WEDDING KNIGHT.doc

WEDDING KNIGHTCeleste BradleyTo sisters. And to never having to go it alone.Alfred Knight, in Celeste Bradley's Wedding Knight, has lived his entire life trying to avoid scandal. Little does he know he will marry directly into it when he chooses his bride to be. She is nothing she appears to be, but everything he needs.Celeste Bradley raises the bar again with her marvelous story about an arrogant, obnoxious hero who finally redeems himself and a fresh, provocative, unique heroine who is the best leading lady of the bunch. There is some incredulity at times that nobody can tell these not-quite-identical twins apart, but the story is still great fun. 4 stars.Celeste Bradley is one of my favorite authors, (she's why I actually picked up this book, truthfully), and true to form, this story was excellent - and exactly what you would come to expect from Celeste Bradley - a *really* strong and unusual heroine, lots of twists and turns to the storyline, and most of all, lots of fun. I absolutely *adore* strong heroines, so this story had my votes from the start. It does suffer a little bit because of the length, this IS a short story, so it resolves quite quickly, but all in all, good enough for five stars. This was about two twin sisters, Kitty and Bitty, Bitty is getting married, and Kitty is left out of the fun. Until. Bitty gets cold feet at the last moment, and Kitty decides to try to save the day by pretending that she is Bitty. just for a *very* short time. Truthfully, this plot has been done before, but this one was just done *so very well*, Kitty and Bitty are both truly hilarious (each in their own way). If I had a complaint to make I would perhaps say that Kitty is a bit *too* strong in a heroine - but that's not possible (a heroine can't be too strong) so I won't say it. When I mean a strong heroine, I mean it, I don't mean strong-until-the-man-comes-in-to-save-the-day. Like I said before, this story suffers from the length, I would have liked to see more of a reconciliation at the end. CHAPTER 1 England 1813 The graveyard echoed silence but for the sound of running feet and her own straining breath. Kitty Trapp stopped to gasp for a moment against a tall marker stone, one carved with cherubs and the word "Beloved." The morning sun had yet to rise above the London dwellings surrounding the churchyard, making the shadows dense and undefined.There. White flashed between two tall stonesa mere translucent wisp as insubstantial as fogthen it was gone.Again. The early morning light brightened through the mist to glimmer for an instant on a pale figure. Kitty dodged a headstone and dashed to the side of one of the great mausoleums, regretting her sedentary existence in an entirely new way as her side clenched in a stitch. She clutched her waist tightly with one hand while holding up her hem with the otherand kept running. Faster.With a last burst of speed that she hardly knew she was capable of, Kitty burst through a decorative hedge that separated the rich from the not so rich even after death. With one hand stretched before her, she reached outAnd caught her sister's sleeve before Bitty could make the largest mistake of her life.It took a moment for Kitty to gather enough breath to speak. "Bettina Melrose Trapp! Get back in that church this instant! What can you be thinking to race through hallowed ground? And on your wedding day!"Bitty let free a sob while struggling to pull away from her twin's grip. Kitty, however, had years of experience in getting her way. She might be the ever so slightly younger and the ever so slightly less attractive and the much less financially desirable twin, but she was also ever so slightly taller and much, much meaner.Bitty only struggled harder, surprising Kitty with her willingness to possibly damage her wedding gown. Kitty didn't dare ease her grip, however. Behind them was a church full of influential people, including the Prime Minister and half the members of the House of Lords.Thinking again of Mama's eagerness to impress the imperious Lord Liverpool, Kitty began to drag her twin back through the gravestones to the tiny room off the nave where they'd been sent to await the first strains of the wedding march."But I don't want to!" Bitty struggled harder, although Kitty noticed that she kept her wails muted. "I don't want to wed him in front of all those people!""Well, you ought to have considered that before you accepted Mr. Knight's proposal." Reaching the old arched door of the back exit off the nave, Kitty towed her twin inside. She only released Bitty when she'd closed the oak door on its thick iron hinges and thrown the great latch once more.* * *In his small alcove off the nave, Mr. Alfred Theodious Knight paused in the act of adjusting his cravat. The hollow echo of a door slamming somewhere in the church distracted him. He waited a long moment, but no further uproar ensued. Good. Hopefully, events would continue as scheduled.Not that he was in a hurry to wed the Trapp girl. She hardly inspired hot-blooded urgency. When one examined the match logically-and Knight examined everything logicallythe girl would suit him well enough. Unexceptional looks, if not precisely pretty. Blond, which was pleasant but scarcely necessary. Of flawless reputation aside from one recent blunderand possessing an unobtrusive demeanor.This last was important, for Knight wanted no torrid stories floating about concerning his marriage. He'd had a lifetime of living down the outrageous antics of his shameless mother. He'd not tolerate such nonsense from his own wife.Further, the girl was of adequate family, with surprisingly high connections. Figure: landing somewhere between pleasingly plump and overindulged. Taste: excruciating, but that had already been dealt with. Inheritance: large enough to inspire interesting possibilities but not so large as to eclipse his own.And finally, but in his mind the most important, wedding Bettina Trapp would erase a possible stain upon his family's name. If only it were this easy to erase all the misdeeds of Knight's younger half brother, John Tuttle.Born out of their shared mother's affair with a horse trainer hired to develop the blood stock, John Tuttle had never felt the need to live down his origins as Knight did. In fact, John seemed intent on broadening the spectrum of sins painted upon the family history by the late Mrs. Knight.Several weeks ago Tuttle had decided to line his pockets with Miss Trapp's inheritance. With characteristic Tuttle treachery, John had proceeded to lure the naive Bettina Trapp onto a balcony during a ball and had there leaped upon her like a hungry hound. Only the happenstance of Bettina's sister coming upon the scene had prevented a scandal that would have rocked London.Upon reflection, Knight realized that he had never seen his bride's sister. By John's furious and drunken description just before Knight had ordered his half sibling boarded onto the next ship to the West Indies, the other Trapp girl was a proper witch.Typical of younger siblings, Knight was sure.The wedding march ought to play soon. With habitual calm, Mr. Alfred Theodious Knight firmly squelched his boredom and returned to adjusting a cravat that was already tied to perfection.* * *Standing with her back to the only escape from the tiny cell, Kitty folded her arms and regarded Bitty with fond exasperation. Bitty never could accomplish anything without a fuss and flurry, even something as simple as walking down the aisle. Melodrama was as much a part of Bitty as was her indecision and her basic timidity, although Bitty's essential lack of will was the only thing that made Kitty able to live with her pampered and narcissistic twin.Not that it was entirely Bitty's fault. Kitty thought that she might herself have been as malleable as Bitty if she'd been the focus of her parents' social ambitions for her entire life. Instead, she'd had to fight every day of her life for the slightest notice from her family.Perhaps that was why Bitty was so prone to theatrics, as a sort of outlet for her own desires and dreams. Although Kitty couldn't imagine why. As far as she knew, Bitty's desires and dreams coincided entirely with Mama's ambitions for her.Until today, that is."If you didn't want to have a grand wedding, why didn't you say something weeks ago? Or yesterday, for that matter? What will Mr. Knight say?""Oh, I cannot bear to think on him. So grimso dark!"Kitty blinked at that. "You don't fancy his looks? Then why did you accept him?" Astounding. She had seen the gentleman on the day when he'd come to offer for Bitty, although he hadn't seen her. The landing on the stairs was a lovely place to spy on someone in the entrance hall. In Kitty's opinion, the stern and silent Mr. Knight was quite ideal, at least in his even features and fine dark eyes.Bitty only shuddered in response. "I don't want to talk about it.""Again, something best brought up in conversation before today," muttered Kitty. She threw out her hands. "The poor man is standing out there right now waiting for you! The world is standing out there waiting for you!"That had been the wrong thing to say. Bitty shrank back, then unbelievably, reached behind her neck to begin undoing the tiny buttons that ran down her white silk-clad back. "No, no, no" Then she began to tug the tightly fitted sleeves down, right there in the church with half the world waiting outside the door!"Bitty, what are you doing?" Kitty rushed around behind her to do her up again, but Bitty twisted away to tug at the costly beaded silk as if it were a filthy rag."No!"Kitty was astonished at the vehemence in her sister's voice. Bitty was choosing now to exhibit a spine? Kitty tried a new tack. "Bitty, wait," she said in a soothing tone. "Think on it. This is your wedding day. Everything is just as you wished. The church is the one where Mama wed Papa. The flowers are just as you dreamed. Your gown . ." Well, to be truthful, the gown was a horror, all tucked and beaded and beribboned with not one inch unadorned. In Kitty's opinion, Bitty had never had one smidge of taste, nor had Mama.Kitty abandoned soothing to go straight to entirely livid. "Bettina Melrose Trapp, put your wedding gown back on this instant!" All to no effect. Bitty stripped the dress off and tossed it ruthlessly over the back of a heavy carved chair.A tap came at the door that led into the church. "Girls?"Kitty closed her eyes. Mama. Things were about to go from bad to disastrous. Bitty dove behind the dressing screen. The coward.Mrs. Beatrice Trapp, society matron and patroness of everything socially advantageous, entered the room like a lavender ship under sail. "Kitty? Where is your sister?" She spotted the dress tossed unceremoniously aside. Her eyes widened in appalled surprise. "She isn't yet dressed? The vicar is expecting us now!"Kitty saw a scene in the making, what with Mama's ambitions colliding with Bitty's theatricsa long, loud, and potentially very public scene indeed. Quickly, she stepped in."Mama, you must stall the ceremony." She wrapped one arm about her mother's stout waist and steered her back to the door. "A minor hair mishap, that is all. We only need a moment."Beatrice Trapp looked over her shoulder at the limp and empty wedding gown. "But don't you need my help to get Bitty dressed?"Kitty sent her mother out with a small push, just to build up her momentum. "Don't worry, Mama. You'll have a bride to marry off in mere moments."One way or another. * * *There were several hundred guests in the church. That meant nearly a thousand eyes turned Kitty's way when she took her first hesitating step on her father's arm down the aisle.This is a dreadful plan. Kitty's conscience seemed to beat against the barrier of her lie like a trapped moth. Don't do this!Firmly she squelched the inner protest. 'Twas no great problem. She would simply do this one thing for Bitty, and for her parents, and no one need know but Bitty and herself. After all, it wasn't as though they hadn't done it time and again in their childhood.Mr. Knight stood tall and imposing next to the vicar. Heavens, had his shoulders always been so broad? Kitty's veilBitty's veilhung mistily between herself and the groomBitty's groomKitty shook herself firmly back to the subject at hand. She need only make it through the ceremony, trot home to undress, and stuff her sister into the very fine traveling suit awaiting her, and kiss Bitty good-bye as she left on her honeymoon.It was only that. when she'd dreamed of this moment in her life, she'd never thought it would be a farce, an unworthy prank. What should have been her first and only time taking this journey had been twisted. Now Kitty didn't know if the purity of her own walk down the aisle could ever be returned to her.So when she arrived at the altar and turned to face Mr. Knight, there were very believable tears in her eyes.Knight tried not to heave a visible sigh of impatience at the slow intonations of the vicar. The pomp and symbolism that was wrapped around what amounted to a business transaction never ceased to amaze him.His bride wept beside him. He hoped she would not turn out to be sillier than most. Unfortunately, he'd yet to see evidence of any brain at all in Bettina Trapp. The one report he'd had of her led one to believe she hadn't the sense to get herself in out of the rain. His impression upon first meeting her on the day he'd proposed had not been favorable, for she'd merely blinked at his offer with wide brown eyes, then paled, then nodded.Still, Knight retained a hope of finding some sort of intellect beneath the vapid exterior. A long and intimate future with a completely brainless woman didn't bear thinking about.He took his bride's hand in his at the appropriate moments, said the expected litany, vowed forever away to this creature whom he truly didn't know at all.Wedded bliss, the vicar said. Knight didn't see it as anything of the sort. Simply a business transaction, after all. * * *The entire party had arrived at the Trapps' home for the wedding breakfast. The moment Kitty could manage it she ran for her room. It would only take a few moments to change, especially if Bitty had everything ready as they had arranged.It wasn't until Kitty had neared the top of the stairs at a run that she realized that never oncenot before, during, or after the ceremonyhad her parents asked after her . er, Kitty. Pausing at the door to her room, she fought down the hurt that no one had noticed Kitty's absence from the festivities.Flinging herself into the room, she pasted on a bright smile, ready to give Bitty every detail of the last hourThere was no one in the room, or in Bitty's room. Or in the bathing chamber, or in the small sitting room att