The Princess & the Pea (7 page)

"So, all is forgiven?" Jared said.

Cece flashed him a radiant smile. "It is indeed." She nodded toward her sister. "You remember Emily."

Jared tipped his black silk hat. "Delighted to see you again, my dear." He returned his gaze to Cece. "What brings you to Paris?"

"That's what I keep asking." Emily said under her breath. No one seemed to notice.

"Paris is one of the great cities of the world. We're simply tourists. I believe I mentioned our intention to visit when we first met. And now with all this." Cece waved at the line of automobiles. "I scarcely think anyone with the opportunity to witness such an event would pass it up."

"It is impressive." Jared surveyed the motorcars with a knowing eye. "I have noted a number of refinements Quentin and I should try to incorporate into our own design."

"Really?" Cece said curiously. "What kind of refinements?"

He studied her for a moment, as if assessing her sincerity. "I must say I find your interest surprising."

"Why?" A challenge rang in her voice.

"Well. I find most women ... that is to say, many women ..." An expression akin to that of a drowning man trying to reach the water's surface crossed his face. He drew a deep breath. "Women, in general, do not seem to be mechanically inclined."

"Mr. Grayson ... Jared." Cece said coolly. "I am not like most women, many women or even women in general. I find automobiles fascinating. I firmly believe they are the wave of the future. The vehicle of the twentieth century. Now," she smiled sweeny, "we would love for you to show us some of the observations you've made here. Wouldn't we, Em?"

"We'd love it," Emily said weakly.

"Excellent," Jared grinned, as if he couldn't believe his good luck, and offered one arm to Cece and the other to Emily. Emily waved him away, but Cece linked her arm through his and the trio took off.

Jared paused before the first vehicle. "This automobile has a steering tiller operated from the rear seat. If you remember, mine has only a single seat and some of us believe..."

Emily smiled politely and fell back a few paces. She preferred to walk behind the couple: it was so much easier to pretend she was even mildly interested in his explanations that way. Cece might not be like most women, but Emily freely admitted she was. And she considered automobiles, and anything and everything associated with them, unbearably dull.

Emily narrowed her eyes reflectively and studied the pair in front of her. Jared's energetic tone drifted past her. Cece listened with rapt attention, occasionally posing an obviously astute question, if the look on Jared's face was any indication. The two were absorbed in discussing the intricacies of the horseless carriage.

Ever since the Exposition, Cece had been intrigued by inventions and new ideas and anything that smacked of progress. But she typically ignored the specific details of innovation. Odd that she was so engrossed in the particulars of these creations ...

Realization struck Emily like a bolt from above and she stopped dead in her tracks. How could she have been so blind? Her brash, daring, impulsive sister, the same sister who had proclaimed her skepticism of the very existence of love, the same sister who had broken countless hearts back home, was obviously smitten with this man. There was no other rational explanation for her behavior.

Emily grudgingly admitted she could see his appeal. Certainly he was handsome and quite dashing in the morning coat he sported today, as opposed to the casual garb he'd worn on their first meeting. But far more important than appearance was the fervor and intensity he displayed when discussing his silly machine. Cece always had been drawn to passion and excitement.

Half the time Emily wished she could be more like her sister. The rest of the time she was grateful she wasn't. Emily was a firm believer in the rules and requirements of proper behavior, of doing precisely what was expected of her. Cece didn't believe in rules at all and reveled in the unexpected. No doubt it would be her undoing one day.

Perhaps this man could actually be good for her. Perhaps he could channel Cece's unbridled zest for life into his own enthusiasm for automobiles and dissuade her from her desire to be a newspaper reporter. A working woman, Emily shuddered at the thought.

A gunshot jerked her from her musings and she rushed to catch up with Cece and Jared. She pushed her way to their side amid the cheers of the crowd. The automobiles rolled down the boulevard, their occupants waving with the thrill of the start or staring solemnly at the road ahead. It took but a few minutes for the vehicles to be nothing more than a cloud of dust and a minor rumbling in the distance.

"My, that was grand." Cece's eyes shone with excitement. "Which motorcar do you think will win?"

Jared pondered the question briefly. "They have a frightfully long course. The race is as much a test of endurance as speed. I doubt it will take less than three days." His eyes narrowed in thought. "Peugeot has a good vehicle, but I'd bet on Levassor. The man is a brilliant engineer."

"Well, if we are quite finished here ..." Emily said hopefully.

"Do you have plans for the rest of the day?" Jared said, as if he had little interest in the answer.

Cece shrugged in an equally nonchalant manner. "As I said before, we are merely tourists. I should think we shall spend the rest of the day seeing the sights."

"I would be honored to accompany you." A smile touched the corners of his lips. "I haven't been to Paris for a few years and there are some sights I would very much enjoy seeing again. Perhaps the Louvre?"

Emily shook her head. "Oh, we've already seen—" Once again Cece's elbow jabbed into her ribs.

"We've seen the palace from the street." Cece said quickly, "but we've not yet had the chance to venture inside. And Emily, especially, loves art."

Emily cast a swift glare at her sister and forced a smile to her lips. "I love art."

"It's decided then," Jared nodded sharply, turned and hailed a cab.

Cece tossed Emily a look of apology. Emily sighed to herself and tried to discover a ray of hope in the long afternoon that stretched before her.

Jared helped them both into the cab and Emily settled beside Cece. She glanced at her sister. She did not relish the idea of tagging along after Cece and Jared, although she suspected a chaperon would be an excellent idea.

A chaperon.

Abruptly, her mood brightened. The hours ahead no longer seemed quite so bleak. In fact, they could well be quite amusing. She beamed a smile at her sister. Cece's brows drew together in a curious frown. Emily chuckled to herself.

After all of Cece's convoluted plans and schemes, it was so wonderfully ironic to realize she was more than likely in love. And in this man Cece might finally have met her match.

"Darling, are you certain it's all right to leave you alone?" Worry colored Phoebe's voice.

"It's fine, Mother." Cece called weakly from beneath the bedclothes. "I just have a headache. I didn't want to go to the opera anyway. No doubt I'll be asleep in a few moments."

"Still..." Phoebe said, "I hate to go without you."

"Go, Mother, really." Cece struggled to keep the impatience from her voice. "I prefer to be alone. I'm sure I'll be fine after a good night's rest."

"If you're certain ..." Phoebe did not sound at all convinced.

"I'm sure, Mother." Would she never leave? "Now, please. I must get some sleep."

"Very well." Phoebe placed a motherly lass on her daughter's forehead. Cece closed her eyes in a feeble gesture of suffering.

"Emily, hurry and collect the rest of your things or we shall surely be late. Your father and I will meet you in the lobby. Cece, I shall check on you when we return."

"Mother, please don't worry." Cece said quickly. "I'll be fine in the morning."

An indecisive pause followed her words. Finally her mother sighed in surrender. "All right then: good night, darling."

"Good night, Mother." Cece resisted the urge to grit the words through her teeth. Phoebe's heels clicked across the floor. The door to the parlor that separated Cece and Emily's hotel room from their parents swished open and closed. Silence fell in the bedchamber for one ... two ... three seconds.

"Is she gone?" Cece said cautiously.

"She's gone," Emily said. "But the real question is, what are you up to?" Cece threw back the linens and bounded out of bed. Emily's eyes narrowed warily. "I suspected as much. Where are you going?"

"Out." Cece pulled a dress from the wardrobe.

"Help
me get into this, please."

Emily shook her head stubbornly. "Not until you tell me what you're planning."

Cece threw her an impatient glare. "It's really none of your concern."

"Oh?" Emily's voice was deceptively casual. "Then I suppose you won't mind if I tell Mother and Father you're going out?"

"Don't be ridiculous." Cece snapped. "Of course you can't tell."

"If you expect me to keep yet another of your endless secrets." Emily smiled sweetly, "then you'll have to take me into your confidence. Otherwise ..." The threat hovered in the room.

"I thought you were tired of keeping my secrets."

"I am. But since you are bound and determined to act the way you do. I feel someone in this family ought to know exactly what mischief you're getting into." Emily released a forebearing sigh. "And I suppose it might as well be me."

"What a wonderful sister you are," Cece grinned and stepped into a modest gown, far more suitable for daytime than evening wear.
"Help
me with these buttons."

Cece turned her back to her sister and Emily worked on the long row of tiny mother-of-pearl studs. "You still haven't told me where you're going. Or with whom, although I daresay I can guess."

"I'm meeting Jared. He's going to show me the sights of Paris by night." Anticipation shivered through her.

"Why are you wearing this dress? It's quite nice but definitely not for evenings. Why aren't you wearing one of the new Worth gowns?"

"Enuly." Cece said patiently, "we are both agreed that Jared is not financially well off. I would hate for him to feel uncomfortable if I were to appear in a dress that cost an indecent amount of money."

"You don't want him to know about Father's wealth, do you?"

"Heavens, no."

"Why on earth not?"

"I told you: I do not want him to be ill-at-ease." Cece's tone hardened. "And even at home I have found men are more often than not as interested in a girl's dowry or inheritance as they are the girl herself. I would prefer to enjoy myself without having to worry whether he is attracted to me or to Father's money. Besides, just one of the gowns Mother has purchased would likely finance work on his automobile for months."

"There." Emily finished the last button. "It's quite scandalous, you know."

"His automobile?"

"No: your meeting him this way. Mother and Father would never approve."

"Exactly." Cece nodded. "That's precisely why—"

"I know, I know," Emily said impatiently. "I won't tell. But I honestly don't understand why you insist on going behind their backs. This man may not have a title, or a penny to his name for that matter, but he's obviously intelligent and ambitious. He seems quite passionate about that horseless carriage of his, absurd though it may be. I think he is very much like Father must have been when he was first starting out to build his business. I suspect Father would like, possibly even admire, Mr. Grayson's drive and aspirations. Why don't you just introduce him to Mother and Father?"

"Oh, I could do that. I suppose, and I probably will at some point. But for now," Cece shrugged and grinned, "I prefer to keep him to myself. It's much more fun and exciting this way. Why, I'm getting to know him—the real him—without all the rigid rules and regulations society imposes on men and women."

Emily crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against the wardrobe. "You're in love with him, aren't you?"

"In love?" Astounded, Cece stared. "I surely would not call it love. I'm intrigued by him. I find him extremely interesting. But love? Why, I don't even—"

"Don't tell me again how you don't believe in love."

" 'Love is the yoke of slavery that binds women to the servitude of men,' "Cece quoted.

Emily groaned. "Where did you come up with that?"

"I don't recall," Cece said vaguely. "I read it somewhere."

"Well, it's silly." Emily glared. "I don't see why you're so adamant about not being in love. Especially since you've never acted this way about any other man. Why, from the moment you first met him your behavior has been even more outrageous than usual."

"In what way?" Cece's voice rang with challenge.

"First of all"—Emily ticked the points off on her fingers—"you risked your life in that infernal machine of his."

"It was simply a matter of sampling progress, nothing more," Cece said loftily.

Enuly threw her a skeptical glance. "Secondly, you chased him here to Paris—"

"I did not chase him." Cece said indignantly. "I told you; we came to Paris because Mother's always wanted to."

"Forgive me, that slipped my mind." Emily's words dripped with sarcasm. "Third, you let him drag us all over the Louvre, a museum we had already spent hours at, and you hung on every boring word he said."

"I did not hang on his every word," Cece said defensively. "It's simply that I found his discussions extremely interesting and enlightening. You should have paid more attention," she said pointedly.

"Hah." Emily rolled her eyes toward the ornate plaster ceiling. "You two were so wrapped up in talking to each other, neither of you even noticed I was there."

"Of course we knew you were there." Cece pulled her brows together in an annoyed frown. Now that she thought about it, she couldn't remember Emily being along, although she must have been. "You were there, weren't you?"

"That's exactly what I mean." Emily grinned. "You're in love."

Cece stared, an uncomfortable realization growing inside her. "I have been acting odd lately, haven't I?"

"Even more so than usual." Emily's tone softened. "I think it's delightful if you have finally found love, whether you want to admit it or not. And as tedious as I find all this horseless carriage nonsense, I can see how much you enjoy it. But you simply cannot continue the kind of disgraceful behavior in which you've been engaged."