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“Get on with it, then,” Sophie said into her hands.
“How did you know you were increasing?” Kitty said, her voice quick and quiet in the calm morning air of the parlor. Her friend had only just announced her pregnancy a few days prior and would likely have some helpful insight.
The marchioness lowered her hands, eyeing her warily. “What have you done?”
Kitty had a difficult time dissembling at Sophie even under normal circumstances, so the admission easily tumbled from her lips. “My courses are nearly two weeks late, and I haven’t been able to eat in the mornings for the past week.” The symptoms had come out of nowhere and with no apparent explanation. She’d realized with dawning panic that her night with Sebastian had been the only change in recent weeks that would warrant such a strange occurrence. Sophie’s widening eyes only served to further confirm her suspicions. Kitty inhaled, panic building in her throat at the obvious conclusion to be drawn. “There’s a child, isn’t there?”
“Oh, my dear.” Sophie rose from her seat and plopped down next to her, taking Kitty’s shaking hands in her own. “Please, tell me there is a courtship?”
“I don’t know,” she replied, her voice wobblier than she would have liked. “He hasn’t even sent a note since I lay with him.” Not that she’d ever wanted a courtship, but this new circumstance changed everything.
“Who is it?” Sophie asked urgently, a fire of anger coming into her eyes that Kitty had never seen before. “I’ll have Jasper track him down and drag him to you if he must. He is a marquess after all.”
“That won’t work.” She squeezed her eyes shut against the tears before continuing quietly. “It’s Ashford.”
“My God.” The hands on her shoulders tightened. “I thought you had been looking at him oddly. That bastard.”
“What’s this about Ashford being a bastard, my love?” Amberwood strolled into the parlor, pausing to stare at Kitty in concern. “Has he offended you, Miss Highbridge? He can be a caustic chap at times, but his heart is usually in the right place.”
“It seems certain other parts of His Grace decidedly were not,” Sophie bit back with a grimace. “I fully expect you to thrash him within an inch of his life.”
Amberwood looked between the two of them, confusion growing to understanding and then anger as he registered his wife’s meaning. “I’ll find him.”
“That won’t be necessary.”
All heads swiveled to the doorway where Ashford stood. He casually leaned against the frame, a harried Halston stuttering to a halt behind him. “Apologies, Miss Kitty. His Grace pushed past me the moment he was informed you were at home.”
Lord Amberwood gave her butler a halfhearted wave, his striking green eyes all but skewering Sebastian.
Kitty stared at the duke, the sudden rush of relieved happiness at his appearance fading once she took in the sight of him. He seemed unruffled and amusingly casual as always, but his eyes were cold, growing only more frigid when they landed on her. She swallowed her unease. “How long have you been standing there Se—Ashford.”
“Long enough,” he replied steadily, looking down his nose at her in a classically ducal fashion, making her feel ten times smaller than her actual size. “From those dramatic hysterics of yours and the aggression on Lady Amberwood’s face, I can only assume you’ve told them there’s a child. Let’s get this over with, then.”
Kitty didn’t dare breath, even as Sophie quietly gasped in outrage next to her. Nausea roiled in her belly, and she put a staying hand on her abdomen to stem the unpleasant sensation. She’d envisioned several possible reactions to the news of her pregnancy, but this icy reception was not one of them.
“Christ, Ashford, what in the hell is wrong with you?” Amberwood all but growled, beginning to advance on the duke, who’s bored countenance did not falter.
“Jasper, please. Let us remain calm. I am sure His Grace is merely out of sorts at the news. It is a tremendous shock to all of us,” Sophie said firmly, ever the calming influence during times of strife. Kitty was thankful for her stable, reassuring manner in that moment, even if she knew she would have to face to next several minutes on her own.
“Sophie,” she said, not tearing her gaze from her lover, “would you and Amberwood leave us for a moment?”
Sophie paused, looking between the two of them anxiously, before giving her shoulder a comforting squeeze and nodding. “Alright. If you are sure?”
“Yes,” Kitty replied, already mourning the absence of her friend’s solid presence as Sophie rose from the sofa and tugged her irate husband along with her out the door.
Amberwood shot Sebastian one last steely glare as he left. “We’ll be having a discussion about this later, Ashford.”
“If you please,” Sebastian said with a shrug as the door closed softly behind him. Kitty watched him with bated breath as he remained standing, his silence lashing her more than any barbed words could.
“I was going to tell you,” she blurted, the quiet too deafening for her nerves. “I thought you would call on me sooner.”
“I’m sure you did,” he replied evenly. There was a vague, accusatory note to his tone that nettled her.
Anger replaced trepidation, her patience for his games wearing thin today. “Of course, I did. Any girl would expect the man she ruined herself with to at minimum call on her.” Things had been going so well after their interlude, and she was almost certain he had finally endeared himself to becoming her lover before they had reached the carriage. And then something had changed within him as soon as she boarded the conveyance, leaving her hurt and confused as he all but abandoned her in his coach.
“Well, you have achieved your aim. Your social safety is now assured.”
“My…my what?” She stared at him, confusion at his cryptic words and outrage at whatever accusation he was lobbing coursing through her in equal measures. “I didn’t even suspect my condition until a few days ago, so I am not sure what aim you think I am seeking. Unless…” Pieces began fitting together in her mind as she thought harder about his previous behavior. Hurt, piercing and cold, speared her chest. “You think I did this on purpose to trap you.”
