Page 50 of The Scandalous Love of a Duke (The Marlow Family Secrets #6)

After an overwhelming day, Katherine found herself sitting in John’s plush state carriage in the evening with her fingers woven through his as their joined hands lay on his thigh.

His mother, father and Mary sat opposite.

John was looking out the window, watching the dark streets dashing past. He looked outrageously handsome, dressed in his formal black and white evening clothes. They suited his complexion, a perfect foil for his jet-black hair and pale skin.

He’d been solicitous all day, hovering by her as the modiste had measured and suggested colours and patterns. He’d also spoken to the doctor privately.

In the afternoon John had stayed by her side when all his aunts, uncles and cousins had called.

His family had been kind, greeting her with congratulations although she’d heard John challenged by some of his uncles.

They said he’d taken a high risk.

The rest of that conversation she’d missed because John had deliberately moved away, taking his uncles with him into a huddle across the room. She’d watched them whispering in urgent tones which she couldn’t hear but John had said nothing about it to her.

When Phillip had called amid the large family gathering she’d had little chance to speak to him, but on leaving he’d kissed her cheek and whispered, ‘I take it he is looking after you. Are you happy?’

She’d nodded. She was, but it was a tentative happiness. She felt as though the ivory tower she was living in could shatter at any moment.

Phillip promised to call again tomorrow.

After dinner, in her room, she’d found the dress which the modiste had altered to fit for the evening.

It was a shimmering yellow satin and it fitted tightly to her waist, with a low bodice.

The short sleeves draped from her shoulders and the heavy material in the skirts hung flat across her stomach and flowed like water as she walked, caressing her thighs while the bodice embellished her figure, defining it.

Small seed pearls were sewn in patterns over it, and it was edged with gold embroidery.

The dress made Katherine feel like a goddess. After Esther had dressed Katherine, and put up her hair, leaving occasional spirals loose, the image in the mirror had been that of a beautiful stranger.

When John had entered her room his eyebrows had arched upwards and his smile had lifted in approval.

Then he had given her a pearl necklace consisting of three strands.

Now it lay heavily about her neck in a constant caress.

He had also taken her fingers and removed his loose ring before replacing it with a simple gold band and another ring with a single large diamond.

‘That is more appropriate,’ he had stated, but she had refused to let him keep his signet ring because it was her wedding ring. She had tucked it into her bodice to stop him taking it.

He had laughed.

Her own gaze turned to the dark window and she saw her reflection. The light from a single lantern burning inside the carriage glistened on her blonde hair.

She felt like Cinderella tonight, her childhood dreams felt as though they had come true.

When the carriage halted before the Earl of Derwent’s town house and the carriage door opened, she saw it was raining.

John’s father climbed down first and helped Mary and John’s mother descend. Then John turned to her and drew up the hood of her new cloak.

‘How are you faring?’ he whispered. ‘It has been a long day. If you feel as though you are flagging let me know.’

‘I am well, just terrified,’ she whispered back.

‘You will be fine. If you can manage those children in Ashford, you can manage the aristocracy. We are not much different. Bear up.’ He gripped her hand and pulled her with him as he stepped out of the carriage.

‘I’m sure they are not like children,’ she answered as her foot touched the carriage step, although she remembered thinking it of his servants yesterday.

‘If I recall, you told me I was spoilt…’ he said to her ear as she stepped down.

‘You are ,’ she stated. Then she smiled. ‘But now I am, too.’

He laughed. ‘If not already, you will be. I intend spoiling you rotten for the rest of your life. Come.’

She laid her ivory silk glove on the sleeve of his ebony evening coat.

They climbed the stairs but as they did the muscle in his arm beneath her fingers tightened and he straightened marginally, dressing himself in his ducal armour.

She glanced at him as they crossed the threshold and saw his jaw had set and his expression was unreadable. His eyes had lost the laughter they’d only just shared and become hard. It was the Duke of Pembroke beside her, not John Harding.

Her heart raced.

If she must do this in isolation she did not know that she could. John had been so solicitous throughout the day she had felt capable but she would not feel so without him.

As though he sensed her hesitation, his fingers pressed over hers for a moment.

They entered the hall. He carefully lifted the hood from her hair and untied the ribbons of her cloak then took it from her shoulders before passing it to a footman.

‘Your Grace.’ Another footman bowed low and then they were led across the black and white marble floor to the open doors from which an orchestra’s music spilled, along with the sound of many voices.

‘Brace yourself,’ John whispered as she caught the first glimpse of the swirling colours of many dancers and the bright shine of huge chandeliers, throwing sparkling light about the gigantic room.

She had never seen anything like it. Nothing could be as grand and beautiful as this.

It really was a scene from her fairy tale.

‘The Duke and Duchess of Pembroke!’ a man in a royal blue livery called out beside them.

As they walked into the room Katherine could see many heads turning and then the sound of voices seemed to merge in a wave of whispers.

The room was suddenly airless.

Ignoring the attention, John faced the Earl and his wife, their hosts, who greeted John and then Katherine once John had made the introductions. Katherine saw the Countess glance at the bruise on John’s cheek and then her gaze skimmed over Katherine from head to toe, as if to say, who is she?

When they walked further into the room the conversation grew louder, and again numerous people glanced their way.

‘Are they talking about us?’ she breathed.

His fingers settled over hers on his arm again. ‘Ignore it. They’ll be bored of the topic in a week or two.’

The room was packed, but people seemed to move aside for John.

John did not stop but carried on until they reached his mother and father who stood at the edge of the room in the far corner.

‘Mary is already dancing,’ his father stated.

John’s gaze spun to the dancers. ‘With Framlington. He is an out-and-out rake and a fortune hunter. He has made no secret of it in the clubs. I would warn her off.’

His father’s gaze swung to John. ‘You are certain?’

John lifted his eyebrows in response.

‘You are going to have to write that list you promised me, of everyone I need to keep her away from.’

John laughed.

‘Pembroke?’

John turned and still holding his arm, Katherine turned with him. She faced another couple. ‘Katherine,’ John said, ‘let me introduce you to the Duke and Duchess of Leinster.’

The procession of introductions from this moment forward was constant, Dukes, Earls, Marquesses, Barons. Over half the room approached them. Her head was spinning with names and faces when it finally ceased.

‘You are popular.’

Katherine jumped as John’s Uncle Robert leaned between them from behind.

They both turned and John’s arm fell from beneath her fingers. Instead, she held his elbow.

‘But then this is a novelty,’ his uncle continued. ‘A Duke setting up his nursery before he is even thirty. My God, it is a miracle.’

‘Stop teasing them,’ Robert’s wife, Jane, interjected.

‘You were the one who said it was a crime to marry her in secret so we could not make a fuss.’

‘You were not supposed to tell them that.’

John smiled but it looked forced. ‘I apologise for depriving you, Aunt Jane.’

She struck his shoulder with her closed fan. ‘You are not sorry at all?—’

‘Of course he is not,’ Robert said. ‘He is the hottest topic in the room. Everyone has been trying to prise the details of who Katherine is from us. How are you enjoying life as society’s latest curio, Katherine?’

‘I have barely had a chance to breathe.’

‘Or dance, I suppose. Come along then, let me get you started, if you will allow it, John?’

John nodded. But Katherine hated leaving him.

His uncle was kind, though. ‘Congratulations, Katherine. I think you are just what he needs,’ he said as they joined a set. ‘However, I do not doubt it will be difficult.’

She did not know how to respond.

At the first movement in the dance which brought them close, he spoke again. ‘If you need any help ask, Jane can advise you. She has experienced society’s fickleness in the past.’

Katherine smiled. ‘Thank you.’

‘John can be hard work. He has his problems, I know, Katherine, but you will mellow him.’

The dance steps separated them for a while but when they came together again, he said, ‘You will do. You will do very well.’

When the dance ended he bowed courteously and returned her to John. Like the introductions, there followed a stream of gentlemen asking her to dance.

It was different from an assembly at home, at least there she knew people.

She did not know anything about these men bar their names, and they continually asked her questions.

Where was she from? What was the name of her family?

Where had John been hiding her? She did not answer and she did not like any of them.

Most of them flirted with her as though she were not married.

Curio, Robert had said. She felt more like fresh cattle at a market.