Fortune’s Final Folly

by McKnight, Christina

  “And he’d best take great care with it,” her mother called from behind Kate. They both turned to catch her mother’s wink. “I wouldn’t relish bashing him over the head with a pot, but I will not hesitate if the need arises. So, what do you say, my lord?”

  “I love her with complete abandon.”

  “Do not tell me. Tell my daughter, you charming lord!” Her mother chuckled.

  “Burns!” Pierce pushed to sit, his back against the leg of the table as he craned his neck to stare up at the well-dressed gentleman who’d followed Joshua up the stairs. “Burns! Send for the magistrate at once. This wench”—he pointed a shaking finger in A’laya’s direction—“whacked me over the head with that copper pot.”

  “Fortune was on your side, you scoundrel. I only caught you in the shoulder.” A’laya stepped toward her treacherous husband, and Kate feared she might finish the job she’d started. “If you give Katherina any more trouble, I will not miss my mark again.”

  “I said, send for the magistrate, Burns,” Pierce seethed. “I have been attacked and will not stand for it. I am to be given my father’s title soon enough, and assaulting a peer is not acceptable.”

  Now out of danger, Kate took a closer look at the man who was her father. She didn’t see even an ounce of herself in him, yet she recognized the man from when she and the school children had walked to the bookseller before the fire. He had been outside the cobbler’s shop.

  He had set the fire. It had nothing to do with the cobbler and their argument.

  “My lord.” Burns scurried over to assist Pierce to his feet. Once he’d dusted the man off, he turned back to Joshua, but his penetrating stare landed on Kate. Immediately, the man’s stare softened. “Lady Katherina De Vere?” He gave her a curt bow, not waiting for her acknowledgement. “Your neck, it is bloodied.”

  “That blackguard hit her and held a knife to her throat.” A’laya took a menacing step toward Pierce. It did not matter that the man was twice her size with wide, barrel-like arms.

  “I am sending for the magistrate this instant.” The man spun on his heel and started for the door before pausing. “Stuart, you will do me a great service if you would hold the earl here until I return with the magistrate. We will need to take written statements from Lady Katherina and…” He glanced over at Kate’s mother in question.

  “The Countess of Holderness,” Joshua filled in. “Lady Holderness, Lady Katherina, allow me to introduce Mr. Daniel Burns, Solicitor.”

  “My lady,” Burns nodded in respect. “We need to gather their statements for the magistrate before he takes the earl before the Lord High Steward.”

  “Take—take—take me where?” Pierce stuttered.

  “I will see you held responsible for these crimes, my lord.” The steely edge to Burns’ voice had Kate instantly liking the solicitor. Without another word, Burns departed the room, and his footsteps could be heard hurrying down the stairs.

  “This is a travesty. The likes of you do not have any right to hold me.”

  When he attempted to follow Burns, her mother took hold of the copper pot and shook it at him while Joshua grabbed the earl’s arms and wrenched them behind his back.

  “I suggest you remain silent and do not attempt to flee,” Joshua warned. “I can say I am not above allowing the countess to have another shot at you.”

  Kate crossed her arms, blocking the doorway as they waited for Burns to return.

  It took only a few minutes before Joshua’s driver and assistant rushed up the stairs and took over the watch of her father, freeing Kate, Joshua, and her mother to return to the office across the street.

  Until that point, Kate hadn’t allowed the danger of their situation to sink in. However, by the time Joshua closed the door behind them, and they all sat to await the magistrate, her entire body trembled with shock, and her hand felt for the shallow slice at her throat.

  She was fortunate…they were all lucky.

  Joshua pulled her into his side, wrapping his arms about her waist as she leaned her head on his shoulder. In truth, she’d never doubted that Joshua would come for them, even if her mother hadn’t managed to get hold of the copper pot.

  Between Joshua and her mother, Kate had the family, the love, and the connection she’d felt lacking all these years.

  She loved her mother in the natural way any daughter would, despite their many years apart.

  And Joshua, she loved him with a depth and zeal she hadn’t thought possible.

  As if he could hear the thoughts swirling in her mind, Joshua slipped his finger under her chin and lifted until she met his stare.

  “How did you know something was amiss?” she asked.

  “Burns brought a copy of the duke’s last will and testament. You were to inherit a larger sum than you expected, and it would multiply greatly if Pierce did not make amends with you.” He kissed her chastely, giving Kate time to think through what he’d said. His lips only proved distracting, so she pulled away.

  “Why would that lead you to think I was in danger?” she asked.

  “It also stated that if you were to perish before you reconciled with your father, he would receive his full inheritance with no stipulations.” Joshua brushed her cheek, trailing his finger down her throat and lightly over the cut on her neck. “I deduced quickly he’d been the one to set the fire.”

  “I have always admired your deductive reasoning skills,” she laughed.

  “Truly?” He glared at her with suspicion. “You’ve never uttered a word of it to me before.”

  “I am saying it now,” Kate countered.

  Her mother cleared her throat. “What of you, my lord? What do you admire about my daughter?”

  The possessiveness in her mother’s tone had Kate grinning. She much liked these two, people she loved greatly, feeling such fierce protectiveness toward her.

  “And do not waste your words on me,” A’laya huffed. She pushed to her feet and made her way to the back office, giving Joshua and Kate a moment of privacy before the magistrate arrived.

  “You needn’t let her push you into—” Kate attempted to brush off her mother’s question.

  She did not seek to force Joshua into speaking more of his feelings if he weren’t prepared to do so.

  Yet, her mind kept going over his words—I love her with complete abandon.

  Besides the love blossoming between mother and daughter, Kate had never been loved with anything even close to recklessness—complete or otherwise. She’d always been held at arm’s length—by her parents, by her father’s congregation, and by those she’d considered friends.

  The notion that she was loved so now did not make sense in her mind.

  “Kate?” Without her noticing, Joshua had stood and knelt before her, taking her hands in his. His warmth banished the cold numbness that’d overtaken them. “I meant what I said earlier. I love you with a force so insistent I find an hour without you is simply not acceptable. I understand your concerns, with your home and everything with your mother. However, I will be here for you through it all, in whatever capacity you allow. Even if you only desire a friend.”

  She stood, pulling Joshua to his feet with her. “Then I think you should know”—she paused, drawing in a deep breath as his shoulders tightened with tension—“I meant every word I said, too. I love you, Joshua, I have for a very long time, though I could not see it clearly because I was uncertain what love looked like between two people. I want you, all of you, and for far more than a friend. I cannot be myself unless I’m with you. Here in Cheapside or at your townhouse… anywhere, as long as I am with you.”

  There was nothing else to say. She loved him, and he loved her.

  Kate’s chest burst with the potential of her future—their future. It had only taken opening herself to the possibilities that fate had aligned for her.

  Perhaps fortune’s final folly had been bringing Joshua into her life.

  But it would be Kate who had the last laugh. And she did—la
ugh—but only for a brief moment before Joshua swept her into his arms, twirling her about the room until they were both laughing.

  “I loved you as simply Miss Kate Elliott.” He set his forehead against hers as he halted, his stare turning serious. “I will love you even if you wish to be addressed as Lady Katherina De Vere. Though I find I think I would love you most if you agreed to be Lady Stuart, my wife.”

  A completely overwhelming happiness filled Kate so quickly, it nearly brought tears to her eyes once more.

  “As long as we are together, Joshua, I can be Miss Kate or Lady Katherina,” Kate said with a smile so wide, she knew she could not hide her joy. “I find I much enjoy the sound of Lady Stuart, as well.”

  Epilogue

  Kate fell into her favorite chair before the fire in Joshua’s study at their Cavendish Square townhouse, exhausted from her day at the schoolroom. The last of the new furniture had arrived that morning, as well as two dozen heavy boxes with new primers and books for her students. The schoolroom would reopen and resume class as normal the following week.

  And it was all due to Joshua.

  Speaking of her soon-to-be husband, he currently sat behind his desk, writing furiously.

  He worked so intently he hadn’t noticed Kate enter the room or close the door or all but crash into her chair.

  “Is everything as it should be?” she asked, hesitant to interrupt him.

  At the sound of her voice, Joshua set down his quill, dusted the paper to dry the ink, and crossed the room to her.

  “Welcome home, my love.” He lowered himself into the chair next to her, and she immediately wiggled onto his lap. Truthfully, the chair wasn’t overly comfortable, but it was large enough for both of them. “I missed you dreadfully. How was your day?”

  Over the course of the last three months, Kate had come to think of Joshua’s townhouse as her home, as well. She loved everything about the house, especially how welcome everyone made her feel—from the servants, all the way to Dolly.

  They loved and accepted her without reservations.

  It had become their way of handling everything that stood in their path.

  They faced all things with complete abandon.

  Their love for one another.

  Their journey to restore the schoolroom.

  The trial against her father, the Earl of Holderness.

  And, more recently, their quest to find the marriage log from her mother’s family’s vicarage.

  “My day was splendid,” she purred, fitting her body against his. “Everything is ready for my students. What of yours? You appeared awfully distracted when I came in.”

  Joshua sighed. Since the Lord High Steward had chosen to pursue charges against her father, the earl’s barrister had brought into question not his client’s guilt or innocence, but Kate’s right to inherit the Shrewbury estate. The last month, with Mr. Burns’ assistance following his fallout with, and his utter distaste for his previous client, they’d written tirelessly, trying to locate any documentation of her mother’s marriage to De Vere. The servants from Shrewbury had gladly testified to the facts as they knew them, but more was needed. Joshua and Burns wanted to prove Kate’s right to her inheritance, and with Walter’s letter, his will, and the vicarage log, everything would work in her favor.

  “Burns thinks the log resides at Shrewbury Gardens, taken by the duchess after you and your mother were cast out.”

  “It could be anywhere,” Kate said.

  He tapped the tip of her nose before kissing her gently. “Yes. But we will not give up.”

  “Search with complete abandon?”

  The door to the study flew open, and Dolly bustled in, Kate’s mother not far behind. The pair had quickly taken to one another since A’laya had agreed to live in Cavendish Square with Kate, and were as close as Dolly had been with Joshua’s grandmother.

  “The Post, it has arrived.” Dolly waved the afternoon paper high above her head. “I cannot believe it, my dear A’laya. It finally happened.”

  Kate slid off Joshua’s lap and snatched the Post as the two women sat on the lounge.

  “Page two,” her mother called, pointing at the paper. “Open it to the second page. Top corner. You cannot miss it.”

  Kate scanned the paper.

  Joshua’s breath warmed her neck as he looked on over her shoulder.

  Finally, she found what she was looking for…

  It is with great honor that Lord Joshua Stuart, son of the Duke and Duchess of Beaufort, hereby maketh known his intentions to wed Lady Katherina De Vere, granddaughter of the Right Honorable Lord and Lady Oderton, and daughter of the Right Honorable Countess of Holderness.

  Kate smiled at the honor paid to her mother’s parents and continued reading as it went on to list the date of their upcoming nuptials.

  Only a few short weeks away. Soon, she would be Lady Stuart and could do away with the remnants of the family who’d torn her and her mother apart. While Kate had accepted her place as a lady, her mother still refused the title, going simply by A’laya to anyone she met. Her mother had taken to teaching alongside Kate and helping her arrange the schoolroom.

  Their relationship had become as natural as any between a mother and daughter.

  They laughed often. They cried just as frequently.

  But they loved one another at all times.

  And this had come to include Joshua and Dolly, as well.

  “I love you.” The announcement was perfect—simple, as she’d requested. “Thank you for bringing me home.”

  If she spoke of the night of the fire or the gradual progression after, Kate was uncertain. Truly, she was simply thanking him for everything he’d done for her. Especially helping her discover who she was and who she was fated to be by his side.

  “Dinner is waiting,” Dolly announced with a clap of her hands. “A’laya has taught Cook one of her family dishes. I do not wish to spoil the surprise; however, it will melt if we do not hurry.”

  Joshua leapt to his feet and held his hand out for Kate. “My love?”

  Placing her hand in his, she stood, rising to her tiptoes to press her lips to his. “We shan’t want to ruin a lovely dish.”

  As they departed the study, Joshua slowed his pace until Kate’s mother and Dolly were several feet ahead of them before he leaned down and murmured in her ear, “Thank you for making this my home again.”

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  Author’s Notes

  Thank you for reading

  FORTUNE’S FINAL FOLLY!

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  About Christina McKnight

  USA TODAY Bestselling Author Christina McKnight writes emotional and intricate Regency Romance with rebellious women and maverick heroes.