reverberated. Luncheon was obviously served. Now all I have to do is find the correct dining room in this labyrinth, sit through a meal with a terrifying duke and a man I love and from whom I must hide every tender feeling …
‘I must go. Jenny, have they looked after you? Do you know where to go and have you a chamber to sleep in? And what about John?’ she added distractedly as Jenny pushed her firmly out of the room.
‘I have a very nice room to myself, as befits my new station, and so has John, I believe. And I know the way to the servants’ hall. Now go, Miss Katherine, or you’ll keep the Duke waiting.’
She made her way downstairs slowly, taking the time to compose herself and wishing that for the last few years she had not been so out of society. Not that she would ever have been in a position to make conversation with dukes.
Heron was waiting in the hall and steered her towards, ‘The panelled dining room, my lady. It is the smallest of the dining rooms.’
‘Thank you, Heron.’ She was pleased with the calm way she smiled at him as he opened the door. It was, indeed, a small chamber; Katherine had been envisaging glossy yards of mahogany and having to attempt conversation around gleaming épergnes.
Her relief was abruptly terminated when she realised that the only other occupant was the Duke. His smile, unexpected, was all too reminiscent of Nick at his coolest and she felt her back stiffen as she returned it.
‘You are very prompt, my dear. You found your way with ease, I surmise. Are you comfortable in your suite? Ah, my sons are at your heels.’
Katherine avoided looking at any of the men as she nodded acknowledgement to the footman who pulled out a chair for her and took her place at the table.
‘Most comfortable, thank you, your Grace.’ Acutely conscious of the rigid footmen at the buffet, Katherine was profoundly grateful that he made no comment on the choice of rooms that Heron had assigned to her. Doubtless it would be all over the house in no time that the Marquis was not sharing his wife’s bed. She felt a flush of embarrassment, then thought of how much more Nick would feel it.
‘Has your journey taken you long?’ She pulled herself together and concentrated on making conversation. Naturally the Duke could not ask her where she had come from in front of the servants; he would be endeavouring to make this surprise arrival seem as normal as possible. She set herself to give him as much information as she could without appearing to.
‘We took several days over it, your Grace. Nicholas needed to rest, of course, as he has not been well.’ Katherine ignored the suppressed exclamation from her husband’s lips. ‘The weather in London was very clement when we left.’
‘And your family is well?’
‘My brother is travelling in France, your Grace. Since my parents’ deaths, he has little business, and no family other than myself, to keep him in this county. He left shortly after the wedding.’ Doubtless the Duke’s first recourse when he had returned to the library had been to the Peerage and the Landed Gentry. He would know by now that she had no relatives other than a brother and that their birth, while respectable, was as nothing compared to his.
The meal passed with a rigid formality, which left Katherine dreading dinner. Conversation was measured, general, and left her quivering with tension. The weather, the news of local events, the prospect of a touring company of players at Newcastle and the latest London on-dits served to fill the time unexceptionally. Katherine decided that if it went on much longer she would scream.
Cautiously she glanced at Nicholas while accepting a plate of bread and butter or passing the salt. He appeared calm and relaxed, but she could sense a suppressed emotion in him; doubtless he wanted to have the interview with his father for which he had been bracing himself and this mannered inaction was chafing his nerves as the shackles had chafed his wrists.
Finally the Duke sat back and regarded his family ranged on either side of him. ‘Nicholas, I would speak with you. Robert, perhaps Katherine would care to be shown around the house.’ It was an order, not a suggestion, and Katherine smiled politely.
‘Thank you, your Grace. That would be delightful if Lord Robert can spare the time.’
They all rose and Katherine found Nick at her elbow. He kept his face straight, but the message his eyes sent her was warmly reassuring. However, all he said was, ‘Do not let Robert bore you with every picture in the Long Gallery.’ He bent and kissed her cheek fleetingly and stood aside for her to precede the men from the room.
Nick found himself watching her straight back as she walked away with his brother. Elegance, pride, dignity—he found himself smiling just to watch her.
‘A charming young lady, and one who is disguising with great courage the fact that this household is entirely beyond anything she has experienced before,’ his father remarked drily. ‘Perhaps you can explain to me why you are so intent upon an annulment.’ He strolled towards his study without a backwards glance.
Nick unclenched his teeth, told himself firmly that this was only to be expected and followed.
‘So,’ the Duke continued, ‘I deduce that you did not marry your Clarissa—or was it Annabelle? The objects of your youthful affections are somewhat blurred in my mind after all this time.’ He tugged a cuff slightly. ‘The penalty of old age, no doubt.’
‘I believe you require little reassurance on your memory, Father. You are correct, there were enough young women for you to have easily forgotten Arabella. And, no, I did not marry her; despite the aspersions you cast upon her breeding and upbringing, she was shocked at my suggestion we should elope and for all I know has now married some worthy gentleman.’
‘But you took me at my word and left?’
‘Yes, sir. I understood it to be a command.’ He was damned if he was going to explain now how Arabella’s refusal to give up everything for him had hurt. He had been prepared to estrange himself from his family for her; now he could hardly conjure up the memory of her face. But at the time, to return home a rejected suitor was too hard for youthful pride to swallow.
‘Most dutiful.’ The sceptical expression on his father’s face showed that he had read the situation aright at the time and his next words confirmed it. ‘I expected you to return after a week or two.’
Nick did not rise to the implied question and to his surprise the older man continued. ‘I confess to being less than pleased with the news that my son and heir was keeping himself in London as a Captain Sharp.’
‘I never fuzzed the cards,’ Nick said flatly. ‘I did not need to—you taught me too well.’
‘Gratifying that something I endeavoured to educate you in remained with you. And after two years you disappeared. Why?’
Nick shrugged. ‘I was bored. I moved around the country for eighteen months, then I joined the army on a whim and found I liked it.’
‘Which regiment? Why did I not hear of this?’ The old man stared at him from under levelled brows. ‘What rank?’
‘Private,’ Nick replied, expecting an outburst.
‘A private? My God—’ the Duke threw back his head and gave a bark of laughter ‘—someone to teach you discipline at last.’
‘It
