Once Upon a Romance 01 - Before the Midnight Bells (20 page)

“
Stepmother, obviously she should quit while she’s ahead, but if she’s winning, how is this…”

“
Ella! If she fleeces them they’ll
never
want to marry her!”

Ella burst out laughing. Millicent watched with impatience, and Max wasn’t much better. This was all highly amusing, yes; but if Vivienne was right, the king would be showing up to demand what was going on in less than a minute. Suddenly Millicent grabbed her stepdaughter by the hand, and began dragging her toward one of the side rooms, saying:

“
Oh, come on. And try to get a hold of yourself. We’ve got to get Beatrice out of here.”

The city bells began ringing out the midnight chimes, just as Ella waved to Max with her free hand.

“
Goodbye, Max, thank you for the dance.” She hadn’t had a chance to speak to him, but perhaps that was just as well. For this one night at least, she had a perfect memory of a perfect dance. Why ruin it with a conversation that almost certainly wouldn
’
t go well?

***

Max watched Ella being pulled off. He sighed. He’d wanted to talk to her, but truthfully he had no idea how to begin. Being honest with her was going to be much harder than deceiving everyone else.

Speaking of deceiving… Turning back towards the center of the ballroom, he saw the crowds begin to part. Ah, that was his cue to go explain himself.

Max found the King standing next to his daughter, with the Marquis of Ells and his snot-nosed son hanging in the background. He walked to Vivienne’s side and swiftly pulled her into his arms.

“
There you are, my precious, I was trying to find you to ask how you liked the dance.”

“
What?” The King managed to pack both outrage and curiosity into his question.

“
The dance, your Majesty, Vivienne wanted something distinctive, so I’ve been working on it.”

“
Christopher Wellesley, are you telling me that you were just making a spectacle of yourself for Vivienne’s
benefit?
”

Max manage to summon an injured expression.

“
Your Majesty,
I
am not the one who developed these ridiculous customs which decree that a man should not dance with his betrothed. Vivienne has asked that I come up with something special for our wedding gala, and in order to work on it I must dance with
someone.
”

“
Is this true, Vivienne?”

“
Don’t be angry, father. I know the wedded couple always dances a waltz, but… I just wanted it to be special.” Vivienne used a sweet, innocent voice that made Max want to snort with laughter. Instead he gave her his best besotted smile, and ladled as much syrup into his tone as he could.

“
It will be, my sweet. I’ll keep practicing until it’s perfect.”

Underneath his
crimson frock
coat, where her father couldn’t see, Vivienne pinched him.

Hard.

CHAPTER
FIF
TEEN

Max had been playing detective all morning. He’d sent a footman off to make a list of all the pawn shops in the vicinity of Low Street, and the poor fellow had finally finished a few hours before the ball. It was quite an extensive list—apparently pawn brokers did a brisk trade in the city.

Luckily for Max, in the fourth store—a tid
y little place crammed full of curiosities and whatnots—
he found what he was looking for.

“
That mirror, the one with the silver filigree, where did you get it?” The proprietor peered at the mirror Max was examining.

“
Hand crafted by Gnomes from the far north, that is. Ought to grace one of the high and mighty’s walls, maybe even in the palace, but here it is in my shop. Amazing how these things work out, isn’t it?”

“
Indeed,” Max spoke wryly, aware that he was being given a sales pitch, “but how did
you
come by it?”

“
Bought it from a fairy lass, for the price of one night together. That was back in my younger days, of course.” The shopkeeper waggled his heavy grey eyebrows suggestively.

“
My good man, I will let you in on a secret.”

“
Tell away, my lord, tell away.”

“
I am looking for a mirror.”

“
Well, you couldn’t find a finer one if you searched the whole city. One hundred Regalis and it’s yours.”

“
Ah, but you see, I am looking for a particular mirror, one that was sold to a pawnshop some two weeks ago.”

“
Oh.”

“
Indeed. Oh. If you wish to sell me this mirror, you will kindly stop telling me tall tales, and give me the information I seek. From whom did you purchase this?”

The pawn broker dropped his overly friendly demeanor. “That depends, my lord. You go on and tell me why you want the young lady’s mirror, and I’ll think about telling you what you want to know.”

“
I only want to return it to her. She seems to miss it.”

“
You know Miss Ella?” The shop keeper gave a friendly smile, this one real, rather than faked. “Why didn’t you say so in the first place? I hated to take it from her, but she went on and on, said how she needed fabrics and buttons and notions and things. I gave her ten Regalis for it; hand over the ten and it’s yours.” Bemused at the sudden drop in price, Max did just that. Then he flipped the man another two Regalis.
“If she comes in here to sell something again, hold it for me, would you?”

“
I think I can do that, my
lord. Now let me just
wrap up that mirror for you. Wish I could see the look on her face when she opens it.”

***

Ella was exhausted. Convincing Beatrice to leave the card table last night had been difficult, but prying Prudence out of the arms of her red-headed swain had been nigh on impossible. In the end, Millicent had agreed to allow Mister Binkley to escort them home, as long as it let her get Beatrice away from the gentlemen before she took them for every cent they owned. Ella had used the carriage ride home as a chance to evaluate Prudence’s beau, and thus far she highly approved. His thoughts weren’t deep, but they were easy to obtain. He found Prudence beautiful, her family charmingly eccentric, and had no objection to dressing a daughter in pink silk. He was cheerful, persistent, and in every way seemed like he would be an ideal in-law. Not to mention good for Prudence. But by the time Prudence had said goodnight to Mister Binkley, it had been very late indeed, and that had made Ella’s time for sleep even shorter than usual.

Due to the fog in her head, Ella barely noticed when the bell above the door tinkled sweetly. She was focused intently on setting a sleeve correctly, and it wasn’t until she felt something drop on her head that she looked up.

The sleepy fog burned away when she saw Max standing there, his smile beaming down on her. She reached up to the thing on her head, and was overjoyed to find her pirate hat, completely intact, right down to the sweeping plume.

“
You have minions that steal things from me, just so that you can return them, don’t you?”

Max affected a hurt look, “Is that anyway to greet your hero, the gallant rescuer of hats?”

“
My nemesis, the great hat thief, more like.”

“
I will have you know, I had to fight off two sailors and a young woman dressed as a parrot in order to bring that hat back to you.”

“
In that case,” Ella hopped off her tall work stool and made a grand curtsy, holding the hat in place while she bowed her head, “thank you, gentle sir.”

“
Don’t mention it.” Max leaned down and lifted Ella out of her curtsy, straight up into the air, and set her down gently on her stool again. “Stay there, I’ve brought you something else, as well.” Max retrieved a large wrapped package from just inside the door of the shop, where he’d left it, and set it gently on Ella’s lap.

“
What on earth..? Max, I don’t think…”

Before she could refuse the gift he spoke. “Just open it. You can protest later.”

Ella grinned at him and pulled the folded paper open. There, propped on her lap, was her mother’s silver mirror.

“
Max!” She said his name in a kind of a gasp, then her eyes filled with tears as she ran her fingers over the filigreed frame. Max lifted the mirror off her lap and laid it carefully on the counter, then he gently wiped away first one tear, then another.

“
Don’t cry, sweetheart.” He murmured the words, and before she could say a word, rethink, or draw away again, Max kissed her.

This hadn’t been his plan when he set out for her shop this morning; he’d only wanted to make her happy by returning the mirror. Now that she was right in front of him, though, so tantalizingly close, he couldn’t deny himself the chance. Max savored the feel of her satin lips beneath his own. Yes, this was a much better plan than the original.

Ella’s whole world narrowed to the space between them. She hadn’t known his lips would be so soft, or his hands, which had risen to cup her face, would be so warm. She hadn’t known that it would feel like the whole world paused while they leaned into one another. Her hands, moving without conscious direction, crept up his chest and around his neck, to tangle in the curls that brushed his collar.

Max knew it had only been a week since he first tried to kiss her, but he felt like he had been waiting for this for forever. When he felt Ella’s fingers sink into his hair he groaned, and gripping her waist once more, pulled her up off the stool and flush against his body. When she opened her mouth to gasp he slipped his tongue into her mouth, then gently nipped her bottom lip. Ella responded by dragging his mouth down on hers again, meeting his tongue with her own.

It was too much, and it wasn’t enough. With two long strides he moved them to the edge of the shop, where he trapped her body between him and the wall, thus freeing his hands to roam. He flattened his hands where they lay against her waist and drew them upwards, rumpling the thin layers of her gown and chemise, until he came to the bottom of her short stays, those tiny strips that ran just beneath her bust. He felt her breath catch as he allowed his fingers to trace the boning, so tantalizingly close to her breasts.

Ella writhed, trying to use the wall to push herself closer to Max. Everything he did made her feel frantic for him to do more, touch more. She felt a low throbbing ache between her legs and a tingle in her breasts, and a heightened anticipation for whatever came next. When his hands stopped their upward ascent she thought she might sob, but then they moved again, ghosting along the outer edge of her breasts and finding the buttons on her spencer jacket.