The Highlander's Excellent Adventure
Page 35
Only Ines had shown a spark of rebellion. It wasn’t the stubborn, pig-headed rebellion her father said Catarina possessed. Ines was a dreamer and a romantic. She was also overly idealistic, which in itself did not recommend her to Catarina, except that she was willing to fight for her ideals. When she saw injustice, she challenged it.
Thank the Holy Mother Catarina had been able to spirit the girl away or she would have had her spirit crushed by whatever old man her father chose for Ines’s husband.
Her father hadn’t been able to touch Catarina by then. After twenty years of enduring her father’s control in every aspect of her life—from what she wore to what she ate to when she spoke—she had escaped. She had married and left her father’s house to live with Tia Alda, but after she’d convinced Ines to leave home, she thought it wise to leave her aunt’s house. She’d always wanted to go to Lisbon, and that was where she and Ines had first set up shop.
“He did not kiss me,” Catarina said.
“Oh.” Ines looked disappointed. No doubt she wanted to hear about the kiss in detail. Her favorite story about Colonel Draven was when he’d kissed Catarina after their wedding. Catarina had made the mistake of telling her sister about the kiss and regretted it ever since. She’d made it sound too perfect, too magical, too...everything. Now even she doubted if it could have ever been as wonderful as it was in her memory.
But then again, she’d thought her husband could not possibly be as handsome as she remembered him, and tonight that had proven untrue. If nothing else, he was more attractive to her. He wasn’t handsome, not in the way some of the boys she’d flirted with in her village had been. But he drew her nonetheless. It was more in the way he carried himself, the way he spoke, the way she felt when he looked at her.
“I told him I wanted an annulment, and he agreed to come and sign the papers the day after tomorrow.”
“Just like that?”
“Just like that.”
“But he is supposed to fight for you. He is supposed to save you from Juan Carlos.”
“I do not need saving from Juan Carlos. Marriage to his son will not be so bad.”
Ines’s expression turned stricken. “But all you have worked for will be taken away. You will be his property, and you always said you never wanted to be a man’s property.”
Catarina blew out a breath. She should learn to stop talking so much. “I was foolish to say so. I was already a man’s property.”
“Not really. Senhor Draven made no demands on you. You were free and independent.”
She was forgotten, which was not quite the same thing. “Yes, but those days are over. I have no one to blame but myself.”
“How can you blame yourself? It is not your fault you were attacked!”
“Ines, hush!”
“No one can understand Portuguese here.”
“We cannot be too careful. If you expose me, you do Juan Carlos’s work for him.”
“Good. Then he cannot force you to marry Miguel.”
“I would rather marry his son than dangle on a scaffold.”
“You wouldn’t—”
Ines was interrupted by a knock on the door, which turned out to be the footmen carrying water and a standing tub. Catarina went to the dressing room, as she wore only a blanket, and Ines directed them to place the tub behind a screen and fill it. When they were finished, Catarina discarded the blanket and poured the water over herself, warming her skin and washing away the mud and dirt splashed on her from the rains.
By the time she was in her night rail again, she hoped Ines had fallen asleep. But Ines, as usual, was full of energy. “Tell me how he looked. What did his house look like? What did the woman look like? Or do you not wish to discuss her?”
“I do not wish to discuss any of it,” Catarina said. She was exhausted, having barely slept the night before because she’d been worried about seeing Draven today. And now after seeing him, she didn’t think she’d sleep very well tonight. “I am tired.”
“But you haven’t eaten any supper. I sent for soup and a vegetable tart. It’s waiting on the table.” She indicated a small table in the corner of the room with a plate under a dome on top.
“I will eat tomorrow. I am too tired tonight.”
Ines gave her a look of incredulity. “May I eat it then?”
“Yes.”
And Ines scampered away to have her second dinner of the night. Catarina did not know how the girl stayed so thin when she ate so much. It seemed no matter how many times Catarina skipped a meal, her hips stayed round. But she was honestly not hungry tonight. Her stomach roiled, and she didn’t know if it was because she wouldn’t see Benedict tomorrow or because she would see him the day after.
At some point Tigrino curled up at her feet, and Catarina fell into a light sleep. Her thoughts were fraught with worry. How could she escape Juan Carlos and his son Miguel? How could she keep her business? And what would she say when she saw Benedict again? Finally, she dreamed, her mind returning to its favorite subject—that first, and only, kiss.
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Also by Shana Galen
REGENCY SPIES
While You Were Spying
When Dashing Met Danger
Pride and Petticoats
MISADVENTURES IN MATRIMONY
No Man’s Bride
Good Groom Hunting
Blackthorne’s Bride
The Pirate Takes a Bride
SONS OF THE REVOLUTION
The Making of a Duchess
The Making of a Gentleman
The Rogue Pirate’s Bride
JEWELS OF THE TON
If You Give a Duke a Diamond
If You Give a Rake a Ruby
Sapphires are an Earl’s Best Friend
LORD AND LADY SPY
Lord and Lady Spy
The Spy Wore Blue (novella)
True Spies
Love and Let Spy
All I Want for Christmas is Blue (novella)
The Spy Beneath the Mistletoe (novella)
COVENT GARDEN CUBS
Viscount of Vice (novella)
Earls Just Want to Have Fun
The Rogue You Know
I Kissed a Rogue
THE SURVIVORS
Third Son’s a Charm
No Earls Allowed
An Affair with a Spare
Unmask Me if You Can
The Claiming of the Shrew
A Duke a Dozen
How the Lady Was Won
Kisses and Scandal (three novellas)
THE SCARLET CHRONICLES
To Ruin a Gentleman
Traitor in Her Arms
Taken by the Rake
To Tempt a Rebel
STANDALONES AND ANTHOLOGIES
Bachelors of Bond Street (anthology)
Stealing the Duke‘s Heart (duet)
The Summer of Wine and Scandal (novella)
A Royal Christmas (duet)
A Grosvenor Square Christmas (anthology)