved. And little George is thriving.”

Oliver sighed. “But if you go back to Town, you’re going to meet some rich earl or duke and he’s going to sweep you off your feet, and you’ll forget all about your poor captain.” His expression changed from one of longing to one that resembled Kit’s spaniel, all big sad eyes. Rather disturbingly, it reminded Ysella sharply of the way Ellen had looked at her earlier.

“Of course, I won’t,” she retorted. “It’s you I love.” She stopped. Should she have said that? Was it not ill-mannered to declare yourself like that to a gentleman? Although he had already said it to her, after he’d kissed her so passionately in the Orangery before Kit came along and interrupted them. But she hadn’t been sure he’d meant it, back then, or she might have said it herself to him in return. And Kit’s angry words had lodged a greater doubt in her head.

Oliver stopped dead and turned to face her. “Can I believe my ears? You love me? I could scarcely dare hope that you might reciprocate my feelings.” He took both her hands in his, clasping them to his chest. His dark eyes brimmed with a hot passion that made Ysella’s toes curl with excitement in her elegant slippers.

However, her eyes flicked sideways, conscious they were making a spectacle of themselves and all the world could be watching. Or at the very least, someone who might report back to Kit. Was Oliver going to say he loved her again? Kit’s declaration that Oliver didn’t love her and only wanted her for her considerable dowry rang in her head. If only he would say the words again. That would dispel the doubt Kit’s scorn for him had roused in her head.

Her wish was granted. “Ysella, I love you too. I could want nothing better than for you to be my wife. As soon as possible.”

There it was. He’d asked her. He wanted her to be his wife. If she hadn’t been standing in the street she might have jumped up and down with excitement and maybe squealed as well.

Instead, she gazed up into his eyes and found herself lost in their dark, passionate depths. Of course he loved her. No doubt could exist about that. Kit was quite mistaken and very mean. A mean pig of a brother who didn’t want her to be happy, and who wanted to boss her about for the rest of her life. Oliver loved her, and she loved Oliver. Of course she wanted to marry him. “And I want to be your wife too.” The words came out as a hushed whisper, for fear Ellen, still ten paces away and staring into a shop window, might overhear.

He glanced from side to side. They were outside a hat shop opposite the town hall. “Ysella Carlyon. Will you marry me? I’d go down on one knee if that wouldn’t attract the attention of all and sundry.”

“Oh, yes, yes, yes.” This time she couldn’t stop herself from bouncing up and down with excitement. “I will, I will, I will.” Then her face fell. “But you’ll have to ask Kit’s permission, and I fear very much that he will say no.” She frowned. “He seems to have taken against you due to your association with my cousin Fitz.” She certainly wasn’t about to share with Oliver all that Kit had accused him of. “He’s never liked Fitz, although I don’t know why. He’s always been perfectly charming to me.”

Oliver’s eyes narrowed, as though he might be assessing her and the situation. “If you’re right,” he said, a hint of wariness in his tone, “and your brother is so against our marrying, then, perhaps…” He hesitated. “Perhaps we could… elope.”

“Elope?” In one of Ysella’s favorite romantic novels, the young heroine had eloped with her suitor to Gretna Green, so she knew all about eloping, and how romantic it was. But to do it herself? Should she? Was it quite the done thing for him to ask her to do it? On the other hand, the idea did sound terribly exciting and romantic. That someone should love her so much to want to do that.

She frowned. “But isn’t Gretna Green in Scotland? And isn’t that a terribly long way away? Further even than London or Cornwall?” She had very little idea of the geography of Great Britain.

Oliver nodded, starting to walk again. They were nearing where his inn was located at the far end of the street from the dressmakers’. “If we can make it to Scotland, we won’t need your brother’s permission to marry, and we won’t need the banns to be called or a special license. The law is different in Scotland, and Gretna Green is the first place we’ll come to when we cross the border. I believe the blacksmith there performs the ceremony.”

“The blacksmith?” That didn’t sound quite so romantic. But… eloping with a handsome suitor just like a heroine out of one of her romantic novels. The thought that it would teach Kit a lesson surfaced. Haha. She’d have outwitted him. They both would have, and it would be too late to change things then. She’d be married and have control of her fortune. And Kit would never be able to tell her what to do again.

Of course, Kit might follow her, but he had Morvoren, who was still so delicate, to care for, so he might not. She peeped up at Oliver from behind her lashes. “Very well. We shall elope, if that is what you think is best. But I think we had better do this as soon as we can, before Kit feels he can leave his wife safely to chase after us. We should leave as soon as possible.”

What an adventure this would be, and Kit would be unable to stop them. The more she thought about it, the more enamored of the idea she became. Yes. She would elope with handsome Oliver and marry him at Gretna Green. And they would live happily ever after.