Page 50 of Fortune’s Final Folly

“Did the duke tell you this?” Kate had been gaining the courage to share with A’laya the letter Walter had left for her. Not because she did not trust the older woman with the knowledge, but because reliving the pain of those early years might very well be too much for A’laya to bear. She never should have had to endure it in the first place. How could Kate allow her to read the damning evidence of it all written in black ink by the duke’s own hand? “I mean—”

A’laya held up her hand, and Kate fell silent. “He did not have to speak any of it. The duchess was keen on making sure I knew that Pierce’s heart and loyalty had never been with me. Even after he disappeared to London before your birth, it was evident our marriage had never been the serendipitous event I’d believed it to be. I was an utter fool, little more than a senseless girl who could not see Pierce for the nefarious lord he was. But you, Katherina, you are not that girl. You are a woman, a lady who knows her worth and that of others. Your heart knows that what you feel for Lord Stuart is true, even if your mind has yet to accept it.”

“I wish we hadn’t been separated all those years ago.” A tear spilled unbidden down Kate’s cheek, and A’laya brushed it away.

“I think, mayhap, fate had plans for you even before you were born, my dear girl.” A’laya rubbed at her necklace before reaching around her neck and untying the twine that secured the treasured keepsake. “If you’d remained with me, you might not have crossed paths with your solicitor, and we might have suffered more at the duchess’s hands. We would have had one another, but you may not have found love.”

Kate’s chest swelled, filling in a way she’d never known it could. She’d grown up with a certain detachment from everything and everyone around her, even her parents to an extent. Finally, she was coming to understand who she was, where she’d come from, and most importantly, where she belonged.

It wasn’t a place, though she loved her tiny schoolroom.

It wasn’t Cheapside, though she had an affinity for her pupils and those she’d come to meet and know in the area.

Where she belonged had everything to do with who was by her side.

No matter if they resided in England—or the New World—Kate belonged at Joshua’s side. And he at hers. She suddenly knew it with certainty.

The silent exchange they’d shared the previous night made more sense as Kate accepted the startling reality.

“Mother, I think I should go—”

“Go to him, Katherina,” A’laya said with a grin.

Kate embraced her mother, lingering in the soft, welcoming embrace before stepping back.

She needed to speak with Joshua and tell him how she felt. Their silent pledge was no longer all she wanted. It was only when she spoke to him of her love that she’d know the extent of his feelings for her.

“I will return,” Kate called over her shoulder with a wave as she started for the door.

She hurried across the room, making certain to watch her step on the loose floorboards. As she neared the front of the building, a shadow crossed the threshold, and a man stepped into her boarded-up school, the light from outside momentarily shrouding his face from view.

He was a familiar stranger, that much Kate knew. It wasn’t Joshua, Henry, or one of his other servants, but the man’s height and set of his broad shoulders were vaguely familiar.

The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end when A’laya gasped behind her.

Kate missed the name her mother called into the nearly empty schoolroom, but as she turned back toward her mother, the man swung his arm, his fist connecting with Kate’s left temple.

Lights exploded before her eyes as she careened backwards, her arms flailing for something to steady herself but finding nothing in the bare room. Her head swam and burst with pain when it knocked against the floorboards.

Her arm was wrenched upward as she was pulled to her feet, but she could not bring herself to open her eyes as the bursts of colored light faded until all she saw was pitch-black.

As she allowed herself to embrace the darkness and ward off the pain, Kate heard her mother scream…

“Pierce!”

Chapter 18

Kate came to slowly, her vision blurred to the point where she needed to close her eyes to concentrate with her other senses. She smelled the remnants of a fire. She was still in the schoolroom, but perhaps upstairs? The room was frigid, as made evident by her numb fingers. The sounds of labored breathing permeated the room. The only other sounds to be heard were the passing carriages and horses on the street below, but even that was muffled. She must be in the room farthest from the road and near the mews.

Wiggling her foot, Kate realized that she was sitting in a chair; the toe of her shoe grazed the wooden floor. They must be in the small kitchen area. She leaned forward slightly, only to find something sharp and unpleasant press into her neck just below her chin.

“Do not move, Katherina,” A’laya whispered hoarsely.

The scrape of a chair across the floorboards sounded not far from Kate.

“Yes, Katherina, listen to your mother,” a male voice hissed in her ear.

“Let her go, you fiend!”