Maintaining his aristocratic demeanor as best he could with the entire population of the tavern tracking their every move, Harrowby did not deign to answer to her drunken ramblings and familiarity but continued stoically to tow her out the door.
They left the tavern and a cool evening breeze struck Kate in the face just as those last words were leaving her mouth. Her mind cleared a bit but the anger was still there over an issue that had given Kate a lot of grief over the years. She had matured quickly and had always taken her responsibilities and her career ambitions very seriously. Because of this, many people expected her to act more maturely, act in a manner beyond her years but at the core Kate was still just a young woman with the same thoughts that any woman her age had. She might study hard all week, but she still liked to get crazy with her girls on the weekends. They would go clubbing, to parties. Some people might think that because of her career choice, she had no desire to actually enjoy life. “Don’tcha ever just wanna get a little crazy, Brand?”
“Generally speaking, no,” he answered, prompting an unladylike snort of disbelief from Kate. “And I am most surprised to see this in you, Kate. A woman of your education.”
Kate snorted. It was something that had always bothered her. No, worse. It made her gnash her teeth in aggravation every time she thought about it. It frustrated Kate to no end to be picked apart by those who stereotyped, even Brand. This was probably how blondes felt all the time. Of course, if she were blonde, getting a little rowdy might be considered all right in the eyes of her critics.
When she finally got her PhD completed, would people criticize any action that didn’t reek of stodgy maturity? Would her music choices become suspect? Her language? She was still young enough to be a part of a generation that spoke more via text messaging than anything else, so if an OMG or LMAO or WTF escaped her, would someone who had stopped living a progressive life think her immature for doing so? “I don’t get all ‘Girls Gone Wild’, you know?” she muttered as she stumbled behind Brand. “I keep my Facebook page clean and I don’t Tweet anything too risqué! I’m a biochemist, not dead!”
It irritated Kate to no end that most people thought it was all right for her high school and undergraduate friends from college who were now artists or dancers or blue-collar workers to act their age, to party and get a little unruly. Simply because she wasn’t, people expected her to act as if she was a forty-year-old who lived in a library.
“Why can’t a doctor be fun? Or an engineer like to party?” she rambled on as Brand dragged her along. Her mind kept whirling. Did one’s occupation define what they could be in their off hours? Her mom was forty-nine, a vice president of one of the largest manufacturers in the country but Sarah Kallastad still knew how to live it up when she wanted and threw a kick ass Christmas party every year for their family and friends.
“After you’ve seen your state’s governor getting down with Prince and a karaoke machine, you learn that stereotypes are just an unhappy person’s way of disparaging others who have more fun than they do,” Kate went on as if the flow of conversation made perfect sense. “I hope that when I’m thirty or forty or even sixty, I can still live as young as I feel without dealing with people’s bullshit all the time and you should too, Brand. Look at you, big gorgeous lug. Buttoned up, stuffy. I bet you’re dying on the inside to let loose.”
Still, he remained silent until they reached his carriage. Opening the door, Harrowby helped Kate up the step and then gave her a push on her bottom to propel her the rest of the way in. “Hey, watch it, buddy. Hands!” She slapped him away as she collapsed into one of the seats and glared at him over arms tightly crossed over her chest. “Where do you think we’re going anyway?”
“I’m taking you home, Kate.”
“Home? Might as well haul my ass back to London then.”
“Whatever has gotten into you, Kate?” he barked in response to her surly tone. “I spend my evening looking for you only to find you completely kisky at the pub? Fighting tight in front of everyone, using foul language. Do you have any idea about how that reflects upon my household?”
“Is that what’s got you so… so… that?” Kate waved her hand down the length of him. “You came looking for me so that I wouldn’t embarrass your distinguished personage? I’m so sorry to disappoint you, my lord, but I am only human you know! Besides, you don’t need to worry about that anymore.”
“How can I not worry?” he practically yelled in her face. “You are my… bloody hell, my nephew’s tutor!”
Kate snorted rudely. “Not anymore I’m not!”
Harrowby sat back with astonishment, all the hot air exhaled. “You’re quitting?”
“No. ” Kate’s lip curled in disgust as she crossed her arms over her chest. “Be awfully hard to quit since your stinking mother already fired me.”
Silence. Kate glared at Brand while he stared back at her in surprise. “She what?”
“You know, fired? Sacked? Canned? Let–”
“I think we’ve already made that list before.”
“She knows about us,” Kate told him. “Saw us together somewhere or something but today… well, something must have really pissed her off ‘cause she started yelling at me… well, doing what she does best, anyway and calling me all sorts of bad things. And… and she slapped me!”
“What?”
Kate rubbed her cheek, leaning listlessly against the side of the carriage as the sharp pain and humiliation she’d felt in that awful moment flowed through her once more. “I’ve never been slapped before. Never in my whole life. She blames me for all the problems she’s having with you. She thinks I’m the reason you refuse to get married. That I’m ruining your life.”
All the anger and worry he’d felt for Kate all afternoon fell away with the report she delivered. She’d argued with his mother? His mother had struck Kate? What had prompted such an event? Thoughts raced through Brand’s mind from stunned disbelief to anger to disgruntlement. Certainly, he could now understand why Kate had chosen to stay away.
Why hadn’t she come to him though? Why hadn’t she told him straight away what had happened? Did she have so little faith in him that he wouldn’t reprimand his own mother for such unseemly behavior? Harrowby snorted internally. Had he given Kate any reason to think that he would willfully step across social boundaries by siding with a mere servant?
No. He had avoided her for weeks in an attempt to avoid intimate interaction with a member of his staff, to avoid linking his name with hers. Even when finally giving into their undeniable attractions, he had done so covertly hoping to hide their affair from everyone.
Of course it was to Kate’s benefit to keep the truth concealed, but wasn’t it to his as well? It wasn’t what he wanted; none of this was what he wanted. Social policy and pure habit had prompted those actions proving to Harrowby just how firmly bound he had been by those strictures if they subconsciously influenced his motivations even now.
Never had he been given more valid evidence of how firmly society ruled his life, nor of how badly he needed to break free.
Switching sides in the carriage, Brand sat next to Kate and gathered her into his arms, cradling her head against his shoulder. “You aren’t ruining my life, Kate. You’re saving it. My life has completely changed since I met you.”
“My life has changed, too,” Kate murmured, enjoying the warmth of his hard body next to hers. Tipping her head back, she nuzzled his neck. “I know you won’t understand this, Brand, but you are unlike anyone I have ever met or had the chance to meet. Can’t tell you why. It’s a secret a hundred and thirty-five years in the making.”
“That long? What is it?”
“Told you I can’t tell. It could be paradoxical, catastrophic…”
“That bad?”
“Yeah,” Kate snuggled into Brand’s side, sighing contentedly. All the anger was gone. It took only being in his embrace to wash it all away. She turned her head to nuzzle her lips against his neck again. “Sorry I go
t fired, Brand, but on the bright side, I guess now we don’t need to worry about your moral dilemma.”
“My morals are fine, thank you and, I assure you, you are not sacked.”
“Why not? If you fire me, you can put me up in a little flat in town like we talked about.”
“I thought we’d already discussed the impossibility of such an occurrence, Kate,” he replied. “Besides you don’t want to be my mistress.”
“Aren’t I already?”
“Not yet.”
“That’s right,” she answered huskily, running her fingers through his hair as she continued to kiss and lick the side of his neck. “We’ve rounded third but haven’t made it home yet. Don’t you think it will be awesome when we do?”
“I think it will be life changing,” he whispered, returning the favor by nipping the tendons on the side of her neck.
“Mind boggling,” she told him with a shudder, tracing a path of kisses along his jaw. “Amazing, phenomenal, spectacular…”
“Marvelous.” Brand caught her lower lip between his and drew it into his mouth enjoying her gasp and moan. Kate levered herself up, pulling up her skirts to straddle his hips before brushing her lips against his.
“Legendary.” The word emerged so softly that Brand barely heard it, but the words that followed, though just as gently murmured rang through his mind with the force of a dozen pealing bells. “I love you, Brand.”
Kate kissed him then, hot moist lips that ravaged his though he remained frozen in surprise. “Brand? Don’t you want to kiss me back?”
“You’re inebriated, Kate,” he said harshly.
“I’m not that drunk,” she returned, undulating slowly against him, surely able to feel the rampant desire he could not hide. “Just a couple or three pints though I do have to admit that your ale is really something else compared to what we have back home. Even so, I’m not drunk so much as… untethered. Yeah, untethered.”
“I don’t want to take advantage of you in such a state,” he said through clenched teeth.
“That old argument again?” she teased and kissed him once more.
“Obviously, I don’t think you know what you’re doing or saying.”
“Don’t know what I’m doing like this?” Kate rotated her hips slightly eliciting a moan from him. “Don’t know what I’m saying? I love you, Brandon Ryder,” she whispered against his mouth capturing a groan released for a different reason.
Harrowby took her mouth in a ferocious kiss, her confession sending a jolt of possessive joy through him though he knew that it could be nothing more than drunken rambling. His fingers wove their way through her hair until he was cradling her head in his hands. “Kate, my darling,” he murmured. “Damn, this is not the place and we haven’t the time even if I did think you knew what you were about.”
As if to punctuate the lack of opportunity, the carriage ground to a halt and Harrowby could see through the window that they were home once more, not surprising given the distance of less than a mile into town. “Come, Kate. Let’s see you into bed.”
“Mmm, let’s see you into bed,” she countered saucily and the earl couldn’t stifle the grin that lifted his lips.
“What an impudent woman you are,” he told her as they vacated the carriage hand in hand and entered the main hall. Kate moved to disengage their linked fingers but Harrowby held on tightly causing Kate to raise her brows in question. “I think it’s about time we made some changes, don’t you?”
“My lord. My lord!” The butler rushed toward them trying to gain their attention.
“What is it, Geoffrey?”
The butler’s usually stoic expression was alive with curiosity. The portly man was almost bursting with it. “We have a visitor. That is to say, Miss Kallastad has a visitor awaiting her in the front salon. A gentleman visitor.”
“I do?”
“She does?” Harrowby asked at the same time, raising an inquiring brow to Kate. “Who is it?”
“Well, my lord.” The usually staid Geoffrey shuffled his feet in anticipation of delivering the next bit of information. “He says he’s her husband.”
“Husband!” they both exclaimed at the same time and Kate shook her head automatically in response to Brand’s lowered brow. “Oh, no, no, no. Don’t look at me like that. I’m not married, I promise you.”
“Then who would come to this house and say that you are?” he demanded, both of them forgetting about the butler’s presence.
Kate actually had a very good idea who might come to Ramble House posing as her husband to see her. Truly, who else did she know outside this house? But how to explain that to Brand? “It’s probably Dr. David Fergusson, a colleague of mine from the research facility I worked at before.”
“The one in Oxford?” Brand frowned at her. “Why would he jest so?”
“Maybe he thought he wouldn’t be able to talk to me unless…” Kate winced at the lame excuse she heard coming from her mouth and stopped. “Okay, seriously, I don’t know why he would say something like that. I’m sure it’s just his idea of a joke… a bad joke.”
“A very poor joke.”
“Yeah, well, he’s kind of like that,” Kate said with a shrug.
“We should go and see what he wants,” Brand said and Kate put a hand on his arm as she recalled where they were, glancing meaningfully at the butler.
“Thank you, my lord, for trying to protect me so, but I can see to him on my own,” Kate said. “I’m sure you have other things to do.”
Harrowby ground his teeth in frustration, knowing that her words, though coming too late to be completely effective in putting a damper on any speculation his butler might have been developing about them, were meant to give the appearance of a strictly employer/employee relationship. It was too late for that, he knew. The gossip about them had surely begun the moment he’d shown up personally at the tavern to fetch her.
In truth, he didn’t care any longer for his own sake. Only Kate mattered.
And, with a curtsey, Kate was walking away from him to meet with her visitor. Curiosity raged through him. Harrowby wanted to determine for himself who the fellow was, what he was to Kate and what he wanted from her now.
What if the man truly were her husband? Perhaps he had abused her and Kate had run away making up the entire tale of her research to mask a troubled past. But no, his Kate wouldn’t stand for such behavior in man much less lie in such a fashion. Kate was honest and smart. Surely if there were any danger, she would say so. The earl snorted. Even in that, he had no real fears. Kate could take care of herself in any situation.
Such knowledge didn’t stop him from wondering though and Brand had to forcibly plant his feet to keep himself from following her as she made her way to the front salon.
A steady flow of curses sang through Harrowby’s mind as he watched her go. The situation, this entire situation was intolerable. He couldn’t go on pretending that he didn’t care about what was happening to her, that he didn’t care when her life was endangered or when strange men came to call on her. Things had to change whether that change brought with it scandal or ruin.
How exactly he would bring about that change, Harrowby wasn’t certain, but he did know where he intended to start. “Geoffrey, where is my mother?”
Chapter Thirty-Three
After double-checking to make sure she was alone, Kate slipped into the salon and closed the door before facing her ‘gentleman visitor’. “David! What are you doing here?”
David spun around, his own smile bursting in response. “Kate, darling!”
Kate stiffened a bit as he came to embrace her but managed a smile as she stepped back. “How are you doing?”
“I think the greater question is, how are you doing?” David countered. “Has it been horrible? Are you ready to come home? Come, let me see your hands.”
Kate held out her chapped hands without embarrassment knowing what he was expecting to find. In truth, they didn’t look any different to her despite
the harsh soaps they’d been immersed in these past couple of weeks. She’d spent her entire life using them roughly. “See, not so bad.”
“Not so bad?” he rebutted. “They’re shocking. I’ve brought a nice, rich lotion for you thinking of the condition your hands would be in.”
“Why, David, that’s so nice,” Kate said sincerely, not expecting such a considerate gesture when she knew David had been certain of her failure. “How did you find me here, David?” she asked. “You couldn’t just Google Ramble House or something like that.”
“I found out where this place was just after you sent me that letter a couple of weeks ago,” he explained. “I suppose I can understand why you didn’t come for a visit on your day off. It would have taken you all day just to make the journey to London and back.”
Though his words were understanding, Kate could still hear the disappointment. “Yeah, well, you’re right. It would’ve taken forever. So how are things going?”
“Excellent,” David said as he took her hand and led her over to one of the settees, urging her to sit before he took a seat beside her and clasped her hands between his. “You were right. I’ve made tremendous progress in your absence. Freed from preparing for your arrival or entertaining you, I found myself with more time to focus on the task at hand.”
“So it’s coming along then?” Kate asked, feeling joy mingle with dismay in the pit of her stomach.
“It’s already arrived, my dear!” he announced.
“What do you mean? Are you saying…?” Kate swallowed back the dread that was rising in her throat. “Are you saying it’s done? You fixed it?”
“Indeed I have. The cabling is sound and the metal plates are ready,” David told her with a proud grin. “I found a fellow in Brent who completed those in no time at all.”
Time Travel 02 Nothing but Time Page 24
