Page 43 of A Daring Desire

“You don’t like going out without him, do you?” Cat asked wistfully.

Mama gave a wistful smile. “Not really, no. Well, unless it’s shopping or something he does not enjoy, but to an event like this there are always so many things and people to discuss, it’s frustrating if he isn’t there to share it with.” Mama turned to regard her, tilting her head. “You are looking exceptionally beautiful tonight, Catherine. Is there a reason for that?”

Catherine blushed, looking away from Mama, who was far too perceptive. “No. Not especially.”

“Will Lord Kilbane be here tonight?”

The wry note in her mother’s voice made Cat look back at her with a sigh. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “Probably not. He’s never appeared at anything resembling a respectable event in his life.”

“Not without the motivation to cause mischief,” Mama observed, her blue eyes glinting in the lamplight.

“He’s changed, Mama,” Cat said quietly.

“He would need to change a good deal.”

Cat nodded, holding her mother’s gaze. “He has.”

“You’re an intelligent woman, my love, and a remarkably brave one, but do not confuse courage with foolhardiness. You’ve been hurt enough.”

Cat smiled, reaching over to take her mother’s hand. “What did people say when you went to Dern all by yourself? You were alone and unmarried, your reputation in tatters, and you went to the home of the man who had ruined you, because you believed Papa and Phoebe needed you. What would you have said to your friends if they had warned you off?”

Mama sighed and regarded her daughter with a tender if troubled expression. “You are too fond of that story, my darling girl.”

“Only because it is the most romantic in all the world,” she said, squeezing her mother’s hand.

“Lord Kilbane is not like your father.”

“Is he not, Mama?” Cat watched her intently. “Did you never think he was something other than what he purported to be?”

Her mother hesitated before she spoke. “The first time I met him, I thought him an angry, defiant boy, trying to shock the world into believing him everything they had told him he was.”

Cat let out a choked breath, her eyes prickling. “Oh, Mama, yes!” she exclaimed, so relieved it was hard to keep the tears at bay. “You do see.”

Her mother nodded, but her eyes remained grave. “I do see. I always have, but that does not mean he will let you save him from himself. He’s not a boy anymore, but a man, and men make their own decisions. He has carved a reputation for himself that will always follow him, has lived a life that will always be a part of him, and you may not like those parts of him as much as you think.”

“Or perhaps I shall like those parts best,” Cat countered, offering her mother an ironic smile.

Mama laughed softly. “Oh, Cat. Do take care, my dear.”

“Don’t fear for me, Mama. Not this time,” Cat said, remembering the look in her husband’s eyes when he had pleaded for her to stay. Perhaps he would not be here tonight, but he would find her soon. He would not be able to stay away for long. “This time I shall get what I want. All of it.”

“It wasn’t an omen,” Perry said for the fourth time in as many minutes.

Kilbane glowered at him, his eyes glinting in the dark.

“It wasn’t!” Perry protested. “A wheel breaking is not an uncommon event and, if it had been an omen, we wouldn’t have had such luck in getting it fixed so quickly.”

“Quickly?” Kilbane countered with a snort. “We’ll be lucky to get there before it ends.”

“Don’t exaggerate. We’ll be there by midnight, and you know very well affairs of this nature are only just getting into their stride by that hour. It will be perfect. You look quite magnificent, you know. You’ll make a grand entrance as the clock chimes and have all the young women in a swoon and the old tabbies fainting with shock.” Perry laughed at the appalled expression on the marquess’ face. “Lud! Don’t tell me you’re nervous?”

Kilbane slanted him an impatient look. “Of course I’m bloody nervous. Polite society has the tendency to tear me to shreds. I promise you, my life among the lower gaming hells and whorehouses was far less terrifying and less likely to see me come to harm than a room full of society matrons,” he retorted, folding his arms.

“How hen-hearted you are,” Perry replied, not above teasing him.

He received a glittering look for this sally but in the end Kilbane only sighed, shaking his head. “I don’t care for myself, but I won’t have Catherine made an object of… of pity or ridicule,” he said, the anger behind his words unmistakable.

“You really don’t know what you look like if you think that,” Perry said candidly. “There’s not a woman alive who would pity her tonight.”