A Lady's Taste For Temptation (Historical Regency Romance)

by Emily Honeyfield

  At last he let her go, and she went to get dressed. The maid had been told that she would ring early, and so she was ready and waiting. Lady Emily was not changing into her dress for the wedding yet, as she knew there would still be some errands to run.

  She was ready to help Catherine in whatever way she could, even if the servants at Catherine's house were also ready to run out for a last-minute item. Catherine had been such a help at her own wedding, and Lady Emily couldn’t wait to repay the favour.

  Dressing seemed to take a long time this morning, and Lady Emily tried to stay as still as possible. She felt like a child, over-excited on Christmas day. As soon as she was dressed, she headed down the stairs, and out to a carriage that she had arranged to be ready for her.

  “Are you going to Catherine's so soon?” Sir Preston asked her. He looked just awake and was heading to the dining room to have breakfast. “Don’t you want a spot for breakfast first?”

  “Catherine promised me breakfast,” Lady Emily said. “And there is still much to do.”

  Sir Preston smiled and gave his daughter a kiss on the cheek.

  “Well, I am glad that you two are friends again,” he said.

  “So am I,” Lady Emily replied. “Otherwise, who would help her this morning?”

  Sir Preston chuckled and waved his hand.

  “All right, all right,” he said. “Go. I assume that Myles will join you later?”

  “He has made arrangements with Edward,” Lady Emily said. “Can you believe that Edward has asked the groomsmen to show up at the church just half an hour early?”

  “Well...yes,” Sir Preston said, in confusion. “How much time do they need?”

  “Oh my,” Lady Emily said, and rolled her eyes. “Men.”

  With that, she headed out to the carriage. She was relieved that the driver was standing beside it, waiting for her.

  “I am going to Catherine's lodgings,” she said to him, confirming that no time would be wasted going in the wrong direction.

  “Yes, my lady,” the driver said. “And will you need a return journey?”

  “No,” Lady Emily said. “We will be going straight to the church when it is time. Catherine has arranged transport for all of us.”

  “Very good, my lady,” he said, and spurred the horses on.

  Lady Emily thought about their friendship on the journey over. Ever since they were small children, they had dreamed of the day both of them would get married. Now that Catherine was about to make her walk down the aisle, life was about to change forever. Yes, Lady Emily was already married, but it seemed she retained some of her own life with Catherine not married yet. Her vows today would signal the end of their childhood and their journey into motherhood and beyond.

  Lady Emily was in a wonderful mood as she walked through the door of Catherine's local lodgings. It was a beautiful house she was staying at, with distant cousins that were the reason she and Lady Emily met to begin with. This would be the last day she stayed apart from Edward, and Lady Emily couldn’t be more excited for her.

  She thought it was going to be a perfect day. She did not expect to be escorted up to Catherine’s room and see her dearest friend in tears.

  “Catherine,” Lady Emily said, in shock. “Whatever is the matter?”

  “Oh,” Catherine said when she saw Emily. “It’s terrible. It’s terrible.”

  “What’s terrible?” Lady Emily asked. “What’s the matter?”

  Lady Emily had a thousand thoughts going through her mind. She thought that something had happened to Edward, or perhaps Catherine’s parents. She thought that perhaps there was an accident, or that Edward had changed his mind.

  “Is it Edward?” she asked Catherine, and her dearest friend shook her head.

  “Is it your parents?” she asked and again, Catherine shook her head. Lady Emily searched her mind for the next most horrible possibility, and almost missed it as Catherine pointed towards the closet.

  “My dress,” she said. “It’s my dress.”

  Perplexed, Lady Emily walked towards the closet. When she pulled open the door, she gasped.

  Catherine’s perfect wedding dress, that had been finished just yesterday and fitted to her slim figure, was still hanging in the closet. However, it wasn’t hanging there in a complete dress anymore. It was torn to shreds and most of it was on the floor.

  “What happened?” Lady Emily asked, in shock.

  “It was the dog,” she said. “I woke up just before dawn and I heard the dog growling. Someone must have let him in the room, and he just...tore it apart. I’ve already shrieked the house down, and...I just… What am I going to do? What am I going to do? I can’t wear it. I can’t wear it.”

  “Well...no…” Lady Emily said, as she surveyed the dress. “You can’t.”

  “What am I going to do?” Catherine asked. Lady Emily tried to remain positive.

  “Well…” she said. “Can you wear another dress? You have many.”

  “No,” Catherine howled at her. “I have to wear a wedding dress, Emmie. I can’t do this. Maybe this is a sign. Maybe this is fate that I am not supposed to marry Edward. Maybe this is…”

  “Catherine,” Lady Emily turned around to look her in the eye. “This is not fate. This is not a sign. This is just an unfortunate event and a dog that is not well-trained.”

  “But what am I going to do?” she asked. Her face was tear-streaked and she was certainly in no shape to walk down the aisle. “I can’t wear it.”

  “Let me think,” Lady Emily said. “There is a fairly good seamstress at the end of the High Street that may be able to…”

  “Emmie, look at it,” Catherine said. “There is no way they can repair it.”

  “Well…” Lady Emily said. “You could always wear mine. The seamstress may not be able to fix that, but she could probably alter mine quickly.”

  Catherine looked up at her through her tears.

  “But that will be so expensive,” she said. “And I have already spent everything that is available on the wedding. My parents will not give me any more and Edward will be so cross if I spend more.”

  “I will pay,” Lady Emily said, and Catherine shook her head.

  “I can’t let you do that,” she said. “You have already done so much, I can’t let you…”

  “Catherine,” Lady Emily said. “I have not had time to get you a present. I have been a terrible friend and I would like to do this as my gift to you.”

  “Oh Emmie,” Catherine said and embraced her. “I am so lucky to have a friend like you.”

  “It’s my pleasure,” Lady Emily said. “Now, get up and get dressed. I think the fastest will be if we send a message to the seamstress and you return to my Father’s house to wait for her. It will be faster than me sending for the dress and having it brought all the way here.”

  “I agree,” Catherine said and wiped her face. “I hope we can do something, or we will have to postpone the wedding.”

  “Well...” Lady Emily said, knowing Edward’s sense of humour “At least Edward will get a laugh out of this.”

  “You think he will laugh?” Catherine said, and Lady Emily smiled at her. “Do you not know your future husband? He always finds the best in every circumstance.”

  “I suppose he does,” Catherine said, as she got up. “That is the only way to make the best of this situation.”

  While Catherine was getting dressed, Lady Emily took the opportunity to send a note to the seamstress. She regretted the fact that she did not ask the carriage to wait, but she arranged for one of the wedding carriages to take them back to her house. As soon as Catherine was dressed, Lady Emily escorted her into the carriage.

  “Are you sure this is all right?” Catherine asked. “It is your wedding dress, and that is something that is special for you. I do not want you to feel as if…”

  “I am happy to share it with you,” Lady Emily said. “We have shared many things, Catherine and sharing this with you is another gift.”r />
  “Thank you,” Catherine said. “I don’t know what I would do without you.”

  “You would have a very interesting wedding dress,” Lady Emily said. “And everyone would talk about it for many years to come.”

  “That they would,” Catherine said, with a small smile. It was the first time she had smiled since Lady Emily walked in, which was progress. The carriage rolled along, and the two girls held each other’s hands as they went back to Sir Preston’s house. When Lady Emily and Catherine walked in, Sir Preston was walking down the hallway, and he looked utterly confused.

  “Hello,” he said. “Is something the matter?”

  “Nothing is the matter,” Lady Emily said. “Catherine is going to borrow my wedding dress.”

  “Oh,” Sir Preston said, superimposed “Oh...because…?”

  “Because there was a rabid dog at her place,” Lady Emily said. “The seamstress from High Street is coming.”

  “Oh,” Sir Preston said. It was clear that of all the things he expected, this was not one of them. “Very well.”

  “Wonderful,” she said, and brought Catherine up to her room. She didn’t realize how early it was, because Myles was exiting the room, and the maid was just making the bed.

  “What…?” Myles asked, and Lady Emily was tired of explaining.

  “Myles, Catherine needs to borrow a gown,” she said, and then escorted her into the room.

  “Let me know if you need me to get anything,” Myles called after her, and Lady Emily shut the door behind her. The maid was just finishing up and she exited the room, leaving the two girls alone.

  “I feel terrible,” Catherine said. “I am disrupting this peaceful day that your family is having.”

  “Catherine, it is your wedding day,” Lady Emily said. “Do not worry about anything, except the wedding. Now, my dress is in the closet. I will fetch it and you should try it on, to see how much we need to alter it.”

  The two girls were not the same size at all, and as Lady Emily hoped, the dress was too big rather than too small. She knew that would be easy to fix, and so she managed to help Catherine pin it up as they waited for the seamstress.

  “Do you like it?” Lady Emily asked, as Catherine looked at herself in the mirror.

  “Yes,” Catherine said. “I do. I loved it on you and I am honoured that you would lend it to me.”

  “Of course,” she replied. “I am honoured that it is getting worn again.”

  Catherine tucked her hair behind her ear as she looked in the mirror again.

  “I shall have to go back to get my jewellery,” she said. “I can’t believe I forgot it. I also need…”

  “I will arrange everything for you,” Lady Emily said. “Do not worry about a thing.”

  There was a knock on the door then, and Lady Emily pulled it open. To her relief, it was the seamstress.

  “Oh, thank you for coming,” Lady Emily said, when she saw her. “Please, come right in. We had a little incident with Catherine’s dress and this one must be modified to fit her...today.”

  If the seamstress was fazed by the request, she didn’t say anything. She approached Catherine and looked her up and down, and then nodded.

  “I can do it,” she said. “It’s wonderful that it’s too big rather than too small.”

  “Yes, I thought so as well,” Catherine said. “Lady Emily looked so lovely in it…”

  “Perhaps, may I make a suggestion?” the seamstress said and pulled out a red ribbon from her bag. “Just to make it your own. Around the waist?”

  “Oh yes,” Catherine said. “Yes, that would be lovely.”

  “Wonderful,” she said, and began pulling things out of her bag. Lady Emily sank onto the bed and watched the process for a few moments. She didn’t tell Catherine that they would be getting close to ceremony time by the time it was ready, based on all the modifications she could see. She needed to make sure that her friend remained calm.

  “I can go to the garden and pick a bouquet for you, if you want,” she said to Catherine after a few moments. “So that we do not have to go back. Is there a particular type of flower you want?”

  “My bouquet was white roses,” Catherine said.

  “I have lots of them,” Lady Emily said. “Of course, I could go back and get yours…”

  “No, no,” Catherine said. “If you have some…”

  “I do,” Lady Emily said. “And my jewellery is in the box beside you.”

  “Wonderful,” Catherine said. “Thank you so much, Emmie. I was so wrong to be angry at you at the start of this whole journey.”

  Lady Emily’s brow furrowed for a minute and then she remembered.

  “Oh,” she said. “When Myles proposed? You were right to be angry.”

  “No, I was silly,” Catherine said. “And look how wonderful you are to me now. We shall be best friends forever.”

  “We were going to be the best of friends no matter what,” Lady Emily said to her, with a smile. The dress was coming along quite nicely, and when the seamstress put the red ribbon around her waist, Lady Emily gasped. “Oh, that makes it so lovely”

  “I could put a little in your hair,” the seamstress said. “To pick up the colour?”

  “How about around my bouquet?” Catherine asked. “It would look so lovely against the white roses.”

  “I agree,” she said. “That would be lovely.”

  “I should go down and pick them,” Lady Emily said. “You’ll be all right for the next few minutes?”

  “Yes,” Catherine said. “Thank you, Emmie.”

  It was a beautiful day, and Lady Emily was glad for an excuse to go out in the garden. She rarely got into the garden this early, and she took advantage of the end of the sunrise as it rose against the horizon. The birds were chirping; the sun was shining, and she didn’t pick the flowers right away. Instead, she paused and thanked God for her luck, and all the wonderful things that were to come in her future. She thanked God for her friendship with Catherine, and for Myles, and for the health of her father.

  She was so in tune with her prayers and the birds that it took her a moment to hear a very strange bird.

  At least, she thought it was a strange bird, until she listened a little bit harder. Then, she realized it wasn’t a bird at all, but Edward.

  “Emmie, Emmie, Emmie,” he had clearly just jumped off a horse and was rushing towards her. Lady Emily turned around to see her second dearest friend in a panic.

  “Edward, what is happening?” she asked.

  “I heard Catherine rushed here in tears,” Edward said. “One of the maids from her lodgings came to my house. She didn’t know what happened, but she thought I should know.”

  “It’s all right,” Lady Emily said. “I am taking care of it.”

  “Taking care of what?” Edward asked. “Was it something I said? Was it something I did?”

  “No,” Lady Emily said. “Not unless you are a dog.”

  Edward got a very confused look on his face.

  “What?” he said.