He laughed then and removed his coat.
The coat was much too big for her, but the red brought out the lights in her hair and made her cheeks pinker. He stood behind her as she looked at herself in the mirror and put his hands on her shoulders.
“Jess,” he said softly, “I’m going to buy you a wardrobe fit for a princess.” He paused. “A wardrobe fit for my wife. I’ll be a good husband to you, the best that I know how to be.”
All Jess could see in the mirror was his face, a shadow darkening his wig and no shining coat to take away from the handsomeness of his face. Quite naturally, she turned toward him, and, just as naturally, his face lowered toward hers.
His lips were almost on hers when they were interrupted by Nicholas’s chuckle.
Alex pulled away from Jess as if she were poisonous. Nick was smiling patronizingly at her appearance in Alex’s scarlet coat.
“Your sister believes you’ve run away,” Nick said to Jess.
Jess removed Alex’s coat but Alex wouldn’t come close enough to her to take it, so she folded it carefully and put it on the bed. Of all things, she thought, she’d almost kissed Alexander Montgomery. The Raider had said she’d never be able to live like a nun. But Alexander? Smiling at the absurdity of her thoughts, she left the room.
Eleanor met her in the hall, her face white with anger. “I thought you’d decided not to go through with it.”
“Do I have a choice? You give me an alternative and I’ll take it.”
“Hmph!” Eleanor sniffed. “You have the best of the bargain. You’re just too stubborn to see it.”
“Maybe when Alex is sleeping I can try on all his coats.”
Eleanor grabbed her sister’s arm and pulled her into the front parlor where the ceremony was to be held. The wedding ceremony began and was over quickly. Jess put her cheek up for Alex to kiss and thought he smelled like cinnamon. One of the children again, she thought.
In spite of the fact that the wedding had been forced by the hated Admiral Westmoreland, it was a Montgomery wedding and the food and drink were plentiful, so the guests enjoyed themselves. There were whispers about how awful it was that a beautiful young woman like Jessica was being sacrificed to a fat, effeminate, decrepit man like Alexander. The men murmured things about the power of Montgomery money, while the women said gold was a poor bed-mate.
A couple of men, trying to alleviate Jessica’s misery, whispered to her that they’d be happy to supply what she obviously wasn’t going to get from Alexander.
Admiral Westmoreland came by the house and congratulated the bride and groom, just as if he’d not been the one to cause this unwanted marriage. Jessica opened her mouth to say something, but Alex clamped his hand on her arm painfully and then thanked the admiral.
“Coward,” Jess hissed at Alex, then turned away and smiled at two good-looking young men.
“Jess…” Alex began, but she took the arms of the two men and left him alone.
When night came, Eleanor pulled Jessica out of an energetic reel with a handsome blond man and led her down the hall and toward Alex’s bedroom.
“I was having such a good time,” Jess protested.
“You can have a good time alone with your husband.”
“By counting the number of flowers on his new coat? Ouch, Eleanor, that hurt. Lately, your temper hasn’t been at all pleasant.”
Eleanor didn’t speak until they reached Alex’s room. “This is a gift from Marianna,” she said, holding up a white cotton nightgown edged with deep eyelet flounce.
“It’ll take more than that to get a rise out of Alexander,” Jessica said, rolling her eyes.
“Now, you stop
that!” Eleanor snapped. “There’s nothing wrong with Alexander. He might do a lot better if he got a little encouragement from you.”
“Encourage him to do what?” Jess asked, aghast. “Look, Alex and I have this worked out. We married each other for convenience. You heard him. He needs someone to put this house into order. Someone other than that big, snooping Russian of his—ouch! Eleanor, I want to take the corset off, not tighten the strings.”
“Jess, you’d help matters if you thought of Alexander as a man. He’s your husband now and you should treat him as such. Here, lift your arms and put this on. Now, get into bed and I’ll brush your hair.”
“Alex set up a bed for me in that room.”
“But not for tonight. Jessica, you listen to me. All Alex needs is a little encouragement. You have to use a few feminine arts on him.” She glared at her sister. “Don’t tell him he’s fat or that you can outsail him or that you hate his clothes. Be nice to him. He’s your husband now.”