The master of the house always made a point of returning home to bear her company during mealtimes. Breakfast and luncheon were always eaten in the kitchen, where Janet would join them to make the occasions very enjoyable. Nevertheless Katherine always looked forward to the evening meal when she and Daniel ate alone together in the privacy of the large front parlour, which also functioned as a dining-room.
Undoubtedly the parlour was Katherine’s favourite room in the house. There was always a welcoming fire burning in the huge grate by which she and Daniel would sit together in the evenings, sometimes talking; sometimes in companionable silence: Daniel reading a book while she continued to make the new parlour curtains Daniel’s grandmother had begun more than a decade before, and which she and Janet had come upon quite by chance in one of the trunks in the attic, whilst they had been searching for garments suitable for Katherine to wear.
Having been forced to don the late Mrs Ross’s clothes was the one slight blot in what for Katherine had been a rewarding and very happy first week at Rosslair. The novelty of parading round in garments worn by ladies a quarter of a century before having swiftly dwindled, she longed to dress in her own fashionable clothes again. Unfortunately there had been no word from Sir Giles Osborne, and she had seen no sign of McGann either.
‘You don’t appear in the best of spirits this morning, sweetheart,’ Daniel remarked, after consuming a substantial pile of ham and eggs, and glancing up to catch Katherine’s pensive expression.’
‘Oh, I’m all right,’ she assured him, having no intention of burdening him with her rather insignificant concerns.
He had been very busy since their arrival at his home. Every day he had ridden out with his land manager, discussing ways to improve the yield from the vast acreage of farmland that Mr Prentiss had maintained well during his master’s long absence from home.
‘No, you’re not,’ Daniel countered, betraying that keen perception which Katherine sometimes found faintly unnerving. Increasingly she was beginning to suspect that she would never be able to keep anything secret from him, at least not for long.
‘Oh, very well,’ she relented. ‘If you must know, I’m not quite happy that we’ve received no word from Sir Giles.’
‘Ah! But we have,’ he surprised her by announcing. ‘McGann arrived back late last night, after you’d gone to bed. I’m to receive further instructions in due course. In the meantime, Sir Giles wants you to stay here and not attempt to journey to London.’
Katherine didn’t object to remaining at Rosslair in the least. If the truth were known, she was beginning to dread the thought of having to leave the place. There remained the problem, however, of her attire. ‘I do not suppose Sir Giles mentioned anything about forwarding my clothes, did he? I left a trunk full of them in his care for when I should arrive in the capital.’
‘Afraid not. And McGann certainly didn’t bring anything back with him, except Sir Giles’s letter.’
‘Oh, confound it!’
Daniel appeared mildly surprised by the unexpected show of annoyance, but Janet perfectly understood, and suggested that a trip to the local market town was all that was required.
‘You’re sure to find something suitable,’ Janet added. ‘At the very least you can purchase some lengths of material which we can make up into dresses.’
‘What’s wrong with what she’s wearing now?’ Daniel asked, displaying all the tact of the typical male who paid scant attention to fashionable female apparel. ‘I rather like her in those clothes. It’s a pleasure to see a female clad in garments that emphasise a trim waist. And in its proper place too!’
Katherine’s pained expression drew a chortle of laughter from Janet, a sound frequently heard reverberating round the kitchen in recent days. ‘You might like them, but I happen to prefer the prevailing mode,’ she countered. ‘How can I possibly continue to go about looking like a leftover from the last century?’
Daniel’s winning smile swiftly crushed her slight feeling of pique. ‘All right, sweetheart. I’ll take you into town in the gig. We can stop on the way at Lord Kil-bride’s residence. Prentiss told me yesterday that Kil-bride’s eldest son is being forced to sell his light travelling carriage and a pair of horses in order to pay gaming debts. We’ve not had a decent carriage here since I parted with Grandmother’s aged landau some years ago. You pop upstairs and put on a cloak and bonnet, whilst I hitch up the horse to the gig.’
Katherine didn’t need telling twice. Hurriedly finishing off the last mouthful of buttered roll, she hurried up the stairs to don the wide-brimmed straw bonnet that she had worn during the afternoons when working in the garden, and collect the rough woollen cloak that Daniel had purchased for her in France. Then she returned speedily to the kitchen to discover only Janet there, busily clearing away the breakfast dishes.
‘I’ll give you a hand until Daniel is ready to leave,’ Katherine offered, and was a little surprised not to receive one of the housekeeper’s grateful smiles in response.
‘No need for you to be troubling yourself, Miss Katherine,’ she eventually managed to squeeze past tightly compressed lips, clearly betraying disapproval. ‘He’ll be some time yet, I expect. He has a visitor.’
‘Oh?’ Katherine was mildly surprised. ‘I didn’t hear the door-knocker.’
‘You wouldn’t have. She arrived when the master was about to cross the yard to harness old Jonas to the gig. He took her into the front parlour. You’d best go through, miss, and let him know you’re ready to leave.’
‘Oh, no. I couldn’t do that, Janet. It will not hurt to wait until his visitor has left.’
‘You’d best go through in any case, miss, and make yourself known,’ Janet persisted, determined, it seemed, to have her way. ‘You can’t go hiding yourself away every time someone calls at the house. And it’s my belief this one will not be a rare visitor now that the master’s returned.’ She gave vent to an unladylike snort. ‘Though how in the world she found out beats me. The master ain’t ridden off his land since he’s been back, as far as I’m aware.’
Clearly the housekeeper, for whatever reason, wished to have the kitchen to herself. And perhaps Janet was right, Katherine mused, for unless she wished to skulk away in corners for the duration of her stay in this house, she was bound to come into contact with Daniel’s friends and neighbours sooner or later.
She hovered for a moment, uncertain, then made her way towards the parlour to discover the door slightly ajar. Once again she found herself hesitating, debating whether to knock or merely enter, and decided to compromise by pushing open the door and remaining on the threshold.
The pang of envy Katherine experienced at first sight of the female clad in a very stylish, dark blue riding habit was quickly swept aside by the sudden eruption of a far stronger emotion that left her feeling slightly numbed and reluctant to believe the evidence of her own eyes, as she gazed upon the intimate little tableau: the woman with her hands pressed lightly against Daniel’s chest; he with his long fingers clasped about slender wrists. So locked was their gaze that they seemed oblivious to the sights and sounds about them, having eyes only for each other.
Then, as though sensing they were no longer alone, Daniel turned his head towards the door and Katherine wasn’t certain whether it was a flicker of relief or embarrassment she detected in those dark eyes of his, or perhaps a mixture of both. He certainly didn’t seem totally displeased
