Page 21 of Kathryn

She had just finished her pot of hot chocolate and was pondering the wisdom of having a second when Becky entered her chamber, a grim frown on her normally cheerful face. “Her Grace wishes to see you.”

“I was just about to ring for more chocolate.”

Becky rested her fists on her hips.

Katie groaned. “Please don’t look at me like that.” The other woman had been behaving sourly ever since Katie had confessed after her visit to Andrew what had transpired at the ball.

“I cannot believe you did such a thing, my lady,” she said for the fifth or sixth time.

Katie smiled at her friend. “You can’t scold me and call me my lady, Becks.”

“Her Grace wants to see you. Right now,” Becky retorted, unmoved by Katie’s wheedling.

Katie sighed, swung her legs over the side of the bed, and shoved her feet into her slippers. “Bring me a dressing gown and I will go right now.”

“You should wash and dress and—”

“You said now, so I am going now. My dressing gown, please.”

Becky’s expression was worth a thousand words. She would probably use all those and more later on, when she learned that Katie would be rejecting Dulverton’s offer.

“At least put this on,” Becky begged, following Katie to the door with a white lace cap.

Katie grabbed it and yanked it down over her head without bothering to look in the mirror.

“Where is she?” she demanded, swatting Becky’s hands away when she attempted to straighten the lace.

“In the library.”

Katie strode from the room without another word, stomping past a startled housemaid and footman who were moving plinths so the maid could clean behind them. She felt a stab of envy so strong it made her steps stutter. She knew their lives were not as simple as they seemed to her at that moment, but she would have traded places with them in an instant.

Katie and her sisters had scrubbed, dusted, and washed laundry just like domestics when her family had lived at Queen’s Bower. Back then, when she’d worn a plain mobcap rather than one with pretty lace, she had fantasized about a day when she wouldn’t have to do maid’s work. A day when she could wear beautiful gowns and flirt with handsome men at ton balls.

Right now those long-ago days living in a cramped house with her sisters and brother seemed like the fantasy.

It was indeed a case of be careful what you wish for.

Katie paused at the library door, took several deep breaths, and then opened it and peered inside, hovering on the threshold when she saw it wasn’t the duke and duchess gauntlet she had feared, but only her sister.

Hy was sitting at the desk the duke usually occupied. The massive glossy wood surface was completely bare, so she was staring at nothing. She glanced up at the sound of the door and for a few seconds she looked a thousand miles away. Of all her sisters Katie knew Hy the least, even though she had lived with her these past five years.

Hy was considerate and generous but remained an aloof enigma to Katie. Chatham Park was the size of a small village and Hy and the duke occupied their own wing of the house, which meant that days passed when she only saw her sister at meals. And even then Hy did not speak much. Katie suspected the only person who knew Hy well was her husband.

Hy’s vague gaze slowly sharpened. “Thank you for coming, Katie. Have a seat,” she said in her strangely inflectionless voice.

Katie threw herself into one of the chairs facing the desk. “If you are going to try and talk me into marrying Dulverton, you might as well save your breath.”

Hy stared, her angular face expressionless and her aqua-green eyes—her only claim to beauty—as hard and cold as gemstones.

Katie’s courage wavered in the face of her sister’s formidable regard, and she lowered her eyes to her fingers, which were fidgeting with the gold braiding on her dressing gown. She stilled her hands and clasped them loosely.

“I saw your list, Katie.”

Katie looked up, determined not to shy away this time. But the longer she looked into Hy’s eyes, the hotter her face became.

“You think it is amusing to make a game of kissing married men?”

She opened her mouth but then shut it. She had no defense because there was none.