Magnificent Devices, Tome 6 : A Lady of Spirit
Auteur
- Shelley Adina (Écrivain)
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Classement en biblio - 3 lecteurs
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London, 1894
This business of names—carrying one, marrying one, burying one—was a puzzle, and no mistake.
From her seat in the transept of St. Mary’s Church, hard by Cadogan Square and the edifice in which the bride had been christened, Maggie watched as Emilie Fragonard paced up the aisle on the arm of her father. Though she was swathed in a veil that stretched away down the aisle for twenty feet, it was sheer enough that one could take in the splendor of her Worth gown, said to have been sent from Paris at enough expense to feed and house an English village for a year.
Maggie rather doubted that. Emilie was not that sort of girl, and while her wedding dress of cream Duchesse satin was indeed a marvel of embroidery and tucking and lace, it was more likely the work of loving hands—and an extremely close eye to the latest fashion plates from Monsieur Worth’s studio.
Behind the bride, carrying a basket of salmon-colored roses and maidenhair fern, came her chief bridesmaid, Lady Claire Trevelyan, upon whose inclusion the former had insisted. Following her were eleven girls of appropriate age and social standing, upon whom the bride’s mother had insisted.
“Doesn’t the Lady look fine!” Maggie whispered to Lizzie seated next to her, whom she still—stubbornly, against all evidence to the contrary—called sister.
Lizzie nodded, her keen green eyes alight with admiration. “Emilie kept her promise. No pink. That Wedgewood blue sets off the Lady’s auburn hair perfectly.”
Mr. Andrew Malvern, on Lizzie’s other side, turned from his rapt contemplation of the chief bridesmaid to lift an eyebrow at the girls—an indication that they should stop whispering and show their respect for both the occasion and the aforesaid edifice.
Maggie stifled the urge to apologize. He would have the rest of the service and the entirety of the wedding breakfast to make calf’s eyes at Claire, whereas comments upon one’s impressions of pretty dresses were only appropriate during that first ephemeral moment.
Oh, stop it. You’re only making a nuisance of yourself so you don’t have to think about what happens tomorrow.
Tomorrow, when this business of names might actually have to be wrestled with.
“Dearly beloved, we are gathered together here in the sight of God, and in the face of this congregation, to join together this man and this woman in holy matrimony …”
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Résumé
Under normal circumstances, Maggie and Lizzie would be delighted to meet their long-lost relatives and be reunited with those who had believed them dead, but when are the Mopsies' circumstances ever to be considered normal? With her half-brother Claude Seacombe, Lizzie travels to Cornwall to meet her mother's parents. Maggie goes along, too, since she is part of the family ... or so one might assume. But the more time she spends in her grandparents' clifftop mansion, the more she realizes that something is not right, and the events surrounding her own mother's death are more mysterious—and dangerous—than anyone alive suspects.
For an old nemesis is preying on the weak and proud, and no matter how well dressed or well educated a young lady might be, she cannot stand by and watch evil destroy a beloved cousin's future. Maggie must straighten her spine and plunge into danger for Lizzie's sake ... and prove that no matter the name she bears, she is first and foremost what the Lady of Devices believes her to be ... a lady of spirit.
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