His Family Wanted a Frightened Bride, He Fainted First novel · Chapter 3 of 24
Chapter 3: The Cloak Has a Catch
A cloak traps Lucan, Hettie and Agnes in the portrait performance. Hettie and Lucan set provisional terms; she rejects the frightened-bride caption. A village guest keeps her thirty pounds, but Lucan fails to contradict the promised demonstration.
The photographer found Lucan attached to my chair.
Roderick had pinned the portrait cloak to both shoulders and the chair back to improve the drape.
When Lucan stood, the chair rose behind him.
Winnie caught it before it struck the window.
"Stay there," Roderick told the photographer.
"Take it now," Elspeth advised him.
The camera clicked before anyone agreed.
I freed the chair while Lucan held his left shoulder higher than his right.
"Thank you," he said to the wallpaper.
"I haven't finished. You've got the cushion too."
He closed his eyes while I unhooked the last fold.
Agnes straightened my sleeves and instructed me not to look amused.
The photographer examined his screen.
"What is the relationship?" he asked.
"Prospective," I said.
"Overwhelming," Roderick corrected.
He opened a printed strip of paper across the empty frame.
OUR LORD AND HIS FRIGHTENED BRIDE.
A second strip read WITH RESPECT, FRIDAY'S COURTESY.
"You printed it before you met me," I said.
"Names can be inserted," he replied.
He positioned the payment strip beneath the frightened bride.
"They see you shaking, they remember to bring the envelope."
I lifted my perfectly steady hand off the chair arm.
"You may need a different bride."
Agnes pushed my hand back onto the chair.
The photographer asked Lucan to stand behind me and bend toward my neck.
"Closer," Roderick said.
"The village must see what he could do."
Lucan looked at the wallpaper above my shoulder.
"Gasp," Agnes whispered.
I tried, and produced a hiccup.
The photographer looked at Roderick for further instructions.
"A little bite," the cousin suggested.
Lucan straightened.
"No."
The photographer lowered his camera and waited.
I turned toward Lucan while Roderick instructed the photographer to make my hands look smaller.
"No staged bite," I whispered.
"There won't be one."
"No telling people about my failed fainting either."
He looked at the discarded cloak.
"Then no explaining the chair."
"And either of us may refuse this engagement," I said.
"Nobody has agreed to it yet."
His gaze finally left the wallpaper.
"Without the family deciding what the refusal means," he said.
I nodded, and he moved his coat between my shoulder and the cold glass.
I stopped gripping the seat beneath me.
Agnes brought a brooch of tiny silver leaves to improve the neckline.
She pinned it to my collar and stepped back.
The brooch took her sleeve and Lucan's cloak with it.
All three of us leaned toward the same patch of carpet.
"Lovely," Roderick said.
"Hold that."
"I'm holding my aunt," I told him.
"It's not sustainable."
Winnie came with scissors.
Agnes immediately found the strength to stand still.
We lost one thread and a good deal of the photographer's professional composure.
Lucan took off the cloak and put it over Roderick's arm.
"Wear it yourself if you need it in the picture," he said.
I sat upright beside him for the second photograph.
The photographer offered to pale my face and harden Lucan's mouth.
"Leave both alone," Lucan said.
I took the strip about the frightened bride out of its frame.
"Hettie Ormsby visits Lucan Mowbray," I dictated.
Roderick reached for the strip.
I folded it and put it in my pocket.
"I'll want that copy too," I told the photographer, pointing at the first picture.
Lucan looked at the chair hanging behind his shoulders on the screen.
"I thought we agreed not to explain it."
"It explains itself."
He tried to keep his face severe and failed.
Roderick took the empty frame downstairs with enough force to disturb its glass.
At the front entrance, a woman stood holding an envelope.
She saw him and hid it behind her back.
"You're early," he told her.
"You asked us to bring the supper," she said.
He held out his hand.
She brought the envelope forward.
WITH RESPECT was printed on the card inside.
I had just seen where those words would hang beside my face.
"Thirty?" Roderick asked.
She nodded.
I stepped between his hand and hers.
"I'm not collecting anything," I told her.
"Please keep that."
She didn't put the envelope away.
She looked over my shoulder at Lucan, waiting.
He opened the dining room door.
"Come in as my guest," he said.
Roderick put the empty portrait frame beside the door and spread his hands.
"She can't eat your permission, cousin."
"She can eat supper," I said.
I led her past him, still carrying her money.
Roderick reached for the bell.
"A demonstration after supper, then," he called after us.
The woman stopped so abruptly I nearly walked into her.
Lucan had heard him too.
He stood beside his open door and didn't contradict a word.
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