“Some water then, please.My condition demands cool liquids and rest, Katie,” she said, piling the cushions behind her as she sank onto a sofa.
Unprepared to wait upon her sister, but seeing no other choice, Kate nodded curtly.She could hardly ask Tom, who spent most of his time in the stables, so she trudged off to the kitchen herself, suppressing a growing nostalgia for Grayson’s multitude of servants.
When she returned, glass in hand, Lucy looked at it and pouted.“Have you no ice?”
Kate bit back a sharp retort and smiled instead.“I did not wish to go out to the icehouse.”
“At the squire’s, there always seems to be plenty at hand.I vow, it’s the only thing that keeps me from becoming queasy.They have quite spoiled me there, you know.I shall be sorry to leave the bosom of my dear husband-to-be’s family after we are wed.”
Kate refrained from pointing out that Lucy’s uncle-to-be had once practically stolen the Chister heirlooms from them with his greedy bargaining, for she was determined not to quarrel with her sister.“I regret that you will miss some things available at the squire’s, but I will be so glad to have you here with me, Lucy,” Kate said.
Lucy’s brows furrowed in dismay.“Here?With you?Whatever do you mean?”
Kate’s mouth tightened.What else could she mean?“Now that I am back, there is no need for you to stay with the Wortleys.”
“You cannot mean to remain here like… this?”Lucy asked, in horrified accents.“Without any staff?”
“It is no different than before,” Kate said, refusing to allude to her new position or her absent husband.
“It most certainly is!”Lucy said, throwing up her hands.“I do not understand you, Katie.The squire says that Wroth is one of the richest men in the whole country.You can have anything you want, after years of skimping and scraping by, and you have given it all up to come back here to nothing?I’ve never understood you, but this… this is beyond folly.”
Unwilling to talk about Grayson, Kate turned the conversation back to Lucy.“You belong at Hargate,” she said, fixing her sister with a look that brooked no argument.For a long moment, their gazes locked, and then Lucy rose to her feet.
“All right, you win, as usual!I’ll stay here, but I won’t lift a finger to help out, and as soon as Archibold and I are married, I’m leaving.”With a whirl of shiny new skirts, she turned to go after her betrothed, but paused on the threshold to toss one last barb at her sister.
“Enjoy your suffering, Katie.”
Grayson was suffering.Leaning his head back, he released a long, guttural sigh.He never thought it would be this difficult to survive without her, but like an opium addict deprived of his pipe, he struggled through each day.Each hour.He had hoped to regain his sanity and his control, but now he wondered if he could ever go back to the man he had been before Kate entered his life.
She had changed him irrevocably.
And not for the better, he thought grimly.Yet, even as he scorned his weakness, he was beginning to wonder if it was such a big price to pay for Kate, for her company, her warmth, her passion.He missed her strength, her intelligence, the dark satin of her hair, her amazing amethyst eyes, her mouth, her taste, the look on her face when she cried out his name…
Grayson swore under his breath.He was mooning over her like some lovesick boy.He slammed his fist down on the surface of the desk, as if the act of violence could marshal his wits.He needed them today.
He had kept Kate’s defection quiet, for he wanted no further speculation about his abrupt, tumultuous marriage, but something must have gotten out, because he had received a cryptic note from a certain Mrs.Parker requesting a private audience with him concerning Kate.
And he refused to let a missing wife make him vulnerable to anything or anyone.Drawing himself up to his usual, imposing height, Grayson banished all traces of weariness and longing as the door to his study opened to reveal his butler.
“Mrs.Parker is here to see you, my lord,” the man said, frowning slightly in disapproval.The servants had become devoted to Kate during her brief residence, and Grayson had been receiving black looks from nearly every member of his household since her departure.
He began to wonder if peace, or some slight semblance of it, ever would reign in his life again.Giving the impertinent man a hard look, Grayson nodded, bowing slightly to the woman who stepped into the room.
“I appreciate you seeing me under such unorthodox circumstances,” Mrs.Parker said, taking a seat and fanning herself gently as the butler withdrew.“I’m sure you think it unusual of me to come here like this, but I had an errand of most pressing concern.”
Grayson thought it highly unusual for a woman, even a widow, to visit him, but nothing connected with Kate surprised him any longer.“You have something to share concerning my wife?”
“In a way, yes,” she said, smiling slyly above her fan.
“What sort of way?”Grayson asked.Unmoved by her arch glance, he lifted a brow in question.
“Well, if you wish to be blunt, I can be,” Mrs.Parker said, dropping her efforts at flirtation.“The truth of the matter is that I am privy to certain information about the marchioness that you will not wish to be made public.”
Anger, swift and sure, made him fist his hand at his side, but he hid it, leaning casually on the edge of the desk.He was accustomed to dealing with attacks on himself, but Kate was another matter entirely.“Such as?”he asked evenly.
“My, you are a cool one!”Mrs.Parker replied, her eyes sharp under partially lowered lashes.She leaned forward, unable to conceal her avarice.“I know plenty, but I’m not fool enough to share it without the promise that I will be adequately compensated for my trouble.”
Grayson laughed, startling her, and she drew back, as well she should.He fixed her with a fierce glare.“You won’t get a farthing from me, and if you think to wag your tongue, let me give you fair warning.You will only ruin yourself.”Reaching behind him, Grayson opened a drawer and dropped a handful of papers on the desk.
