Page 39 of Katherine the Vixen

Despite the knowledge that she had nothing to fear, her legs were shaking when she climbed the stairs and she knocked on the door before she could lose her nerve.

“Enter.”

A strong, masculine voice called her in.

Katherine stepped inside, unsure how to behave. It was the first time she had been in both Siaspar and his wife’s presence—if you forgot the incident in his bedchamber when she’d been hiding behind the curtain—and she could see that the two months since their wedding day had not done anything to smooth the differences between them. Quite the opposite. The air around them almost crackled with tension. With his mouth turned down and his jaw clenched hard, Siaspar seemed a different man to the one she had seen in the last two days. His wife appeared no happier.

Dropping into a deep curtsy seemed the best thing to do for now.

“What is the meaning of this?”

There was a note of panic in Lady Malpas’ voice and it was difficult to blame her for being nervous. Katherine was starting to be ill at ease herself. Had Siaspar finally decided to reveal that he knew about the deception played out on his wedding night? Was that why she was here? She hoped not, for Lady Malpas’ wrath would inevitably fall on her and her family, not on the husband who was so formidable he had survived her assassination attempt.

She kept her gaze on the floor, not trusting herself to look at either of them. The pleasure she had felt at being called in Siaspar’s presence had quickly turned to dread.

“What is this servant doing here?” Lady Malpas was hiding her anguish behind scorn. “She reeks!”

“I expect it’s nothing a bath would not remedy.”

Katherine had the impression that Siaspar was chastening his wife for her rude comment, rather than agreeing with her. His voice was cold, a stark contrast to the honeyed tones he seemed to use with her, even in his anger. Hope flickered in her chest. He would not be defending her thus if he was about to throw her to the wolves, surely?

“You want to give this servant a bath?”

“Not me personally, no.” This time the amusement in his voice was unmistakable. A glance at him revealed that his eyes were sparkling like those of a man about to perform a trick he had spent weeks honing. “But I agree with you. She will have to be scrubbed clean before she takes your place.”

Takes your place.

Katherine’s heart plummeted in her chest once again. She’d been wrong. He was about to reveal to his wife that he knew what they had done, after all. Lady Malpas, who apparently had reached the same conclusion, looked close to fainting.

“What do you mean?” The question was barely more than a whisper.

“What do you think? I thought your memory would stretch to more than a day, my lady. Evidently, I was overly generous in my assumption?”

It was when he saw Katherine pale that Siaspar understood how this conversation would have sounded to her. Exactly like it was sounding to Lady Malpas. She was worried that he was about to expose what had happened on his wedding night.

What a fool. Lost to the pleasure of teasing his wife, he had scared Katherine. He gave her a swift glance to remind her that he had his reasons for calling her so unexpectedly, willing her to trust him.

“Yesterday, we agreed to find a woman to discharge you from a duty you found bothersome,” he told Lady Malpas, wishing to put an end to the uncertainty. “Someone who would take your place when the tailor comes.”

“Of course. Yes. The new wardrobe.”

Now that she saw he was not about to accuse her of anything, she had regained some color. Katherine looked better as well, which was what he really cared about. “Indeed. The new wardrobe. You will agree that the girl is perfect for the role.”

No answer. Instead, another question. “And where did you find her, may I ask?”

The woman was good, Siaspar had to admit. He could have sworn that she had never set eyes on Katherine before. But, of course, to her, the little scullion was only a tool, not a person of real substance.

“That is the most extraordinary thing of all. I feared that we would have to search the length and breadth of the country to find a woman who could pass off as you, and yet and the very next day I chanced upon one in my kitchen!”

“What were you doing in the kitchen, I wonder?” Lady Malpas asked in her best haughty tones, confident now that he did not suspect that she knew Katherine already. “Roasting lampreys for your dinner tonight?”

A snort escaped his lips. “You do not really roast lampreys, rather you put them in a pie. I fear you would make a poor cook, my lady. But no, I was not wrestling with lampreys, I was giving instructions as to the brewing of the ale. The last batch was far too bitter for my taste. Of course you might not have noticed anything, as bitterness seems to be second nature to you.”

Lady Malpas ignored the pique but he heard Katherine’s intake of breath from behind him.

“You are an expert in the matter of brewing ale, then, are you?”

“Not an expert exactly but…” He stopped and allowed a brilliant smile to bloom on his lips. “My grandfather was a brewer, and it was he who taught me everything there is to know about good ale.”