Page 46 of In the Prince's Bed

Katherine stuck out her chin. “That’s not true. I ride and I read.”

Mama shook her head. “I don’t call that exciting, going off for hours on your gelding so you can brood over our little troubles…or in bad weather sitting in the window seat to brood over poems.”

“I don’t brood; I think.” More important, she escaped the mad whirlwind that was life with Mama—and Papa, the few times he’d been home. “There’s nothing wrong with thinking.”

Her mother waved her hand dismissively. “It’s not healthy, I tell you. Young ladies should be dancing and going on picnics with young gentlemen and what all, not ‘thinking.’ ”

Alec shot Katherine a sympathetic glance. “A little thinking never hurt anyone.”

“But she broods forhours. Why, she hardly ever attends the assemblies in Heath’s End, as I always urge her to do.”

These days, they couldn’t afford more than one frivolous person in the family. “I simply enjoy different activities than you, Mama.”

“Poetry, hmmph. Too depressing by half, if you ask me.”

“Now there I must agree with you,” Alec put in.

“You didn’t seem to find it depressing today,” Katherine snapped. “Indeed, you found it quite entertaining.”

“It wasn’t the poetry I found entertaining.” He grinned rakishly. “It was the company.”

She smiled in spite of herself.

“All the same, you mustn’t let her drag you to any more poetry readings, my lord,” Mama went on, “or she’ll turn you into a dull and serious creature.”

“There’s little chance of that,” Katherine said dryly. “Lord Iversley couldn’t be dull if his life depended on it. And goodness knows he’s never serious.”

“Not true. Certain matters I’mveryserious about.” He raked his gaze down her body, lowering his voice to a rumble. “Very serious indeed.”

He might as well have touched her, and she had to dig her fingernails into her palms to keep from blushing.

Eyes twinkling, he went on in that lazy drawl of his, “But I’d hoped you might join me for less serious entertainment this week.”

“Oh?” Mama asked.

“If you haven’t seen the mechanical museum yet, we should go there. And Madame Tussaud’s exhibit is in the Strand—we might even look in on the infamous Separate Room. Then there’s Vauxhall Gardens—”

“Or Astley’s Amphitheatre?” Katherine blurted out.

He smiled. “Why not?”

Mama slanted Katherine a knowing glance. “You see how obligingsomegentlemen can be compared toothergentlemen?”

“Mama, please…” Katherine protested.

Alec cast Katherine a teasing smile. “Don’t tell me somebody was fool enough to disoblige Miss Merivale.”

“Oh, yes,” Mama said, to Katherine’s chagrin. “She tried to convince Sir Sydney to accompany us to the Royal Amphitheatre when we first came to London, but he refused, and most sourly, too. He said it was much too rough a place for young ladies.”

Which had roused Katherine’s interest even more, though she’d never admit it to Alec. “You can’t fault him for that. Sydney thinks women should be—”

“Coddled and cosseted,” Alec finished.

“Protected,” Katherine corrected him.

“From excitement and adventure and anything remotely interesting in life.”

She could hardly disagree, since Alec had hit it exactly.