Page 23 of The Scandalous Love of a Duke (The Marlow Family Secrets #6)

‘Miss Katherine?’ Hetty appeared with a light scratch on Katherine’s chamber door. ‘There’s another parcel come for you, miss.’

Katherine looked up. She had retreated to her room to escape the excitement which still raged downstairs. Jenny had talked of nothing but John’s party since this morning.

‘Hetty?’ Katherine saw a large flat box in her hands.

The girl bobbed a curtsy.

‘Who sent it?’ Katherine stood and then crossed the room, feeling both shocked and anxious.

‘They did not say, miss. It came from the dressmakers in Maidstone.’

A chill raced through her veins. He would not have done this? But she took the box and pulled the string loose, before setting it on the bed. When she lifted the lid, there was another knock on the open door.

Phillip stepped in as she looked back at the door.

‘I was going to drive over to John’s and I… What’s that?’

‘I don’t know yet.’ She turned back to the parcel and tipped the lid on to the bed.

Phillip looked over her shoulder.

She glimpsed bright blue satin, and lifted the shimmering dress from its box. ‘Gracious, it is beautiful,’ she whispered. John had picked a colour that matched her eyes.

She lifted it a little and saw that the skirt sparkled with little glass beads, but the dress was not flamboyant, it was simply cut.

She would blend in without appearing to overstate her position in society.

Oh, John. He should not have done this and yet she loved him more for knowing she needed a dress to accept his invitation.

Phillip touched the fabric, then picked up the card which lay in the box. ‘It is from Eleanor. She says it is a gift to ensure you will have no excuse not to come to John’s gathering. She used the Maidstone dressmaker because the woman had your measurements.’

He let Katherine have the card, smiling. ‘I take it you will be going now.’

Katherine felt herself glow with happiness. ‘Yes.’

‘Good girl. Now put your bonnet on and we will drive over to Pembroke Place and accept.’

‘Really?’ She felt breathless at the prospect of seeing John. She knew the dress was from him, not Eleanor.

‘Yes, really. Hurry then.’

She laid the dress back in its box, carefully. It was the most precious thing she had ever owned. ‘I won’t be long.’

Phillip left the room with Hetty, but as Katherine hurried to put on her spencer and a bonnet she heard a cry from downstairs.

‘A dress!’

Katherine’s heart beat harder, as she swiftly tied the ribbons of her bonnet.

‘From where?’

Why must her mother spoil everything?

‘It is a gift,’ Katherine heard Phillip say as she left her bedchamber.

‘From whom?’ The voice was her father’s now, and Katherine saw them all gathered in the hall as she came downstairs. Jenny was there too, hovering beside their mother.

‘From Eleanor, Papa,’ Katherine said as she walked downstairs. ‘She knew I would have nothing to wear to John’s party.’

‘From Eleanor…’ her father repeated, his voice sceptical.

‘Yes, Papa.’

‘I read the card,’ Phillip stated. ‘I think it kind of her.’

‘To make Katherine a charity case,’ their mother bit back.

‘To give her less fortunate friend a gift,’ Phillip replied.

Please, do not make me send it back… If they did Katherine might die of embarrassment and unhappiness. She wanted to go to John’s party.

Her father was staring at her, a question in his eyes.

‘I think it kind of her too,’ Jenny said suddenly.

Katherine looked at her. It was probably the nicest thing Jenny had ever said. Catching Katherine entirely off guard, Jenny rushed to hug her when she stepped off the bottom step. ‘I am glad you shall have a pretty dress.’

‘Thank you,’ Katherine said, uncertain what to do, waiting on the condemnation of their mother. If she insisted Katherine send it back, it would have to go back.

Her mother’s eyes glowed with malice, but there was doubt there too. After John had so publicly taken up Katherine’s cause last week perhaps her mother feared offending him.

‘You may keep it,’ she announced. ‘You must write and thank the Countess.’

‘Thank you,’ Katherine said, wishing to hug her mother for the first time in her life.

‘May I see it?’ Jennifer asked, her face glowing with excitement.

‘Kate and I were just going out, Jenny,’ Phillip said. ‘We shall be back for dinner, Mama. We are going to Pembroke Place to accept our invitations.’

‘Can I come?’ Jenny asked.

But at the same moment Katherine’s father said in a savage voice, ‘Katherine has no need to go. Go alone, the girls should stay here.’

‘Kate wishes to come, Papa. John is her friend also. And you may come if you wish, Jenny, but you shall have to squeeze into my curricle.’ He looked back at their father. ‘I cannot see why you question it.’

‘I question it, Phillip, because do you not think it odd for a duke to pursue a friendship with Kate?’

He may as well have slapped her, and she could see Phillip was equally shocked. Her father was usually the one to support her.

‘Go and get ready, Jenny,’ Phillip said. Then he looked at their father. ‘Let us speak in the study.’ He had said it to take the conversation out of her hearing, but Katherine heard it through the door anyway as her mother walked away.

‘Do not judge him by yourself, Papa. John has known Kate for years. He is merely being kind. He saw how things were last week and he changed them, something you have never done.’

‘And why should he have done that?’ she heard her father answer. ‘He is singling her out. He is not just being kind, Phillip.’ Her father knew what she had done. She hoped Phillip never did.

* * *

Katherine was nervous when Phillip drew his curricle to a halt before Pembroke Place. She had never been inside and she felt awkward after her father’s tirade.

Half a dozen grooms raced forward to greet them and one of them offered a hand to help her down, then helped Jenny too.

Phillip offered them an arm each to walk in.

There was a row of broad, shallow, pale yellow stone steps ascending to the portico of the Palladian mansion, and four giant columns rose upwards.

Her eyes followed them and saw palm leaves carved at the top.

While the triangular stone decorating the head of the portico bore roundels of some sort of sculpted flowers.

It was overwhelmingly grand.

Her heart beat harder.

Her father had a point, he really did. What on earth could John want with a woman who had come from nothing when he had all of this?

‘Is the duke at home, Mr Finch?’

‘His Grace is, Master Spencer. Will you wait in the hall a moment?’

The hall was huge and Katherine saw Jenny’s eyes were as wide as hers felt. Jenny had never been here before either.

The hall’s ceiling was two stories high above them, and the space was flooded with light from two long windows which reached the height of the room either side of the door.

It was lined in a mottled beige marble, the whole thing, on the floor and rising in columns, with fireplaces at either side of the room.

Above the door was another window but the other walls were decorated with paintings of nymphs and gods, and on the ceiling was a massive circular painting of all the gods of Olympus reclining on their clouds.

Phillip removed his gloves and his hat, so Katherine did the same, as did Jenny, passing all their outdoor articles to a footman.

‘If you will follow me.’ The butler had reappeared.

They were led through doors at the back of the hall to a room, beyond which was the most beautiful staircase she had ever seen.

It was pale carved stone, like the house, and it seemed to hang in the air as it climbed upwards about the square walls.

The banister struts were glossy metal with elements of gilding and the rail was polished mahogany.

She was in awe as they climbed the staircase, surrounded by stunning pictures of foreign lands. She spotted images of Venice and Rome.

It was another world.

At the top of the stairs, the butler continued along a hall lined with busts and portraits, she presumed them John’s ancestors, but there were artefacts from foreign lands too.

Then they stopped before a carved wooden door.

The butler opened it and stepped inside, leaving them outside unseen.

‘Master Spencer, Miss Spencer and Miss Jennifer Spencer, Your Grace.’ Katherine watched the man bow deeply as he stepped aside.

As they entered, Katherine’s gaze spun about the room. John was not alone. It was full of people. His family were with him.

‘Kate! How wonderful to see you!’ Mary shouted as she rose from a chair and she rushed across the large room.

Behind Mary, John got up too.

He welcomed Phillip as Mary held Katherine’s hands.

‘It is so lovely to see you,’ Mary said.

Several of the younger children were in the room too, some were sitting about one table playing a card game and others were lying on the floor about a wooden arc with numerous painted animals. It was a family scene that would never have been portrayed in Katherine’s home.

Katherine curtsied blindly. Mary turned to Jenny and introductions began, because Jennifer had not met many of the people in the room.

Katherine and Jennifer bobbed curtsy after curtsy.

Katherine felt such an interloper here, as though she was deceiving them, trying to steal John from them. When she looked sideways at John, she found him looking at her. She had no idea what he was thinking, but he smiled and she smiled, she was happy to see him.

‘We thought we would come in person to accept your invitation…’ Phillip was saying.

‘Oh, I am so glad you did,’ Mary said, as John held Katherine’s gaze a moment more. ‘Mama and Grandmamma are managing it all.’

I love you , Katherine thought in the moment before John looked away and she wanted him to know.

Having said something to Mary in response, and then Jenny, John came to Katherine and took her hand. Her heart beat wildly and she felt the glow of a blush as she lowered in a deeper formal curtsy, incredibly aware of his light hold on her fingers.