Page 10 of Kathryn
“What the devil is going on here, Dulverton?” a furious male voice demanded.
Katie shrieked and staggered back. Her slipper caught on an uneven flagstone, and she would have fallen if Dulverton hadn’t clamped onto her upper arm to steady her.
The same man who’d been talking to the duke in the ballroom was about six feet away, his expression thunderous. A young woman and matron stood beside him. They weren’t the only spectators; Katie caught the glitter of at least two more sets of eyes peeping over a nearby rosebush.
The duke looked from Katie to the older man, his lips darker, full, and slick as they parted in surprise. The expression made him look far less daunting and more human. Not quite handsome—it was impossible to imagine what it would take to achieve that feat—but appealing in an austere, savage way.
Suddenly the man who’d just been passionately kissing her disappeared completely and in his place was the grim Duke of Dulverton, his eyes hooded and his mouth compressed in the same condemnatory frown that had so incited her just a short time ago.
The older man turned to Katie. “Who are you?”
Before Katie could answer, the young woman began speaking in the same language Dulverton had been using. Although she couldn’t understand the words, the woman’s tone was hostile and accusatory with an undertone of something else. Something that Katie couldn’t quite identify. Relief? Happiness?
The duke spoke over the woman in a quiet voice that somehow managed to resemble the crack of a whip. The woman shut her mouth, her pale cheeks flushing darkly.
The older man and woman began talking at once, their voices quickly rising to a shout to be heard over one another.
Something one of them said appeared to spur the younger woman and she joined in.
The two sets of eyes behind the rose hedge had become four. Elinor, Michelle, Julia and Caroline were no longer bothering to crouch and hide, but openly gawking.
Katie made a furious shooing gesture which they either ignored or did not notice. Who could blame them? This fracas would provide gossip for weeks—months!
“Genoeg!” the duke barked.
The other three instantly stopped talking and the duke began to speak, his voice even softer than before. Whatever he was saying caused his audience to gasp, flush, look enraged, or all three in the case of the older woman.
“Katie?”
Katie squeezed her eyes shut at the sound of her sister Hy’s voice. Oh, wonderful. Just what this rapidly developing farce needed: more witnesses.
She turned to find Hy with Chatham beside her.
Blast and bugger!
Hy’s expressionless gaze was fixed on Katie while Chatham’s keen eyes darted around the assembled people before settling on Dulverton. “What is going on here?”
“This is a private matter and none of your concern, Chatham,” Dulverton snapped in the same curt, arrogant tone he’d used on Katie earlier.
So, it wasn’t just mere mortals that he treated rudely and dismissively, then.
Unaccustomed to being addressed like a feudal serf, Chatham bristled. “I beg to differ,” he said, his tone colder than Katie had ever heard it. “My sister-in-law is somehow involved in your private matter.”
“Sister-in-law?” Dulverton’s pale eyes slid from Chatham to Katie, and he frowned, as if he had momentarily forgotten her existence.
But he certainly remembered her now.
He pinioned her with the full force of his cold, assessing gaze, and Katie found it strangely difficult to breathe.
“We should discuss this matter—whatever it is—in a less public venue.” Hy’s quiet voice sliced through the taut silence, and Dulverton gave an abrupt nod before turning away.
Katie exhaled shakily, pitifully relieved to be out from under his gaze.
“Allow me to escort you to my library, Your Grace,” the Earl of Sutton said, suddenly appearing beside Hy and Chatham
“Not right now,” Dulverton barked at Sutton, making him flinch. “I will join you in the library once I have escorted Lady Mariska, Lady Palmer, and Lord van Renesse to their carriage.”
Just like everyone else who’d spoken with the duke, Sutton flushed at Dulverton’s curt tone.
