A Bride for the Prizefighter - Alice Coldbreath Page 0,134
to kicking his heels and followed him upstairs to a very charming bedchamber done out in rose pink. Cecily was wearing a frothy lace wrapper with her golden hair still loose over her shoulders. She squeaked at Mina’s appearance and hurried forward to embrace her warmly.
“My dear Miss Walters,” she gushed, drawing her into the room. “I am so happy to see you delivered from the jaws of certain death!” she gabbled before noticing that they were not alone. That will be all Fimble,” she said grandly to the butler, in dismissal.
Mina cleared her throat. “A cup of tea would be most welcome, Cecily dear,” she prompted.
“Oh! Of course!” Cecily turned back to the butler. “My usual tea and toast,” she said vaguely. “With an extra cup for my guest.” She shut the door after Fimble and begged Mina to take one of the pink and gold boudoir chairs. “Forgive me for being so thoughtless,” she said with a charming smile. “Only I had thought – with everything that has happened – that you would not be able to eat or drink a drop! I vow I could scarcely eat any supper yesterday after I had been apprised of the awful goings-on!” She gave an eloquent shudder before crossing to her dressing table and seating herself there.
So, thought Mina, Sir Matthew had been kept fully apprised of the business. Very likely the Riding Officers were hoping to go for a conviction.
“I do hope you won’t mind my seeing to my toilette,” Cecily ran on apologetically. “But I simply must be presentable by the time dear Sir Matthew returns.” Mina saw with surprise that Cecily colored slightly as she said this and anxiously scanned her pink and white complexion in the mirror for any flaws.
“Of course not,” Mina said, folding her hands in her lap. “In truth I am very relieved that you have been apprised of what has occurred. I was not sure if Sir Matthew would think such matters fit for your ears.”
Cecily took a pretty pink bottle up and lifted the stopper to apply rose water to her face. “Oh, as to that,” she said not quite meeting Mina’s eyes in the looking glass. “Things have undergone a slight change between Sir Matthew and myself.” She simpered as she opened a box of pearl powders. “Since that unfortunate contretemps that you so kindly extricated me from.” She dabbed a large powder puff to her nose and chin. Swiveling on her seat, she looked earnestly at Mina. “I will not scruple to tell you, my dear Miss Walters—”
“Mrs. Nye,” Mina interjected smoothly, but Cecily took no notice of such a trifling detail.
“—that you must wish me happy in the very near future.” She fidgeted with the ribbon at her breast, a moment. “Only fancy! Quite unbeknownst to me, Sir Matthew has been madly in love with me all this while! He finally declared himself in a fit of passion when he railed at me for being taken in by that unworthy scoundrel Mr. Brinson. It seems poor Sir Matthew wished for me to make up my own mind, but when he saw I could be so easily taken in, he said he will no longer permit my being out in society until we are safely married. We are only waiting for my twenty-first birthday next year and then we shall tie the knot.”
Mina frowned. “And what do you think about that, Cecily?” she asked, feeling somewhat taken aback.
“Oh, well I am fully sensible to the honor that he does me, Cecily answered, preening herself. “I daresay none of my schoolmates will marry so well as I.” Mina remembered that Eliza Hinch had married a baronet but thought it would not be fortuitous to bring that up at this precise moment. “It does still take me aback that I should have captured his heart,” Cecily admitted in a burst of confidence. “For he always seemed so stern and forbidding, that I never once thought of him in the role of lover, but now that I do…” She blushed. “Well, I have to own he is the very finest man I know. And not so very old at six and thirty. We are only related by marriage, and besides Sir Matthew has promised that he will take me to Rome for our honeymoon and that I may have one of my cousin’s litter of Maltese dogs for my very own companion. They are such dear little things, like little balls of