Page 24 of The Scandalous Love of a Duke (The Marlow Family Secrets #6)

‘You are coming, I hope, Katherine,’ he said as she rose up. ‘Did you receive Eleanor’s gift?’

It was from him, she knew it was from him. She nodded. ‘It was very kind of her. Is she here? I am grateful. I must say thank you.’

‘She is not. I will pass your gratitude on, and I know she will be very pleased you like it.’

‘I love it,’ she answered.

He smiled and it warmed her soul right down to her toes.

He turned to speak to Jenny again, who his stepfather was also talking to. Mary grasped Katherine’s arm and led her to a sofa, where they both then perched amid his family.

‘When is Eleanor coming here?’ Katherine asked of Mary when the conversation fractured into pockets about the room.

Mary smiled. ‘She and the others are coming to stay the day before the dinner. Everyone is coming and I know we are not to be exuberant because we are still in half-mourning but even so I am excited. It will be the most fun I have had in an age. And Grandmamma approves wholeheartedly. She…’

Katherine’s attention wandered. How had he engineered the card from Eleanor when she was not here?

Katherine looked at him. He was looking at her. He smiled. She smiled, longing to speak to him privately.

‘…and I am trying to persuade John to at least let us dance after dinner. After all, we are not in full mourning.’

‘Where would you like the refreshments served, Your Grace?’ the butler asked of the duchess.

‘We shall take them on the terrace, I think, Finch,’ she said, rising, ‘as it is a nice day. So the children might play. We shall have lemonade for them and tea for us.’

‘That is a lovely idea, Mama.’ John’s mother stood too.

Mary rose and began rounding up the younger children.

There was suddenly a mass of motion and noise as the children excitedly packed up their games.

‘Katherine.’

John.

She looked up. He was standing beside her chair, holding out a hand towards her. She accepted his hand and rose, then let go, though she longed to cling.

‘Will you walk with me?’ He offered his arm as the others began leaving the room.

Jennifer had taken Phillip’s arm. He was walking beside John’s stepfather and Mary was minding the children with her mother and grandmother.

Katherine nodded and laid her hand on John’s sleeve, the muscles in her abdomen clasping with a spasm of memory and longing.

‘How are you?’ he asked quietly as the distance between them and the others grew.

She looked up and smiled, meeting his gaze.

‘Well. Thank you for the dress. But how on earth did you involve Eleanor? Does she not suspect something?’

He laughed quietly. ‘Possibly, yet she said herself you would not come unless you were given something to wear. You have refused every invitation from her after all.’

‘I would feel out of place with Eleanor on my own but at your party, Phillip will be there and… you…’

His fingers covered hers as they lay on his arm.

‘I would not have let you send it back or say no, you know. The whole damned dinner has been planned for your sake.’

Heat flushed her cheeks.

‘I am not letting people treat you as they did at your sister’s party ever again, Katherine. This dinner will secure the ground we claimed the other night.’

‘When can we meet again?’ she asked as they reached the top of the stairs. The others were already at the bottom.

He stopped and turned to face her, and though his expression was still firm, his eyes swam with emotions.

‘I think never, Katherine.’ The words came as a shock to her.

‘I have been unfair to you.’ There was warmth in his voice which denied the rejection he was speaking.

‘We both know our little intrigue can go no further. It is over. It should never have begun. I am sorry. I know it is my fault.’

Her smile died. She had known it was folly.

‘Katherine…’ he prompted. ‘You do understand? After the dinner I will go back to London. The House of Lords is due to reconvene soon.’

No. She refused to understand. While she had been falling more deeply in love with him, he had just been entertaining himself during the summer break.

I am a fool. He has offered me nothing other than a bonnet and a dress. How had she expected it to end? Marriage was never an option.

Her father had asked Phillip why John would be interested in her. Well, here was the answer, just to play immoral games when he was bored. Why must I love him? Why can my heart not choose someone who will love me too?

‘Katherine.’ His fingertips touched her cheek. ‘I am truly sorry. I should not have asked you to do what we did. I offer no excuses. I merely ask you to forgive me. At least there can be no lasting harm.’

No lasting harm! He was tearing her heart to shreds and he thought there would be no lasting harm. She would be in agony for the rest of her life.

Footsteps rang on the marble below.

‘Katherine!’ It was Phillip.

John stepped back.

‘Are you coming? Oh. Sorry I did not realise you were together…’

She turned and hurried downstairs ahead of John.

Phillip looked up at John, who descended behind her.

‘I have estate business to review,’ John said. ‘I shall not join you outside.’

Phillip nodded but he looked confused when his gaze returned to Katherine.

She was so glad to see Phillip that when he offered his hand, she hugged him instead. ‘Katherine, is something wrong?’ he whispered against her hair before she let him go.

She forced a smile as his gaze met hers, visibly wondering what was wrong.

‘Mary has suggested we play badminton, in pairs. Will you play?’

‘Of course.’ She bit her lip, to force away the tears that threatened. John was still behind her. Deliberately smiling brightly, she looked back at John, forcing happiness into her voice. She did not wish him to know how much he had hurt her. ‘Goodbye.’

His eyes were blank and his expression granite. ‘Enjoy your game.’

She turned away, wishing to leave immediately, but she could hardly do that.

Instead she smiled until her cheeks ached.

She even laughed when she played badminton with Jenny, Phillip and Mary, desperately hoping John would hear and think she had not been hurt at all.

She had learned many things from John during their dalliance and the most significant was how to hide how she felt.

Yet, John’s family did not hide their disappointment that John had stayed indoors. When the game finished, she, Jenny and Phillip drank lemonade with his parents on the terrace, and Mary complained that John had become a bore.

‘He is busy with the estate,’ John’s stepfather said.

His mother spoke then. ‘I admit, though, Mary, I had also hoped, as he asked us here, he would keep us company some of the time.’

‘Give him time,’ his stepfather answered.

John had said he did not feel a part of his family, but by the sound of their conversation, he kept himself apart from them.

When eventually Phillip handed Katherine back up into his curricle, after Jenny, he said in a low voice, ‘Are you well? You look pale, Kate.’

Perhaps she had not hidden her distress as well as she had thought. I am heart sore and silly, pining for a man who can never love me. ‘I did not eat much luncheon.’