“AH, don’t cry any more, sweetheart,” Meg pleaded. “Your cousins will be here in a moment to help with the dressin‘. You don’t want them to see you like this.”

“I can’t help it,” Reggie sobbed miserably. “And aren’t brides supposed to cry on their wedding day?”

“But you’ve been cryin‘ for a week. It hasn’t helped, has it?”

“No.” Reggie shook her head.

“And you don’t want your eyes to be all puffy, not today of all days.”

Reggie shrugged wearily. “I don’t care about that. I’ll have the veil on.”

“But you won’t be wearin‘ a veil tonight.”

There was a silence, and then Reggie whispered, “Will there be a wedding night?”

“You can’t be thinkin‘ he won’t show up?” Meg gasped, outraged.

“Oh, he’ll be there,” Reggie sighed. “But I told you what he said.”

“Nonsense. Some men are just scared to death of marriage, and your Viscount appears to be one of them.”

“But he swore he wouldn’t be a husband to me.”

“He said that in anger,” Meg said patiently. “You can’t go holdin‘ a man to what he says in anger.”

“Yet he can hold himself to it, don’t you see? Oh, how could I have been so wrong about him, Meg?” Reggie cried. “How could I?” She shook her head. “To think I once compared him to Tony. Nicholas Eden is nothing like my uncle. He hasn’t an ounce of feeling—except between his legs,” she added bitterly.

“Reggie!”

“Well, it’s true,” she retorted. “I was just a game to him, another conquest.”

Meg stood looking down at her, hands on her hips. “You should have told him about the baby,” she said for the hundredth time. “At least he would have understood why you must go through with this.”

“He probably wouldn’t have believed it. I am even beginning to wonder. Look at me! Four months gone and I’m still not showing even a little. And there’s been no sickness, no… Am I binding myself to this man for nothing? What if I’m not carrying his child?”

“I wish it weren’t so, my girl, but you know it is. And I still say you should have told him.”

“Fool that I was, I thought his despicable behavior was only a ruse,” Reggie said bitterly. She sighed. “You know, Meg, I do still have some pride left.”

“Sometimes we must swallow every bit of pride, sweetheart,” Meg said gently.

Reggie shook her head. “I’ll tell you just what he would have said if I had confessed. He would have told me to stop wasting time on a lost cause and find a father for my child.”

“Maybe you should have.”

Reggie’s eyes flashed. “I would never force one man’s child on another! Nicholas Eden has a child on the way, and he can pay the price for it, not someone else.”

“You’re the one payin‘, Reggie, with heartache and misery.”

“I know,” she sighed, the fire gone. “But only because I thought I loved him. Once I see how wrong I was, I will manage.”

“It’s not too late, you know. You can leave for the Continent before—”

“No!” Reggie said so forcefully the maid jumped. “This is my child! I won’t hide in shame until it’s born and then give it up, just to save myself an unpleasant marriage.” Then she elaborated, “I don’t have to live with the man, you know, not if it proves too difficult. I don’t have to stay with him forever. But my child will bear his father’s name. Nicholas Eden will share the responsibility, as he should.”

“Then we had best be gettin‘ to the church on time,” Meg sighed.

Nicholas was already at the church, silently raging and despairing by turns. Family and friends were arriving, proving that this was really happening. His grandmother and aunt were there, but Miriam Eden was conspicuously absent again. It reinforced his conviction that he had done the right thing in warning off his fiancée.

His heart sank when Jason Malory entered the church, the bride a few steps behind him. Exclamations ran through the crowd, for she was truly breathtaking in a silk gown of powder blue and silver, with tiers of white lace trimming. It was strikingly old-fashioned, tight-waisted, long-sleeved, and reaching to the floor. Though the bell of the skirt was not as full as the gowns of the last era had been, the outer skirt was split on both sides and trimmed with lace, revealing wide panels of silver underskirt. There was lace beneath the rounded bodice and at the neck. A circlet of silver and diamond chains held in place a white veil which covered her face to her chin, draping in back nearly to the floor.

She stood in the church door for several long moments, facing Nicholas at the end of the aisle. He couldn’t see her face or her eyes, and he waited breathlessly, willing her to turn around and flee.

She didn’t. Regina placed her hand on her uncle’s arm and began the long walk down the aisle. Cold, calm anger settled inside Nicholas. On the whim of this small child-woman, he was being forced into marriage. Very well, let her have her day of triumph. It would not last long. When she learned she had married a bastard, she would wish she had heeded his warnings. Ironically, Miriam would help. She would take a malicious delight in apprising Regina of all Nicholas’ faults. He thought with grim humor that this would be Miriam’s first act of kindness toward him. Of course, she wouldn’t know it for what it was.