Madeline just laughed again, and took him in to meet her family. By the time he had spent an hour talking City business with her father, complimented Louise on her lovely home, and gently teased Nina into blushing, her family were ready to announce Perry great!
She dressed with a care that told her just how apprehensive she was about this first airing of the new Madeline in Lambourn society. Four years ago she had made a public clown of herself, and most of the people present tonight would have been present that night too. It was that last humiliating appearance they would have carried around in their memories ever since. Which meant this appearance had to so overshadow it that would only see this one—and not the clown.
So instead of the palest lime silk she had worn to her downfall, she wore black. Dramatic-lined, simple sheathed matt black. The fine silk crêpe had been exclusively designed for her to follow each subtle line of her tall and slender shape. It covered her from throat to wrist to ankle, its only adornment a wine-red silk cord circling her narrow waist and tied loosely so it draped her slender hips to hang low on the flat of her stomach. Severely gothic in style, the skirt fluted very slightly from the knees to swirl gently around her ankles.
She clipped dark rubies to her wrists and ears, added a matching choker to her throat—the whole set a present from her mother and Lincoln for her twenty-first birthday.
She slipped her feet into high black satin mules then turned to view the finished affect in the long dressing mirror. Her hair she had swept up into a simple knot to leave her creamy neck exposed for her glinting rubies. Her make-up had been applied to add drama to her eyes and mouth, the long thickness of her lashes a lush frame to the vivid blue of her eyes, mouth the same dark red as the rubies. Studying herself, Madeline saw what she wanted to see, the complete antithesis of that other frilled and flounced girl they would remember. And with herself alone knowing how much nervousness she was suffering inside, she turned and left her room.
‘Goodness me!’ her father exclaimed as she entered the drawing-room to find them all waiting for her. ‘Is that really my girl?’ He brought all the other heads swinging around to stare at her in several expressions of amazement. Except Perry, dear Perry who only knew this elegantly sophisticated creature and could not understand everyone else’s awe.
‘Perfect, darling.’ He came towards her with a smile which said how lovely he found her. ‘Dee would be proud of you tonight if she could see you.’
‘Thank you,’ she murmured softly. Uncanny though it was, Perry always knew exactly what to say to her to put her at ease. The agitated flutters in her stomach eased and her pulses calmed. ‘Quite the handsome beau yourself tonight, Perry,’ she returned.
‘Thank you, ma’am.’ He offered her a mocking bow, looking very attractive in his black dinner suit, his hazelnut eyes twinkling at her.
Despite her confidence that she’d hidden it well, her family must have all known how nervous she felt, Madeline acknowledged hours later when the Lassiter party was in full swing and she was at last beginning to relax—mainly because there was no sign of a single Stanton in evidence.
‘They love you dearly, don’t they?’ Perry remarked at her side. She turned to look at him to find him studying her gravely. ‘You have a wonderful family, Madeline. Each one of them—including your future brother-in-law—have taken it in turns to stay close by your side… Why is that, I wonder?’ His gaze left her studiedly bland face to wander slowly around the crowded room. ‘There isn’t a person here tonight who hasn’t at some point or another stood staring at you in disbelief.’ That shrewd gaze came back to her. ‘And again, I wonder why I get the feeling that they see you as some very unpredictable explosive substance they just daren’t trust, no matter how utterly serene you look.’ Hazel eyes studied her narrowly. ‘I’ve heard the Stanton name bandied about like crazy,’ he went on, ‘picked up on little remarks about Boston and the changes it has wreaked. I have even overheard my own name being bantered about with a kind of delicious awe, and seriously wondered if the tension sizzling in this place tonight is actually going to catch fire… Why, I again wonder?’ His hand came up to lightly brush the satin smoothness of her cheek. ‘Was he supposed to be present here tonight, darling,’ he murmured huskily, ‘the man you were once engaged to?’
It was her turn to let her gaze drift around the Lassiters’ packed drawing-room. ‘The Stantons had a—prior engagement, it seems, that they could not get out of,’ she told him with only the slightest hint of cynicism for the effect that excuse had on her. Looking back at him, she added drily, ‘Dominic Stanton and I did not part gracefully, I suppose you could say.’
‘You were engaged to Dominic Stanton?’ His surprise made her smile, and her mocking nod made his fair brows arch. ‘I never did ask you his name, did I?’ he murmured ruefully.
‘I suppose I should have warned you what to expect here tonight, but…’ Her sigh was heavy. ‘I think to have explained it all to you would have been like having to admit to myself that the nightmare I created four years ago actually existed, and I was still hoping, right up until we arrived here, that it was all just my own silly imagination.’
‘You caused something of a scene?’ he suggested shrewdly.
‘What would probably best be described as a humdinger of one,’ Madeline drily admitted. ‘Since then our two families have
not been on the best of terms.’
‘And have all these people come here tonight expecting the Stantons to show up also?’
‘What do you think?’ she drawled.
‘I think,’ he said grimly, ‘the place is full of bitches—men and women alike.’
Madeline just smiled. ‘You won’t believe it, Perry, but they have a right to expect trouble when I’m around. And to be fair to the Stantons,’ she added quietly, ‘their absence will not be meant as a slight to me, but their way of defusing a potentially awkward situation.’
‘I’ve met him, you know,’ Perry said suddenly, studying her look of wary surprise. ‘Once and only briefly, the other day at a bank meeting I attended. He seems quite a man.’
‘Dominic always was the dynamic businessman,’ Madeline oh, so drily agreed.
‘I was not referring to his business acumen, darling,’ Perry drawled.
‘No?’ she mocked, not taking him on.
‘No,’ he said, and laughed because he knew that expression of old. ‘There’s music in the other room. Let’s go and dance.’
‘What a lovely idea!’ she cried, allowing him to take her arm. ‘You know,’ she drawled, ‘I could become a trifle bored with this provincial crowd if I stay around them too long.’
‘That’s my girl.’ He patted her hand where it lay in the crook of his arm. ‘Show them all how truly sophisticated you are.’
‘You see too much,’ she grumbled.
‘And you, my darling Madeline, hide too much.’