Page 78 of Kathryn

Becky’s head popped out of the dressing room. “I beg your pardon, Your Grace?”

“I didn’t say anything,” Katie lied, resuming her staring match with herself when Becky disappeared.

She had at least another month with Dulverton, and would spend that time proving to Betje that her optimistic hopes were horribly misplaced.

You can use that time to extinguish your own unfortunate attraction for Dulverton, while you are at it.

Yes. Yes, she could. And she would.

With any luck, she would be with child by the end of the next month and would never have to see her husband’s face again.

Chapter Nineteen

Naturally, Dulverton did not come to Katie’s bed for the next five nights, which meant she saw even less of him than she had before.

Now there was only dinner—always in the company of at least his mother and the steward, and once with the vicar, his wife, and sister-in-law—and later in the library they would sit and work independently while the dowager chattered.

Betje had taken to staying for the first hour—gradually down to three-quarters of an hour and then half-an-hour until Katie wondered if she would soon stop coming at all—before claiming exhaustion and leaving them alone. It was obviously her sweet, although misguided, attempt to throw Katie and Dulverton into each other’s company.

Katie did not think she was imagining the increasingly desperate tone Betje’s chatter took on as she realized that Katie and Dulverton were every bit as aloof with one another as they’d been that first night. Indeed, Katie had even less to say to her husband after their first and only ride together. She had been relieved that her courses prevented him from visiting her the night she had learned about his mistress.

Even now, after five entire days, she was not looking forward to having him in her bed again.

Liar.

Oh, very well. She did like the time they spent in bed, but it was tearing her apart. It was simply too difficult to use him—or his body, rather—for nothing more than sexual satisfaction. How on earth did men detach themselves emotionally from their mistresses? Or did they? Perhaps Dulverton really was capable of love—as Betje believed—but for Anna Wilson rather than Katie?

The thought made her too ill to ponder.

Evidently, Mr. Court had come to Becky that morning to inquire whether the duchess was over her indisposition. Katie could hardly ask her servant to lie on her behalf, but that did not mean she had any intention of allowing matters to continue the way they had been. No, tonight was the beginning of a new phase in their marriage.

Betje had suggested that Katie challenge Dulverton, and so she would do exactly that. Although she doubted the other woman had meant that Katie should—

“—do you not think, Katie? Katie?”

Her head jerked up at the dowager’s question. “I beg your pardon, Mama. I was just trying to decide what to do with this section,” Katie lied.

Betje scooted closer on the settee and cocked her head, resembling a little pink bird. “What about a peony? They are quite my favorite.”

“A pink one?” Katie suggested with a faint smile.

The older woman laughed. “You know me so well already, my dear.”

Katie had begun calling her Mama two days earlier. It had been an impulse of the moment, after they had paid several rather tedious calls together and, instead of lamenting the boring visits, the dowager had smiled and bounced on the plush leather seat in her son’s coach, looking like a child on Christmas morning. “Just spending time with you makes even bitter old Baroness Hellier worth visiting.”

The words had been like a flaming arrow that pierced the constant gray fog that seemed to surround her since encountering Anna Wilson and arguing with Dulverton—sorry, discussing—about why he did not want her at Briarly. Her eyes had burned as she’d taken the older woman’s hand. When had anyone last said something so lovely to her? “Thank you,” she’d said, her voice choked. “That was quite the nicest thing anyone has said to me in a long time, Betje—would you mind terribly if I called you Mama?”

“Oh, I should adore it above all things, my dear! I am so delighted to finally have a daughter. It seems I’ve been waiting all my life for you, Katie.”

Katie had shed a tear at that point.

“You will be finished with this piece before I leave,” the dowager said now, pulling her from her pleasant reminiscence.

“Leave?” Katie said sharply. “What do you mean?”

“I’m sorry, my dear, I meant to tell you this morning after I received word from home, but the time never seemed right. I must return to Spenwood on the morrow.”

“Tomorrow?”