If they returned to London, Dominic would probably fall back into the life he led before their marriage. And she could return to her own. No more heated arguments. No more uncomfortable avoidance of her past. If he found a new mistress, as she was sure he would, despite his vows to the contrary, no more passionate nights.
She groaned in dismay at the last.
“I must say, I am impressed.”
Katherine looked up to see the object of her musings leaning against the banister leading into the foyer. Dominic looked as good as a long, hot bath after a day in the cold. With a crisp cravat and pressed jacket, she could almost forget what a devil he was. He’d even eliminated his ever-present stubble and smelled of shaving soap and male deliciousness.
She shook off her unwanted physical reaction to pretend a bright smile. “Impressed?”
“By what you’ve done.” He straightened up and came a few steps closer. She fought the urge to lean into him when he passed by. “The foyer looks wonderful, and I noticed you moved things in the sitting room.”
She scowled. How dare he compliment her even as he refused to give her what she wanted? She folded her arms. “Well, you should be impressed considering what I have to work with.”
He turned to give her a placating smile that raised her ire even further. “Kat, I have no desire to argue.”
Kat. He only called her Kat when he wanted something. Or to drive her mad. And when in bed. She shivered.
“Then don’t,” she answered, trying hard to maintain focus and not think about how dark his eyes were. Or how focused they were on her. “Give me what I want to renovate. I promise you won’t be sorry.”
She held her breath as his look changed to one of annoyance.
“We already went through this. I’ve no interest—”
Stepping closer, she reached out to grab his hand. He seemed like he might give in if she just pushed a little further. Yet the moment their skin touched, her rational mind went fuzzy.
“Pl-Please, consider it an investment. If you put just a small amount into the project, you could sell the estate for much more, or even give it away if that pleases you,” she said, trying hard not to look at their entwined fingers.
His eyes narrowed as he pulled his hand away. “Why are you so interested in this? Why is it so blasted important?”
She stumbled back at the sudden anger in his voice. “I don’t know. I just like to…to fix things.”
The anger in his stare faded, replaced by a brief flash of long-buried pain. Then it was gone, but there was no ignoring what she’d seen.
“Some things aren’t fixable, Katherine,” he said with a shake of his head. The jingle of bells outside drifted into the foyer. “That’s Adrian’s carriage. I’m going out to say hello.”
Pushing the door open, he walked away. As much as she told herself it was best not to explore reasons for her husband’s gruff exterior, Katherine found herself desperate to do just that. Even if it meant risking an attachment to Dominic that would never cause her anything but grief. Even if it meant risking her heart.
Katherine couldn’t be a more perfect wife and hostess. Dominic leaned back and took a moment to enjoy the way she laughed at one of Adrian’s bad jokes while she poured him a cup of tea. She even remembered the way his best friend liked it. Already she had the other man wrapped around her pretty little finger.
A swell of pride expanded his chest. There were few men in the world Dominic cared to impress, but Adrian was one of them. In the fifteen years he’d known him, he had often looked to the Baron as a father figure. He certainly felt more affection from his friend than he ever had from Harrison Mallory.
“Well, I’m sure you gentlemen have some catching up to do, so I shall excuse myself,” she said as she rose to her feet and smoothed her dress. Both men got up as she went to the door.
“Are you sure you must leave us, Mrs. Mallory?” Adrian asked with a rakish wink, which Dominic knew he reserved only for women he truly liked. “I don’t know if I can bear to be left alone with your husband, especially after your most pleasant company.”
She laughed. “I’m sure you’ll manage, my lord. I do somehow.” She gave Dominic a saucy wink, then slipped away.
As she shut the door behind her, Dominic settled back into his chair with a grin. Later he would have her pay for her cheek. Already he was thinking of several pleasant ways. But those were plans for another time. For now, he had a friend to entertain.
“Would you like something stronger than tea?” he asked, getting up to motion to the bar.
“Sherry,” Adrian said with a nod.
As he poured two glasses, Dominic felt his friend’s eyes boring into his back. “Say whatever it is that’s on the tip of your tongue, Adrian.”
A deep laugh was his friend’s answer. “Ah, you still know me well. I wonder if I can say the same about you.”
“Why is that?” he asked as he held out the crystal tumbler.
Adrian took it with a smile and used it to motion to the doorway. “She’s a beautiful young woman, Dominic. And what a spitfire. I often worried you would get yourself trapped into an arrangement with some simpering London twit. But Katherine is far from that. I like her.”
“Thank you.” Dominic settled back into his chair with a sigh. He didn’t trust the gleam in his friend’s brown eyes. He had a feeling he was about to get an earful, and not just regarding the wife he’d sprung on the Baron.
“In fact, I’d be a bit jealous you found such a wife since I’ve had my own difficulties in that arena, if…”
Dominic arched an eyebrow. He never knew Adrian was looking for a wife. He assumed his friend simply enjoyed his bachelorhood. “If?”
“If I thought for one moment that you were being genuine.” Adrian leaned forward. “What the hell are you doing?”
Dominic sighed. He had known the man across from him since he was sixteen. Of all the people who assisted him, Adrian was the most consistent. The one he trusted more than anyone else. Adrian knew the truth about Dominic’s parentage, as well as what Lansing Square really meant to him.
Hell, the Baron had been the one who hired the investigator that delivered the information about where Dominic was conceived. His friend had kept all his secrets without fail or question for well over a decade.
Considering the troubles Dominic was having, the feelings he was trying so hard to fight, perhaps he needed his friend’s counsel one more time.
“What am I doing?” he repeated, staring into his glass without seeing. “Something I thought would be much, much easier, Adrian.”
The Baron nodded slowly, then leaned back in his chair. “Start from the beginning.”
Adrian downed his drink in one gulp, then slammed the glass down on the side table. Dominic watched his friend pace around the room a few times before Adrian ran a hand through his graying hair.
“I hoped you would tell me you’d fallen in love with this woman. That you finally realized you can’t live your life in such anger. But this…”
Dominic squirmed in shame. “You don’t have to make the situation any harder for me than it already is.”
The Baron let out a burst of ugly laughter. “Why should I make it any easier? You used Katherine to get a house. A house, man! And not even one you intend to use.”
Rising to his feet, Dominic held out his arms for understanding. “Not for a house. For my future.”
Adrian stopped pacing and looked at his friend with a mixture of exasperation and pity. “No,” he sighed heavily. “This estate isn’t about your future. It’s about your past, about who your real father is.”
Dominic winced. After he revealed his secret, they had rarely spoken of it. It was Adrian’s tacit way of telling Dominic he respected him, bastard or not. That his friend would bring it up now only accentuated how upset he was by Dominic’s story. And there was no use denying what the Baron already knew.
Dominic turned away to stare into the fire. “Of course that’s what
this is about. I wouldn’t go through all this trouble, hurt all these people, if it wasn’t so important. What could be more important than knowing who you are?”
“You know who you are!” Adrian said in exasperation. “I don’t think I’ve ever met a man more sure of himself. But what about who you could be?”
Dominic shook his head. “I don’t take your meaning.”
“What about what you could be with her?” Adrian motioned to the doorway Katherine had departed from half an hour before.
Clenching a fist, Dominic turned his back on Adrian and the disturbing comments that tore through his very soul. “Adrian—”
“Leave what’s been done behind you. It can’t be changed. She could be your future, if you let her be. I saw the way you looked at each other. There’s more to this marriage than a cold business deal.”
He nodded. “I don’t deny there is a spark between us. But it’s desire. And God knows, that fades with time. It’s nothing more.”
“How do you know this will?”
Dominic started. “B-Because it always has in the past. I’ve never seen what I would judge a happy union amongst my friends or colleagues. And I’ve never felt any need to press a romantic entanglement of my own beyond a few enjoyable encounters.”
Arching an eyebrow, Adrian said, “And have you ever felt for a woman the way you feel for Katherine?”
He swallowed as he considered that comment. He wasn’t sure how to answer. After all, he had tried very hard to classify his reactions to his wife as desire driven. Nothing more. Even when he felt something deeper, he pushed it aside.
Adrian stared down his nose with a look of skepticism. “I think not.” He waved away Dominic’s interruption. “Please, don’t argue any further. Continue to tell yourself it’s only passion that drives you to this woman. It certainly doesn’t hurt me. It only causes you pain, whether you want to believe it or not. Now I think I’d like a bath before my supper.”
Before Dominic found the words to answer, Adrian gave him a curt nod and left the room.
Cursing, Dominic downed the remainder of his drink in one gulp. But even though he tried to drown his friend’s words out with more liquor, they echoed in his head and haunted him.
Chapter 10
K atherine took a few steps into the dining room before she was distracted by a crooked painting. As she turned it to her satisfaction, she muttered, “If the stubborn ox would let me, I could make everything as perfect as this is now.”
“Good evening, Mrs. Mallory.”
She spun around to face the amused voice behind her and was surprised to see Adrian Malleville sitting in a side chair reading a wrinkled paper. He had a crooked grin on his face that made him look significantly younger than she knew him to be. From their first meeting, Katherine had been stricken by how handsome the Baron was. His graying temples only made him more distinguished and his brown eyes were sharp as a hunting hawk’s, but much kinder.
“I’m so sorry, Baron, I didn’t realize you were here,” she said. Of course her husband’s best friend would catch her muttering her frustrations to herself. She probably appeared both daft and shrewish.
“I should be the one apologizing,” he said as he rose to his feet and offered her an arm. “I shouldn’t have roamed about the house. But when I passed by the dining room and saw that painting you just adjusted, I had to stop for a second glance.”
“There are some lovely things in the estate,” Katherine said with a smile. She motioned to the more comfortable sitting room. Immediately, Adrian led them in that direction. “Which is why I’m all the more surprised by Dominic’s lack of interest in the future of Lansing Square.”
“Hmmm,” he said as he escorted her to a worn chair in front of her favorite picture window. “I’m not sure I’m the best one to talk to about Dominic’s interests or lack thereof. I’ve known him for a long time, but even I cannot understand his motives much of the time.”
He searched her face for a long moment. She tilted her head with worry. Why did he look at her that way? As if he pitied her.
“I’m actually a bit surprised not to find you and my husband together, my lord,” she said. “He was so thrilled by your arrival.”
“I’ve known Dominic since he was little more than a boy,” Adrian said with a faraway smile. “He’s been like a son to me in some ways. Part of being his mentor is that I tell him things he knows are true, which doesn’t mean he always likes them.”
She arched an eyebrow at his cryptic remark, but still found herself liking the older man. Unlike Dominic’s family, he obviously had a great deal of both respect and love for her husband. Whatever they had disagreed about was certainly something that could be fixed.
“I’m sorry to hear that. But then again, I do understand he can be a bit bullheaded at times.” She frowned as she thought of Dominic’s refusal of her request for funds to renovate. “And sometimes downright unreasonable.”
Adrian laughed at her assessment. “Yes, that is most definitely true. But I can tell by the way you two interact that you know there is much more to Dominic than those often entertaining, albeit frustrating qualities.”
She stayed quiet, even as she admitted to herself that Adrian was right. As much as Dominic tried to portray an image to the world of the cold, unemotional man, that was only the surface. He had never been cruel to her. In fact, he’d been gentle. Even tender.
How many times had she woken in the middle of the night to find he’d covered her with a blanket? He’d already mentioned a modiste would be at her beck and call in London.
But it was more than just those material things. She’d seen the vulnerability he tried to hide. She’d seen it when she found him searching the attic. Or when they spoke about his life as a child and after he divorced himself from his family. Sometimes she even thought she saw it when her husband touched her.
But that was probably wishful thinking.
Cautiously she met Adrian’s eyes. He seemed to be waiting for her to ask more, and oh, how she wanted to. But it didn’t seem right. She didn’t know this stranger well enough to question him about her husband.
As if he could read her mind, he said, “Perhaps you would like to know more about the man you married? If I know Dominic, I’m sure he hasn’t been as open as he could have been. He isn’t quick to share his past, even with those who care for him.”
She swallowed with a slow nod. The Baron could see through her. He knew she cared for Dominic. Was she so obvious to her husband, too?
But still, caring for him wasn’t the same as loving him or being obsessed by him. She cared for many people. Caring could still be safe.
Adrian said, “When I met Dominic, he was angry. He was so embittered by…by the past. But I saw something in him. I knew he needed a friend, guidance, although he refused to accept either my friendship or my advice for almost a full year.”
His expression saddened as if remembering those times was difficult for him. Her regard for the Baron rose again.
“Why…?” she hesitated. It almost felt like a betrayal to talk about her husband behind his back. Especially when her confidante was his best friend.
“Go ahead. What do you want to know, Mrs. Mallory?” he asked, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees.
“I’m not sure if I should talk about him like this. You know how private he is. I wouldn’t want to damage your relationship with him,” she admitted with a shake of her head.
He laughed. “Don’t worry. Dominic and I have already suffered through too many wars of words to even remember. And I think you have a right to know—” This time it was Adrian who cut himself off. “Well, I think you have a right to know a great many things, but we’ll take them one step at a time. So ask your questions and I shall do my best to give you the answers I feel comfortable with.”
Drawing in a deep breath, she whispered, “Why was Dominic so angry when you met him all those years ago?”
He pursed his lips into a thin
line. “Unfortunately, that is one of the secrets that isn’t mine to tell. However, I will tell you Harrison Mallory wasn’t kind to him, and his brother was little better.”
She drew back at this newest revelation. “Cole?”
Adrian nodded with an even stare for her. “People wear masks, Mrs. Mallory. Surely you know that. Colden Mallory may be able to present a certain face to the world, but it isn’t necessarily the truth.”
“I—I suppose,” she stammered.
She’d always questioned why Dominic hated Cole, but she never really considered the possibility that it could have been a situation of Cole’s making. Could she have been wrong about the man she once planned to marry? As blind to his true character as she feared she would become to Dominic’s?
Adrian leaned closer. “Dominic may wear a mask, too. One well worth pushing aside.”
Her breath came short as a dozen questions swirled in her brain. None of them would help her keep the distance she fought to maintain between Dominic and herself. All of them required she break down her own walls even as she tore down the ones Adrian claimed protected her husband’s heart.
Dominic’s sharp voice tore her from her disquieting musings. “Adrian.”
She looked up at him in surprise. His face was dark with displeasure and his stormy eyes were focused on his friend with undeniable anger. If that was his mask, what did he hide beneath it?
And why did that dangerous question spark both a physical and emotional response in her?
She rose to her feet. “Since my husband has found you, I shall excuse myself to do some last minute checking on the progress of our supper.” Her mouth was curiously dry as she slid past Dominic, and grew even dryer when he pinioned her with a sharp glance.
“Of course,” Adrian said. She noticed he was on his feet, though she hadn’t remembered him rising. It was disconcerting how Dominic’s presence made her less aware of anything in her surroundings but him.
She hurried away. As Dominic closed the parlor door, she heard him snap, “I don’t need you to fight my battles.”
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