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A sense of high agitation took hold of James. This changed everything.
James Rhodes, Marquess of Thorburn, could never consider courting Miss Norwood, farm girl of Wiltshire, no matter how much he liked her. But Lady Katherine Alden, daughter of the Earl of Inverley? Nothing could be more proper.
I could marry her.
James sucked in a breath and took a step back from where the young woman sat, her head pressed against the back of her chair and her eyes closed as she weathered the shock of her true identity’s revelation.
This is madness.
I cannot allow the wild events of the day to befuddle me.
I must take the air at once.
And yet he found his legs would not obey him. The words to excuse himself would not form on his lips. He glanced at the others in the room, concerned that they might have noticed his strange mood, but they were too embroiled in their own reactions.
Frederick Alden, younger brother to the earl, had just discovered he was uncle to Lady Katherine, and he seemed delighted and full of cheer as he beamed at her and at his brother.
Lady Inverley, however, looked as though she felt quite ill, and James imagined it must have come as an unwelcome shock to her to find that her own daughter was not the earl’s eldest child after all. Not that it would make a great deal of difference in the end, he supposed. Unless Lady Katherine made a poor marriage.
Indeed, Lady Katherine’s appearance would be cause for scandal, and Lady Inverley had planned for her daughter to come out this season. James supposed this would complicate her hopes for her daughter.
‘Well, this is all most peculiar, is it not?’ Alden exclaimed. ‘How astonishing, eh, Inverley?’
The earl only gave a faint grunt by way of reply.
It was just they four in the drawing room at the moment—just they four who now knew the truth of Lady Katherine’s parentage. How would the Aldens manage the news, James wondered? Would they try to keep it quiet for a time? Or instead, perhaps hold a great ball to introduce Lady Katherine to theton?
Whatever approach they chose, this story would be the talk of the Season. And it certainly made life more interesting than it had been for years, James thought.
That explains my perturbation, James mused.I must not let emotion carry away my reason. Lady Katherine is fascinating because of her marvelous story, of course. But I have no interest in marrying her! What a notion.
Kate
The earl’s daughter. The earl’s daughter.
The words repeated themselves without ceasing in Kate’s mind as conversation slowly resumed among the people present in the drawing room.
‘Astonishing, I say!’
‘Yes, one is dizzied to consider it.’
‘A miracle, one could claim.’
Someone pressed a warm porcelain cup into her hands and a splash of tea wet her forefinger. Kate considered putting the finger in her mouth and then froze.
Daughters of earls don’t lick their fingers, Kate,she told herself.
By heaven, I know not how to behave in such company.
I am wholly unprepared for any of this.
I might as well be a horse wandering the marsh—I am lost and will very likely step into a bog and drown soon enough.
Kate pressed the rim of the teacup to her lips, focusing her eyes solely on the tawny liquid. ’Twas the same as the brew she had tasted in the kitchen, and there was something comforting in that.
‘You have two daughters now, Lord Inverley,’ said Lord Thorburn evenly. ‘An unsought boon.’
‘Yes,’ the earl murmured.
