The Youngest Bridesmaid Read Free Page A

mightn ’ t it? ”
    “ I wasn ’ t going to say that, as it happens, ” Lou replied. “ I ’ d meant — surely you couldn ’ t have any doubts now. ”
    “ Oh, I see. You think rather well of Piers, don ’ t you? Blanche said you ’ d fallen for him. ”
    “ Cousin Blanche sees a lot in her imagination, ” Lou retorted sharply, and Melissa raised her eyebrows.
    “ Blanche doesn ’ t imagine the obvious, ” she said with faint malice. “ You wouldn ’ t be the first to c herish an unrequited crush for our very eligible Mr. Merrick. He ’ s been a hard enough fish to land in all conscience. ”
    “ That ’ s horrid, coming from you, ” Lou said, frowning with distaste, and her cousin regarded her with amusement. Unsophisticated little Lou might cherish old-fashioned notions about romance, but she was, for all her mousiness, unafraid to speak her mind.
    “ In bad taste, you think? ” Melissa countered with a slight drawl. “ You ’ re probably right; still and all— ”
    “ Melissa— ” Lou said tentatively as her cousin broke off, “ if you have doubts — well, what did you mean when yo u said Cousin Blanche would find herself in the soup if you ratted? ”
    Melissa lit another cigarette and inhaled too quickly, making her cough.
    “ You must know the financial set-up by now, my dear. The other bridesmaids will scarcely have been very reticent, ” she observed coolly, and Lou moved uneasily in the bed. The bridesmaids, and Cousin Blanche herself, as far as that went, had been devastatingly frank; all the same—
    “ But Piers— ” she began stubbornly. “ He must be—he must be very much in love with you to—bargain, if that ’ s what it comes to. ”
    “ You put it very tactfully, darling Lou, but Piers ’ emotions have remained undisturbed for years, I should imagine. Having sown his wild oats, as the saying is, he feels the need for settling down, and what better choice could he have than the daughter of the woman who should have been his stepmother? ”
    “ Righting an old wrong, you mean? ”
    “ Hardly that corny old chestnut! Getting his own back, more likely. He knows very well what a bitter pill it was to Blanche that she didn ’ t wait long enough .for that inheritance to come along. He was devoted to his father, you know, and had quite a thing about Blanche too, I believe. Why do you look so startled, Lou—or are you merely disapproving? ”
    “ Not dis-disapproving, ” Lou stammered. “ I just don ’ t understand. ”
    “ No, you probably wouldn ’ t—I ’ m not sure I do myself. There must be a streak of the romantic in Piers all mixed up with cocking snooks at Blanche—or maybe Blanche is just good at emotional blackmail. What do y ou think? ”
    Lou privately thought that the slightly alarming Piers Merrick kept his romantic streak well hidden, if indeed he possessed one, neither had he appeared to her as a man to be swayed by blackmail, emotional or otherwise, but Melissa ’ s approach to her coming marriage disturbed her rather more than the unknown sensibilities of the bridegroom.
    “ It ’ s not my concern, is it? ” she said at last. “ Only— ”
    “ Only what? The world well lost for love, you ’ re thinking? But I like my love well gilded, darling, the fabulous wedding, the equally fabulous honeymoon, and after that— ”
    “ After that, ” said Lou with unaccustomed asperity, “ life on a small island with both of you cut down to size. ”
    Her cousin looked at her with passing surprise. “ How very perceptive of you, darling, ” she observed, “ But you don ’ t imagine, do you, that I ’ m prepared to cut myself off from civilization on Piers ’ impossible island? ”
    “ I understand the island is very much part of his background between travels. ”
    “ A fad—a gimmick. Who but Piers could afford, anyway, to buy an island off the Cornish coast, much less staff it and play king of the castle when the mood takes him? Oh, no,