Kate had no illusions about herself.Her worth was in her hands and her mind.She could cook and plant and tally accounts, but she could not flutter a fan or carry a tune.
Although an earl’s daughter, she had never taken her place in the vaunted sphere of theton.Instead, she had struggled to keep her little family alive, and it had changed her irrevocably.She was ill-suited for anything now but simple country living.
As for her other attributes… Kate knew she was not as lovely and delicate as Lucy and not at all like the kind of sparkling beauties Grayson had waiting for him in London.The thought of them made her gulp down her wine even as she cringed.She would not be an object of pity.
Anger gave her strength, and she put down her glass with a loud thump.“Well, he can take his noble, self-sacrificing offer and go hang!”Kate said, her voice ringing with outrage.
“Now, Katie, don’t get yourself in a taking.This is good news,” Tom said.
“Good for whom?”she asked.“Did you force this on him, so that you would feel free to run off with Meg?Well, I have no intention of holding you here, Thomas Beane, so you can do whatever you like, without feeling responsible for me.”
Despite her best efforts, Kate was nearly shaking with emotion, and she could see Tom was stunned by her reaction.
“Now, Katie, it weren’t like that at all.I thought you’d taken a liking to the man!”
“You must have been imagining things,” she said.“I appreciate Wroth’s efforts on Lucy’s behalf, that is all.And there is no way I am going to let him shackle himself to me when I’m the one who broke into his study and shot him, thanks to Lucy’s tale of woe.”
Unaccustomed anger and humiliation and despair boiled inside Kate until she felt like some foreign mountain ready to erupt.She could not make sense of it all herself, let alone explain it to Tom, who stood gaping at her with a shocked expression.
“Now, Katie, be reasonable—”
Reasonable?Sensible?Suddenly Kate wanted to be none of those things.She wanted to lash out at everything and everyone for disrupting her familiar existence, robbing her of those she cared about, and the final indignity, handing her a sham wedding, while her sister married for love.
“No,” she said, her voice a low, thready sound in the dim kitchen.“I do not want to hear another word about your ludicrous scheme, Tom.Go on to London with Meg, but don’t try to tie me up in a neat little package, like some loose end.”
“Katie—”
At another time, Tom’s mournful tone might have touched her, but not tonight.Kate’s head throbbed painfully, and she focused only upon escape.Stalking past the coachman, she hurried toward the servants’ stair, praying that she did not come upon anyone else, especially Grayson.
After a night spent tossing and turning and twisting her sheets, Kate remained in a foul mood, her cheeks stinging at the thought of Tom forcing the marquess to marry her.Her first inclination was to hide in her room all day, feigning illness, but she had never been one to ignore a problem, so she finally put in an appearance, determined to show nothing of her turmoil.
It was afternoon by the time she arrived in the dining hall, but the remains of a breakfast still stood on the sideboard, and Kate picked at the food desultorily.Obviously, Meg had no need of her in the kitchens.Perhaps today she could coax Badcock into helping her clean some of the first-floor rooms.
Although Grayson’s valet, he seemed more than willing to help out wherever necessary.And Kate had no intention of seeking Tom out, only to hear him harp upon her threatened reputation.She nearly snorted at the ridiculous notion.When matters of daily survival took precedence, she had ceased to care about such intangibles.
She was just rising from the table when a girl in a starched apron came in.“Can I get you anything more, my lady?”she asked, with a pretty bob of her head.
Kate stared for a moment before catching herself.“Who are you?”she asked in surprise.
The girl smiled.“I’m Dora, my lady, the new housemaid.His lordship sent me up from London, and I never seen such countryside before.”
The new housemaid?Kate felt a fresh surge of outrage at the high-handed marquess.She opened her mouth to speak, but shut it again, unwilling to loose her anger on the girl.
“No, thank you… Dora,” Kate said, pasting a smile on her face.She walked to the doorway and watched absently while the housemaid cleared the table.Obviously, the girl was here to clean, so instead of working inside, Kate decided to tackle the gardens, while the weather held.
An old shed held most of the implements she required, but one look at the flower beds told her she would need a shovel to remove some of the bigger weeds.With a sigh, she went round to the stables for one, halting suddenly at the sight of a stall freshly filled with straw.A glance into the nearby pasture told her that the only two horses they owned were happily dozing in the field.
Odd.Kate’s irritation grew as she began to feel like a stranger in her own home, completely unaware of what was happening around her.Spurred to action, she strode to the kitchen and poked her head inside, where Meg was busy at the old table.
“What is going on in the stables?”
“Oh, my lady, you startled me,” Meg said, putting a hand to her ample bosom.“Why, I believe that Mr.Badcock and Mr.Beane went to London to get one of his lordship’s horses.They brought Dora back with them, and I must say it will be nice to have some more help around here.”
Kate flushed.The cook’s casual comment held no censure, and yet she felt it, the same old gnawing guilt that the sad state of Hargate was somehow her fault.She stiffened.“And just where is this beast?”
Meg looked up, eyeing her in some surprise.“Why, I understand that his lordship took the animal out himself, to check on the tenants.”
The tenants?Hertenants?Kate seethed.Not trusting herself to speak, she nodded and closed the door.Then she stomped back to the stables.
