Page 93 of Kathryn

“I can be ready to leave in ten minutes,” she promised when he hesitated.

“You have not broken your fast,” he said after a long, awkward moment.

“I do not need anything. I can be—”

“Eat something before you change your clothing,” he said, speaking over her. “I have several matters I can attend to while I wait. I will see you in an hour.”

“I don’t need a whole—”

But he had already turned on his heel and was headed up the stairs she had just descended, likely bound for the library.

She didn’t need an hour! Katie pulled a face at his back but followed him up the stairs, turning left for the breakfast room. She was too excited to linger over breakfast and hurriedly ate two pieces of toast and a boiled egg before hastening back to her chambers, where she found Becky fussing about in her dressing room.

“I need to change, Becks. You and I are going to town.”

“Ooh, to town! Will you wear the new peridot walking costume?” Becky asked hopefully.

“That seems a bit much for a visit to Lyme”—Katie glanced out the window— “especially when the sky is threatening rain. How about the emerald green and I can wear my new boots.”

Katie and Becky were ready a full ten minutes before it was time to leave. “Let us go down and wait. My husband does not believe women can be punctual,” she explained at her maid’s puzzled look. “I am going to prove we can actually be early.”

Naturally Dulverton was already in the foyer talking to one of the twin footmen—either Jeremy or Jacob, she was ashamed that she could never tell them apart—when they came down the stairs.

His eyebrows lifted slightly at the sight of her. “The carriage is ready,” he said without preamble, gesturing for Katie to precede him out the door the footman was holding open.

Only when she and Becky were settled in the luxurious coach, both of them sharing a seat, did she realize her husband had no intention of joining them.

“Oh, you are riding,” she said rather stupidly as a groom led Dulverton’s gorgeous stallion, Centurion, toward the carriage.

“I will escort you to Lyme and see to my business, but on the way back I will go straight to the dig rather than come all the way back here.” It was clear from the flicker of annoyance that crossed his face that he did not like having to explain himself to a mere wife.

Fuming, Katie sat back, leaving him to shut the door, which he was obviously so eager to do.

“Don’t be angry at him, Katie,” Becky said quietly once the carriage was moving.

Katie looked up from her hands, which she was purposely keeping unclenched in her lap when what she wanted to do was ball them into fists and pummel something. “Why shouldn’t I be angry at him?” she snapped. “If there is a more awkward man alive, I have yet to meet him.”

“He is just shy—”

“Shy?” Kaite barked a laugh. “That must be more drivel from Court, the fount of all knowledge when it comes to Dulverton.”

Becky scowled. “Mock all you like, Your Grace. But the truth is that you are of a prickly and combative temperament, and His Grace is excessively reserved and brusque—”

“Brusque? I think the word you are looking for is rude.”

Becky ignored her comment. “Your differences lead to misunderstandings and bruised feelings. If the two of you keep on this way, you will be living at opposite ends of the country just as the old duke and duchess did.”

Katie hadn’t had the courage to tell her friend about the bargain she’d made the day Dulverton had offered for her. She found that she did not have the courage today, either. “That might be for the best. I am clearly nothing but a burden—a boring one—to him and he could be left to his own devices, his tidy house, and his bloody dig.”

Becky pursed her lips and deliberately turned to look out the window.

“I’m sorry,” Katie said after a few moments of silence. She smiled ruefully at her friend. “I should not be snappish with you. You are not the reason I am peeved.”

Becky took Katie’s hand and laced their fingers together just as she’d done when they were girls and she had tried to talk Katie out of one of her moods. “One of you will have to make the effort, Katie. You know that.”

“Why should it be me?” she demanded petulantly.

“Because you are a woman, and it is our lot in life to be peacemakers while men are the ones who make war. Because you have so much more to lose if you do not find common ground with him. And—most importantly—because it is a chance to be happy.”