The Diamond Slipper by Jane Feather Read Free Book Online Page A

it’s very valuable.”
    “Yes,” Cordelia agreed, clasping it once again around her wrist. “Part of me doesn’t like wearing it and part of me does. It has a kind of ghoulish fascination, but I do love the slipper. Makes me think of Cinderella going to the ball.”
    She chuckled at her friend’s incredulous expression. “Oh, I know I’m not a beggar maid rescued by a prince, but we
are
going to Versailles, which everyone says is a fairy-tale palace, and we’re escaping from all this prim protocol, and my uncle will never again be able to bully me. We can dance our lives away if we want, and never again have to sweep the ashes in the kitchen …. Oh, lord, is that the time?” She started, exclaiming with a mortified cry, “Why am I
always
late?” as the chapel clock struck noon, the gong resounding through the courtyard beyond the window.
    “Because you think it’s fashionable,” Toinette replied with a knowing chuckle. “What are you late for this time?”
    “I was supposed to be in the chapel at quarter to twelve to rehearse my own proxy marriage with the chaplain. And I didn’t mean to be late. It was the bracelet that delayed me.” Cordelia grabbed another pear from the fruit bowl and headed for the door. “I don’t suppose it’ll matter. Father Felix never expects me to be on time.”
    “Your husband might,” the archduchess commented, checking her reflection in a silver-backed hand mirror.
    Cordelia grinned. “My proxy husband or the real one?”
    “Prince Michael, of course. The viscount is just a puppet.”
    “Oh, I don’t think that’s the case,” Cordelia said consideringly. “Leo Beaumont’s no puppet. Anyway, I’m sure he’s not expected to rehearse too.” She blew Toinette a jaunty kiss as she left.
    She had seen the viscount only from a distance since the encounter in the orangery two nights earlier. Strangely, she’d enjoyed the distance. She’d hugged the thought of him as a deep and joyful secret, treasuring his image, which had filled her nighttime dreams and her waking internal vision. But she’d been only half awake as she’d watched him from afar, dwelling on this extraordinary, all-encompassing, totally engulfing love that had felled her like a bolt of lightning, made her so hot with desire she could have been in the grip of a fever.
    Now she was ready again for the man of flesh and blood. Her body sang at the thought of being close to him, of feeling his heat, inhaling his scent. Her ears longed to hear his voice, her eyes to feast upon his countenance. This afternoon, at the renunciation ceremony, he would be beside her, in Prince Michael’s place.
    She pushed open the door to the chapel and entered the dim, incense-fragrant interior. “I do beg your pardon forbeing late, Father.” She became aware of Leo Beaumont’s presence even before she saw him pacing restlessly before the altar. Her heart jumped into her throat. “I ask your pardon, sir. I didn’t realize you were to be rehearsing too.”
    “I understand from Father Felix that you’ve never been taught that punctuality is the courtesy of kings,” Leo said acidly.
    “Oh, indeed, I know it’s impolite.” She came swiftly toward him, her eyes glowing in her radiant face. “But I was talking with Toinette. My bracelet has come back from the jeweler and we were admiring it and the time just went somewhere.” She held out her hand to him, her fingers closing over his.
    Deliberately, he pulled his fingers free and instead picked up her wrist, holding it to the light from the rose window above the altar. As always, the bracelet’s curious design disturbed him. The serpent that tempted and ultimately destroyed Eve. Sometimes he had thought Elvira had been the embodiment of Eve and that Michael had picked his gift with pointed care. He noticed that the jade heart was now missing. It had been the charm Michael had given to Elvira. Presumably, he’d thought it more tactful to remove it before passing on