Page 90 of In the Prince's Bed

“Good evening, Iversley,” Sydney said. “I was just giving your…intended wife my felicitations on the announcement of your betrothal.”

“How kind of you.” Alec handed Katherine her punch. “I’m sorry we can’t invite you to the wedding. It’s going to be a private affair, just Katherine’s family. We’re marrying by special license within the week.”

Katherine nearly dropped her glass of punch. “We…we are?”

Alec’s gaze settled on her. “I assumed you’d want to marry soon. There is Mr. Byrne to consider, after all.”

“Who’s Mr. Byrne?” Sydney asked.

“Nobody of consequence.” Katherine certainly didn’t want Sydney to know how deeply Papa had sunk them into debt. She shot Alec a cool glance. “So we’re marrying by special license? I suppose you’ve chosen a gown for me as well?”

Her acerbic tone made Alec arch one brow. “Forgive me, sweetheart—I thought you’d be pleased. But if you’d rather we post the banns and marry from your home in Heath’s End, just say so.”

“Don’t be silly,” Mama protested. “What would people think if you married like common day laborers?” She clapped her hands to her chest with a dreamy sigh. “To marry by special license—how romantic that will be! All the ladies will envy you, my angel!”

With a glance at Katherine, Sydney asked, “What’s your hurry?”

“I see no reason to wait.” Alec cast Katherine a warm smile. “I came to London to find a wife, and now that I have, I want to go home with her to Suffolk and begin our life together.”

Katherine melted. So Mama had been wrong about that, too—Alec didn’t want a “fashionable marriage.” He only wantedher.

That didn’t sit well with Mama. “What? Go home? But it’s the middle of the season! We’ll have to arrange a ball at your town house, at the very least.”

“There’s no need for all that,” Katherine put in to cover Alec’s grimace.

“Of course there is! There should be parties to celebrate the marriage and breakfasts and a soiree…what can you mean, to be scampering off to the country now, my lord? People will think something is amiss.”

“We don’t care what people think.” Katherine moved to Alec’s side to lay her free hand on his arm. He covered it with his own and squeezed.

Any lingering objections to a hasty wedding went right out the window. This, after all, was what she wanted from marriage—two people joined against the world, ready to stand firm against the frivolous Mamas and the naysaying Sydneys. Two people who understood each other.

Sydney stared down at their joined hands, and his lips tightened. “Well, then, I shan’t intrude on this cozy family scene any longer.” He cast Alec a resentful glance. “I assume that you’ll accompany the ladies home tonight?”

Alec nodded tersely.

Sydney turned to Katherine. “Remember, if you ever need anything—”

“Yes, thank you,” she broke in, feeling Alec’s hand stiffen on hers.

As the baronet walked off, Alec glared daggers into his back. Fortunately, Alec had no time to ask what Sydney’s last words had meant before Mama commanded his attention again. “Now see here, my lord, you simply cannot drag my daughter off to the country without so much as a warning.”

Which meant,you can’t remove my only excuse for being in London.

A perverse mischief seized Katherine. “I believe he can do as he pleases once he marries me, Mama.”

Alec raised an eyebrow at Katherine, but merely added, “I’m sorry, I can’t stay in London just now. My father neglected Edenmore for years, and I must be there to turn things around. But of course if Katherine prefers to remain here—”

“I don’t,” she said. “I’m looking forward to seeing your country estate.”

Alec smiled at her, then her mother. “You’re welcome to stay with us whenever you like, Mrs. Merivale, if you don’t mind the workmen and interruptions of tenants.”

“No, indeed,” Mama said hastily. “I shall stay right here in London, if you please.”

That same urge for mischief pressed Katherine on. “Someone will need to oversee Merivale Manor now that I won’t be doing it, Mama. Unless you intend to take over my letter-writing duties?”

The pained look on her mother’s face nearly made her laugh aloud. Mama loathed writing letters as much as she loathed being packed away to the country.

Katherine could almost feel sorry for her. Almost.