Page 22 of The Scandalous Love of a Duke (The Marlow Family Secrets #6)

‘How will you replace him? He was there for years.’

‘I’m sure you are not really interested, Katherine. Tell me why your mother is excluding you, have you fallen out?’

She bit her lip, but then laughed, as though it were a foolish question.

He noticed she wore no jewellery, not even a pretty ornament in her hair. No flowers either. Her dress was pale pink and again it looked as though it had been owned and worn for years. He looked over at Jenny. She had taken Phillip’s arm across the room and she laughed at some comment.

Phillip must be teasing her in the same way he had teased Katherine.

But the difference between the sisters could not have been more obvious.

Jennifer had a string of glossy pearls about her neck and her hair had been curled and coifed and decorated with small pale-yellow rose buds and sparkled with what looked like a small silver and diamond comb.

Katherine’s hair had been scraped back in a chignon she had clearly secured herself.

John had seen her do it in the tower room.

Equally there was a difference in attire. Katherine’s dress was old and plain muslin. Jenny’s was a luscious striped yellow and cream silk and obviously new.

Katherine smiled as he looked back at her.

He smiled in return, feeling thrown off balance again.

He thought of her gazing longingly into the milliner’s window in Maidstone at the bonnet he had later bought. Her mother and her sister had been shopping inside while she had carried parcels. He remembered looking at the portraits in her parents’ parlour. There had been none of Katherine.

What of that foul old spencer she wore every day and her tired kid leather gloves, when most women wore lace ones in the summer?

She was Phillip’s sister, but she was not.

John had always known she was adopted, everyone knew it.

But why on earth would the Spencers adopt her only to treat her with scorn?

‘ She does not need vultures circling over her to add to her pain… ’ Her father knew the distinction between the sisters hurt Katherine, yet he allowed it.

‘Why?’ John asked without expanding, but her expression said she understood his question.

‘Why does the sun rise and set? I am baseborn, John. I am the daughter of a milkmaid.’ He already knew that, but he had never heard her say it before, and suddenly just how low her birth was hit him. ‘I am an embarrassment to her.’

‘Then why did she take you in?’

She shrugged, as though she had been asking herself the same question all her life and never found the answer to it.

‘Do not say anything to Phillip,’ she whispered suddenly.

‘How can he not know? Does he not have eyes?’

‘He knows she does not treat me the same, but Mama is not so bad when he is there because he would speak up for me and she does not wish to lose his affection, and I will not destroy his closeness with her. He may jest, but he loves her. She is his mother.’

‘While you are ignored.’

‘I am fed and clothed, John, and I have a father and brother who love me, and even Mama does not ill treat me, not really. She does not beat me.’

‘Just ignores you, or treats you like a servant,’ he said, appalled. ‘Come on.’ Standing, he held out his arm.

She did not rise.

‘I said, come on.’ He heard the thread of steel in his voice. ‘She can hardly deny me and I am not going to let any of them continue cutting you.’

‘John, I cannot.’

‘You can and you will. Get up, and that is an order.’

She rose.

‘Right, to whom shall I introduce you first? Lord and Lady Ellis. Let us start with the most toplofty of our neighbours and work our way down.’

‘My mother will be furious,’ she whispered, but he discerned a note of laughter in her voice. Perhaps Katherine would judge him a little less harshly after this. Sometimes power and influence paid off, and sometimes he was not selfish.

An hour later, occupying a chair in the refreshment room which faced the archway into the assembly hall, John watched the dancing while he played cards. Or rather, he watched Katherine dance.

He would frequently hear her trill laugh and every time he looked up she was smiling.

All the sons of local society had stepped up to the mark once he had done the pretty and made the introductions, and he had done them with ruthless insistence, calling her a particularly close friend from his childhood whom he was shocked to discover no one knew.

He had implied in both voice and stance if anyone continued cutting her he would cut them.

After each introduction he had remained for fifteen minutes, managing the conversation by asking Katherine questions and ensuring their neighbours engaged.

Her mother would never get away with treating her badly in public again, and Katherine was having the time of her life.

He did not even begrudge watching her dance with others, including her reverend.

She shone with a beauty brighter than her sister’s.

‘Thank you,’ Phillip said, drawing John’s attention back to the table.

‘For what?’

‘For getting Kate accepted. I’ve not seen her smile so much in years.’

‘I have never been able to abide snobbery,’ John answered, looking at his cards. Then he selected one and laid it against Phillip.

‘Still, you had no need to do it.’

John met Phillip’s gaze.

In London John had found himself becoming less affected with Phillip. They had met twice in the last two days, to discuss business, and obviously travelled back together. Phillip was like his sister, he hid nothing of himself.

‘No, but how could I sit here and not stop this? They will never dare snub her again now my favour relies on it.’

Phillip laughed, retrieving John’s discarded card and then looking at his own. ‘What it is to have the power of a duke…’

He had been like this at school, full of satiric humour. John had never been conscious of the difference in their standing then. But now… ‘I believe the cliché you missed was, in your pocket, and that I am not, Phillip.’

‘Which is why I did not say it.’ Phillip grinned, tossing a card on the table, before looking at Katherine. ‘I think there is a chance she might say yes to the reverend.’

John followed Phillip’s gaze. She was certainly smiling warmly at the man as they promenaded during a country dance. The green devil in John stirred.

‘I have never seen her form such an attachment before,’ Phillip said. ‘He has been solicitous towards her for months. If he asks her to marry him, I hope she says yes. Her life would be so much better if she was not tied to the history of her birth.’

John’s eyes narrowed. ‘Do you know more of it?’

‘No more than you.’

John would swear Phillip was lying. He did know more. But John could hardly press. What business should it be of his? ‘ My daughter is judged enough for her birth… She does not need vultures circling over her to add to her pain .’

A pang of guilt struck John and he looked back at Katherine as he reached to take a card from the pile between him and Phillip.

She looked younger when she danced and smiled.

He should leave her alone. I should never have touched her.

The yell of conscience rang in his thoughts.

She should belong to her reverend. He had no right to be jealous, yet he was.

She was the only one who could see inside him and had the courage to challenge him.

She was the only woman who had cared what he was and in answer, when he had nothing to give her in return, he had stolen her innocence.

My God, John Harding, what have you become?

He would leave her to her reverend. He must. He could be selfless.

He laughed.

Phillip looked at him but John ignored him.

John threw away the playing card he had picked up. He was not like his grandfather, not yet. He would let her go, no matter how much it cut him with envy. It was the right thing to do.

‘Phillip.’ They both looked up as Katherine approached. ‘You have not danced with me once. You cannot evade me any longer.’

Her expression was bright and happy. Phillip stood and threw his hand of cards onto the table. ‘I was one away.’

John smiled. ‘Then you win. Enjoy your dance.’

As they walked away John had a sudden idea, and as soon as it came into his mind it germinated like a planted seed.

His grandfather had always had a celebration before returning to town. He could not hold a ball, because they were in mourning, but a quieter event, a dinner perhaps, would not look at all odd.

It would be his last indulgence as far as she was concerned. He would ask his family down. His mother could plan it and Katherine could come and solidify her new standing in this community.

Then that would be an end to it and John would return to town.

* * *

‘Have you seen this?’ Phillip walked into the drawing room, waving a piece of card, which he held between his index and forefingers.

‘What is it?’ Jenny asked, as both Jenny and Katherine looked up.

Jenny had been reading while Katherine was darning their father’s shirt.

‘An invitation, that is what, for a week Friday, from Pembroke Place.’

‘From John?’ Katherine stood, feeling her insides tumble to her feet.

She had heard nothing from him since Jenny’s ball and she could not understand why when he had been so solicitous that evening.

She feared he had finally realised how wide the chasm between them was. He had seemed shocked by her exclusion.

She had been equally stunned to see how easily he had filled his grandfather’s shoes.

He had manipulated both conversations and people to bring her to the fore.

She was in awe of him all over again, and since the ball all her thoughts had centred on the aristocratic, authoritative and attractive duke, not John Harding.

‘Is it a ball?’ Jenny questioned excitedly, on her feet too.

‘Patience,’ Phillip stated, laughing at her. ‘Give me time to say.’

‘It would not be a ball,’ Katherine looked back at her sister. ‘He is still in mourning.’

‘No, but it is a dinner party.’ Phillip smiled. ‘And we are all invited, along with half of local society, mind you, so do not think yourselves particularly favoured.’

Phillip let Jenny take the invitation and looked at Kate. ‘His family will all be there, Eleanor and Margaret too. You shall be mixing with a quarter of the House of Lords again.’

Katherine’s smile fell. ‘I shall not. I cannot go.’ Her words were spoken in a bitter whisper so Jenny would not hear. ‘I have nothing to wear.’

‘How exciting!’ Jenny cried beside them. ‘He has a dozen eligible cousins too, doesn’t he? Oh, I am going to tell Mama.’

Phillip gave Jenny an adoring look as she left the room, but when he looked back at Katherine there was concern in his eyes. ‘He will take it as an insult if you are not there, Kate.’

‘Then do you have the money to buy me a dress?’ she retorted. It was entirely out of character for her to be petulant and yet this was not fair. How could she stay at home when everyone else went to see John?

‘You know I do not.’ His voice said he wished he did. ‘Wear the dress you wore at Jenny’s party.’

‘This is not a local assembly, Phillip, I cannot wear a dress which is little more than a day gown. I would look ridiculous.’ Tears burned in her eyes.

He held her gaze but clearly did not know what to say.

She could not remember ever being angry with him before, nor begging for anything, nor even crying over things she lacked. Yet she refused to stand among John’s family and look so horribly out of place. She could never bear such embarrassment.

She sat back down and covered her face as the tears overflowed.

‘Kate?’ Phillip squatted down beside her, his palm settling on her shoulder.

‘I cannot go,’ she said into her hands.

‘Kate, I am sure John’s family will not care what you wear, and everyone else knows how things stand anyway.’

‘And you think that makes it better?’ she said, looking up. ‘I care!’ In the hall she could hear Jenny’s excited outpouring of enthusiasm as she told their mother.

‘If I could buy you a dress I would.’

She hugged him, her arms about his neck, but cried again.

He held her in return, hesitantly, as though unsure of what to do.

When she heard Jenny returning with their mother she pulled away and wiped the tears from her face. She told herself to stop being so silly. This was her life. She could not reorder it, merely live it, and she had always done that well enough before. She must not feel sorry for herself.

‘I am sorry,’ she whispered to Phillip, forcing herself to smile before Jenny and their mother came in. ‘I know you do your best to help me. I am just having a selfish moment, that is all. It hardly matters, it is just one party.’

Phillip’s eyebrows lifted. ‘People do not cry over things which hardly matter, Katherine.’

‘I am just tired,’ she answered dismissively, rising. He stood too. ‘When you see John, please tell him I am sorry but I cannot come.’

‘Katherine, just go, let people think what they like about your dress.’

She shook her head. She could not appear so insignificant before John.