Magical Weddings Read Online Free PDF Page A

much of a rough diamond as he seems?”
    “Worse,” Celia said.
    But it might be amusing to take Simon at his word where the young ladies were concerned. It would be a bit of a challenge to draw their attention to him, of course. Simon was Simon, after all. But if there was a swarm of young women pestering her cousin, he’d have to leave Celia alone while he fended them off.
    She might as well start right away. “But despite his unkempt edges, he truly is a gentleman.”
At least, he can act like one when he tries.
    Two young women came out of a nearby bedroom and stopped to inspect Celia. Jane said, “Miss Prudence Carew, and Miss Dimity Carew, may I present Miss Overton?”
    The sisters bobbed tiny curtsies. “Oh, yes,” one of them said. “Lady Stone told us you were coming. Your uncle is the cotton-weaver.”
    “Dimity,” her sister warned.
    Celia smiled. “Not quite, though he owns a few factories where others weave cotton–often into fabric just as fine as what you’re wearing.”
    “Oh, well,” Dimity said with a shrug. “It’s very much the same thing. Jane, what was Lady Stone thinking? But then of course, she hired
you
, so I suppose we can’t expect—”
    “Come along, Dimity. We’ll be late for the rehearsal.” Her sister tugged Dimity along the corridor and out of sight.
    Celia noted the slight flush which had risen in Jane’s cheeks and didn’t bother to keep the edge of sarcasm out of her voice. “
Charming
young ladies.”
    Jane smiled and continued down the corridor to a tall, heavy door. “Unfortunately for you, you’ll be just next door to them. They’re sharing a room so they can chaperone each other.”
    Inside the lavender bedroom, Celia’s maid was unpacking the trunks, exclaiming over the way dresses had shifted and creased as they traveled.
    “If you need anything at all,” Jane said, “the housekeeper will be happy to help. Or come to find me. I’m at the end of this corridor on the left. Dinner is at eight; I’ll come and fetch you tonight so you don’t have to walk in alone.”
     
    ****
     
    When Celia saw the gauntlet which waited for her in the drawing room a few minutes before eight o’clock, she was grateful to have Jane at her side.
    They were apparently the last to appear, and the silence stretched out as everyone in the drawing room paused to study Celia. The assessing looks seemed to analyze her pale blue gown, the wealth of chestnut hair piled atop her head, her mother’s strand of pearls, her dainty shoes, her delicate Brussels-lace fan. The Carew sisters looked disgruntled–perhaps because they couldn’t find fault with her. Celia was once more grateful that despite her years of living retired from the
ton
, Mrs. Overton had maintained a lively sense of both fashion and good taste.
    The two Miss Carews were decked out in perfect imitation of the virginal debutante. Each wore flowing white muslin trimmed with satin ribbons–one dress accented in yellow, the other in pink. The dresses were simple enough, but Celia, as the niece of a former cloth merchant, knew quite well that fabric so fine and delicate would have cost very nearly as much as silk.
    Lady Hester, apparently released from the rule of wearing pastels because she had already finished her first Season, was dressed in a lush dark green fabric that draped around her as intimately as a whisper. Her hair was arranged in an artfully-tangled coiffure which made it look to Celia as if she’d just gotten out of bed. The bride, Lady Stone announced, was dining with the family of her betrothed, at their estate nearby.
    As for the gentlemen, Celia thought she recognized a modified version of Lady Stone’s beaky nose. She had nearly decided that the unfortunate man attached to it must be Lord Stone until she remembered that the new peer must have been related to Lady Stone’s husband instead. So he couldn’t have inherited her nose.
    There were also a couple of younger men, one of whom had a