Matthew tilted his head, but there was no anger in his voice as he said, “That was a tiny bit different. And you are full of horseshit. You troubled me about my melancholy at least once a week for three years.”
Robert smiled. “I did do that. Dragged you off to places you didn’t want to be. I’m the reason you met Isabel, after all. You owe me.”
“You are,” Matthew said softly. “I owe you my life.”
“God’s teeth,” Robert said, pushing to his feet and pacing away. “I was in jest. Let’s not get into an emotional upheaval over my role in dragging you against your will to the Donville Masquerade.”
“Very well, then answer my question. Did you have a good time at the Vinesmith ball?”
Robert turned to him. “You talked to James, Graham or Simon.”
“They might have mentioned you seemed out of sorts,” Matthew said. “Do you wish to talk about it?”
“The ball was boring as hell. Those proper gatherings always are,” Robert snapped, perhaps more sharply than he had meant to. He didn’t like that his friends were all putting their heads together about him. “The only positive development was the return of Lady Gainsworth to Society.”
Matthew wrinkled his brow. “Ah yes, that was the talk of the night. Poor woman. It seems she will suffer the consequences of her husband’s…er…death.”
Robert hesitated. Isabel and Matthew had suffered some gossip themselves after their marriage. He had to tread carefully. “Lady Gainsworth did fuck her husband to death. That is bound to cause a stir in both your Society and mine.”
“Are we in two separate societies now?” Matthew asked with an arched brow.
“Of course we are. You and the rest of the married couples are in good Society. Good Society looks at poor Lady Gainsworth and sees scandal. They wish to shun her for something out of her control.”
Matthew’s lips had thinned. “And your Society?”
“My Society looks at her and wonders what a woman like that could do with a man more suited to all that…passion.”
His friend’s eyes went wide. “Wait, are you saying you are hoping to take her as a lover?”
“Everyone wants to take her as a lover,” Robert corrected him. “They’re betting on it right now. I’m just the one who is going to win.”
“Robert!” Matthew said, his face twisting with shock.
Robert chuckled at the reaction, but it was forced. Seeing his friend’s repulsion created a shame in his chest that he normally did not allow himself to feel. Now it burned there and it took all his energy to tamp it down.
“Isn’t it better with me than with those other idiots who are going to chase the woman across ballrooms for the rest of the Season?”
The door behind them suddenly slammed and both men turned to find Matthew’s wife Isabel standing there. Although she was petite and her tummy was slightly rounded from the baby growing inside of her, she looked a formidable foe at present. Her dark eyes flashed with outrage and her mouth was set in a deep frown.
“How could you?” she snapped.
Robert looked at Matthew to intervene, but his friend shook his head slightly and backed away, leaving Robert to the lioness who had suddenly appeared. “Isabel, you look lovely, as always,” he said.
She folded her arms. “Don’t try to distract me. I overheard what you said. Robert, you must know that Katherine is facing a fire. No, not just a fire—an inferno. And you want to fan the flames?”
Robert held up his hands as that kernel of shame Matthew had created began to grow. “You know me, don’t you? I’m not going to hurt the woman.”
Isabel blinked and her disbelief was clear. “How can you say that with a straight face? A woman’s life is difficult enough.”
“You are quite the protector for a lady you do not know,” he said.
“I know enough. I know she is Charlotte’s acquaintance. I know she had to endure slurs and whispers at that ball. I saw her face. I know that when I spoke to her she was interesting and kind. The sort of person the duchesses would like to be friends with. I know she doesn’t deserve you taking advantage of her situation. Of her.”
“No,” Robert said immediately. “I would never do a thing unless she was as interested as I was. I will just be irresistible.”
Isabel stared at him for a beat. Two. Then she shook her head slowly. “Great God, Robert. How can you surrender to your worst nature at every turn? How can you not see how it does you as much a disservice as it does to everyone you damage? You are better than your impulses. I wish you would see that.”
She turned and left the room without another word. Leaving Robert to stare after her. To feel that shame grow even larger.
He forced a smile as he glanced at Matthew. “Emotional in her pregnancy, I see.”
To his surprise, Matthew didn’t return the expression. “She isn’t. She’s emotional at seeing a friend do the wrong thing. I am, too.”
“Would you like to lecture me next?”
Matthew let out his breath in a frustrated rush. “You have seen with your own eyes what a fall from grace can do to a lady. Adelaide? Helena? Even Meg suffered after the situation with Graham and Simon. To pretend as if you don’t understand that is, as my wife says, beneath you.”
Once again Robert felt the distance between them. The chasm that had been created by his impulses, by the strength of his friends’ bonds of marriage. And once again, he realized that someday soon he would lose them all.
“You think so ill of me.”
Matthew reached out and squeezed his arm. “Not so ill. But I would reconsider involving yourself in something so low as a wager of seduction.”
The shame and the pain this entire exchange had brought pushed wide in his chest, and Robert scrambled for anything in the world to make it stop. To make it less. And he found it in anger.
“Says the man who had an affair with his wife at an infamous sex club,” he said softly.
The color drained from Matthew’s face slowly, but he never removed his gaze from Robert’s. “Don’t be the worst of yourself, Roseford. Good day.”
He said nothing else, but strode from the room, leaving Robert alone in the silence of the parlor. Leaving him feeling far worse than he had when he entered it.
Katherine settled into a chair before her fire and took a sip of her tea with a contented sigh that made her aunt smile.
“You are happy here?” Bethany asked.
Katherine looked around her at the cozy room. It was a little parlor, in a tiny townhouse, but unlike in her home with Gainsworth, she had put her own personality into it during the time when the world thought she was mourning. When they were waiting for her to return so they could gawk at the woman whose husband had died in such an unseemly way.
“I am,” she said softly. “I suppose it would be seen as far beneath the palace I inhabited with Gregory during our marriage. But I’m not sorry for the change of circumstances. Thanks to my inheritance, it is mine. No one can take it away. Even if they take everything else.”
Bethany frowned at the passion with which the last was said. “You lived a long time worrying about having things taken.”
“How could I not, living with my father as he was? My husband? They both took to punish. Gracious, I didn’t even get to meet you until after my marriage. My father kept you from me.”
Bethany reached out and took her hand, and for a moment the two women sat together in teary silence. Then her aunt said, “It was a devilish thing, to lose my sister and then have you torn away from our family. But we are together now. Reunited.”
“And my father, no matter how he judges and rails, cannot do anything about it.”
Her aunt shifted. “Does he know that you see me now?”
“I suppose he must. Since I…” Katherine blushed and ducked her head. “Now, how did he put it? Since I murdered my husband with my whore’s ways, he has scarcely spoken to me. It has been a blissful
time, in truth. Though I’m sure he will reinsert himself in my life now that I’m back in Society.”
Bethany’s face paled. “I worry about you. He can be cruel, I know.”
“He has far less power now that I am independent,” Katherine said with a shrug. “He can rail away all he likes, but I am a widow and that has given me…I suppose one might call it power.”
Bethany seemed to be about to reply when Katherine’s butler, Wilkes, stepped into the doorway. “I’m sorry to disturb you, my lady, but you have a guest.”
Katherine got up as he crossed the room to deliver it. It was gilded and on heavy paper, and as she looked at it, her eyes went wide. “The Duchess of Tyndale?”
He nodded. “Yes, my lady. Shall I inform her that you are in residence?”
“Certainly,” she said, though she cast a quick glance at Bethany. Her aunt had also gotten to her feet. As Wilkes departed to bring their unexpected companion, Katherine pursed her lips. “This group of duchesses is very persistent.”
Bethany tilted her head. “Does that mean you doubt their true desire to be a friend to you?”
“How could I not considering my stained reputation? It’s difficult to assume anyone would want to be near me except for some ulterior motive.” Katherine sighed and felt the sound down to her very soul.
Her aunt crossed to her and took her hand. “I know the Duchess of Northfield, at least a little, and you said you were once friendly with the Duchess of Donburrow. Can we agree they are both kind women?”
“Yes.”
Bethany smiled gently. “Then perhaps we should not judge their choice of friends so harshly. Assume the best.”
Katherine bristled at that idea, of letting her guard down only to perhaps be hurt. But before she could address it, Wilkes returned with the Duchess of Tyndale, introducing her briefly before he excused himself.
“Your Grace,” Katherine said, coming across the chamber to take her hand. “What a lovely surprise. Do you remember my aunt, Mrs. Sambrook?”
The duchess’s gaze flitted to her aunt, and Katherine thought she saw a bit of disappointment in her stare. But it was erased in a moment as she smiled kindly. “Of course. From the party a few days ago. Lovely to see you again. I am so sorry to call on you without an invitation.”
Katherine shook her head. “There’s no need. We were just having tea. Would you like to join us?”
Again, the duchess’s gaze flitted to Bethany, and then she nodded. “Of course. That would be wonderful.”
Bethany stepped forward. “You know, dearest Katherine, I was actually thinking that I ought to depart. I have a matter of some urgency that I’ve been putting off. Would it be very rude of me to cry off?”
“I—no—I—what matter?”
Bethany wrinkled her brow. “Nothing to concern yourself about.”
“I hope you aren’t leaving because of me,” the duchess said, but there was no mistaking the expression of relief on her face.
“Of course not,” Bethany said with a kind smile.
“Very well,” Katherine said. “Let me show you to the foyer. Your Grace, I will be right back. Please make yourself comfortable.”
The duchess smiled as she walked to the window to look out on Katherine’s little garden. Katherine linked arms with her aunt and together they walked toward the foyer.
“What are you doing?” Katherine asked through clenched teeth as she glanced over her shoulder to ensure the duchess could not hear them.
“The woman clearly wishes to speak to you alone,” Bethany whispered. “I realize you are reticent to make friends under your current circumstances, but these duchesses could be very helpful in your return to Society. You ought to at least hear her out. Call on me later and tell me how it went.”
Katherine pursed her lips. Her aunt was not wrong. That didn’t alleviate the tension in her chest, of course.
“Fine,” she managed before she kissed Bethany’s cheek. “I will come with a full report as soon as I am able.”
Her aunt said her farewells and headed toward her carriage, leaving Katherine to take a deep breath and return to the parlor. She forced a smile to her face before she entered. “My aunt gives her most sincere apologies for the haste of her departure.”
The duchess was standing at the window still and turned with a bright smile. “I was sorry to see her go, but I do admit I am happy to be alone with you, my lady.”
Katherine worried her lip. “For any particular reason, Your Grace?”
For a moment the duchess hesitated, but then she shook her head. “I simply wish to know you better.”
“Well, tea is the way to do that, isn’t it?” Katherine asked, motioning to the settee. As the duchess took her place, Katherine noticed something she hadn’t at the party a few nights before. There was a little swell to the duchess’s belly. One she placed her hand upon as she settled in. “I did not say it before—many felicitations on your impending motherhood, Your Grace.”
“Oh, Isabel, please,” the duchess said with a wide smile. “We are going to be friends. I feel that in my bones. None of us in our little group stand much on circumstance when we aren’t in public.”
“Isabel,” Katherine said, handing over her cup. “Then I am Katherine.”
“And thank you for the congratulations. The duke and I are very happy. We are married so recently, you know. I could not have asked for a happier start to our union. I always longed to be a mother, and seeing all my friends begin to have children has made the anticipation all the sweeter.”
There was no mistaking Isabel’s true pleasure and Katherine found herself smiling, though the topic was not a particularly happy one for herself. “I can imagine.”
“You and the earl never had children, did you?” Isabel asked.
Katherine flinched as her mind filled with images that were only painful. Images of denial and recrimination. She shook them away. “We were not so blessed,” she said softly.
Isabel tilted her head, and for a moment Katherine thought the duchess could see through her a little. An uncomfortable thing, for someone of such a brief acquaintance to penetrate the shell she put up to protect herself. Especially since she still had no idea as to this woman’s motives when it came to her.
“May I be honest with you?” Katherine asked.
Isabel nodded. “I would ask nothing less. Please.”
“I am a little confused as to why you and your friends have taken such an interest in me,” she said, trying not to fold her arms like a shield in front of herself. “My reputation as I return to Society is sullied to say the least. I would think such exalted women would want nothing to do with me.”
Isabel was quiet for a moment. “You worry that perhaps our motives are not…true?”
Katherine’s lips parted in surprise. “Well, that is direct.”
“We are being so, yes?” Isabel shifted. “My dear, if you give our little band of friends a chance, I think you’ll determine this for yourself, but there is not a one of us who would ever cruelly enter a friendship. And any one of my dear duchesses would gladly explain their own relationship with scandal.”
Katherine blinked. She had almost forgotten that several of the duchesses had been whispered about over the years. It was difficult to hold that in mind when they seemed so certain, so happy, when the group of them was so powerful.
Isabel continued, “Charlotte spoke highly of you and that is a recommendation, indeed. If we have a motive, it is only to use whatever status we’ve obtained to help make your return to Society a little easier if we can.”
Katherine sat for a moment, cheeks burning. She could not look at this woman, not in the eye, after such a direct addressment of the matter. Nor could she parse out exactly how she felt about it. There was embarrassment that these ladies felt she had to be saved, but also an intense feeling of gratitude that they would offer that salvation without any apparent desire for something in return.
Isabel reached out and caught one of her hands, squeezing gently before she said, “I’ve been putting off a duty I do not relish, but I think considering this subject, I cannot do so any longer. I was actually happy your aunt left us, for I came here on a mission.”
Katherine glanced up at her at last and saw her companion’s face tense with grim determination. “Oh dear. This does not sound good.”
“It isn’t. And it must be said privately.”
“I am afraid I have no idea what you could be referring to,” Katherine said. “We’ve only just met—I don’t know what you could be so serious about.”
“Yes, our friendship is young and now I must risk that in order to be frank. As I would hope a friend, old or new, would be toward me under the same circumstances.”
Katherine swallowed hard. “I suppose it is best if you just say it and have it done with.”
Isabel seemed as uncomfortable with this topic as she was, but she let out her breath in a long sigh and stammered, “I-I have found out that you are the subject of some very ungentlemanly…er…wagers.”
Chapter Three
Katherine’s ears began to ring as she stared into Isabel’s gentle face and those horrible words she’d said sank into the very heart of her.
“Wagers?” Katherine repeated. Her voice sounded like it was coming from under water. “Whatever do you mean?”
Isabel shifted with great discomfort, and that revealed the kind of wager even before she explained further. “The circumstances of the earl’s death are obviously under scrutiny—I would be foolish to pretend that you didn’t know it.”
“I didn’t murder him!”
Katherine tried not to recall the earl’s face, strained and purple as he gasped out his last breath beneath her. Of the horrified servants as they came to find her naked and screaming for help. The facts of what they had been doing were too obvious not to be spread through her household and beyond. She knew what they said below stairs and above it. All the horrible things that the collective they said behind her back. She’d known it even before she returned to Society.
The Duke of Desire Page 3
