by whatever snub she had handed him. Perhaps she was the type who took pleasure in humiliating her admirers, or perhaps she was the type who thought her value enhanced by constant refusals. After all, men desired most what they could not have, Katerina thought bitterly, until they had it, and then it became a mere trophy.
But the Duke of Brockmore’s niece had no need to play games. Foolish woman, whichever of these beauties she was, if she continued to do so, for Fergus Kennedy was most certainly not the type of man who would meekly play along.
At least, she would not have thought he was. But then, she would not have thought he was the type of man who would allow himself to be ordered to marry. He was neither spineless nor passionless. Yesterday, when she had worked the rope as he looked on, desire had connected them like another, more ethereal, rope. Last night, when she was performing, she had had felt it tug powerfully at her again. He never took his eyes off her. Knowing that he was watching had given her display a new soaring quality, almost as if she had grown wings.
It was a sobering thought. Rather a frightening one. She could fly perfectly well without Fergus Kennedy. He was no different from all the other male admirers who found her skimpy costumes and flexible limbs alluring. Men who would boast to their friends of their exploits, but who would never dream of introducing her to their family. Men for whom the conquest was all, and the woman they had conquered—valueless. She knew that. She could not afford to forget that. Yesterday, Fergus might well have seemed interested in her, but yesterday, Fergus had arrived in the walled garden with a bruised ego and a wish to forget, for a moment, why he was here at Brockmore Manor in the first place. She had been a short-term distraction, no more. She’d do well to keep her distance from him.
A burst of applause startled her from her melancholy musings. Alexei stood in the centre of the circle of women, his arms crossed, his expression stormy. Finally, the duchess realised that she and her ladies were persona non grata, for she was leading the way out of the garden, presumably to resume their tour of the gardens and the legendary orchid house. A posy of traditional English roses to be introduced to the duchess’s exotic blooms.
* * *
Fergus grasped the oars of the rowing boat and concentrated on gently pushing it away from the little jetty on the island and out on to the lake. Lady Verity had been his allotted passenger for the return trip after the picnic luncheon, but when he’d dutifully invited her to step aboard, she had demurred, thrusting the Kilmun twins at him in her stead.
He had not attempted to cajole her. In truth, he’d felt guiltily relieved. She was very beautiful, but there was something about the haughty way she surveyed the world, the cold, clipped way she conversed, that he found most off-putting. At dinner last night he’d tried to be attentive, but to little avail. He had tried to persuade himself that she was most likely nervous given the circumstances, but today during the picnic, watching her perfectly relaxed with the other guests, he had caught glimpses of the vivaciousness that had by all accounts made her the toast of the ton. Yet in his company, he could almost see the icicles forming. And if he was brutally honest, lovely as she was, eminently suitable as she was as a diplomat’s wife, as a woman, she left him as cold as he appeared to leave her.
He wasn’t the kind of conceited dolt who expected every woman he met to fall at his feet, though he’d never before failed to charm when that was his stated intention. Was she one of those women who were incapable of feelings? No, that was his male pride talking. Besides, the point of this week was not to charm or woo, but to forge an alliance. A matchmaking fair, Katerina had called this Midsummer Party, and she was right. A marriage market is what it was.
Clear of the shallows around the island, he began to row towards the boating house with long, powerful strokes. The Kilmun twins smiled their almost-identical smiles at him.
‘You handle the oars like a master mariner, Colonel Kennedy.’
‘We are in safe hands, Sister.’
‘I rather think you were intended to be in different hands,’ Fergus said, relieved to turn his thoughts away from his own matrimonial prospects. ‘Brigstock, the Earl of Jessop, and what’s-his-name?—Addington?’
‘Yes, they were most put out, weren’t they? Brockmore has earmarked them for us, as you have correctly deduced, Colonel, but our swains cannot even tell the difference between us,’ Cynthia informed him, her pretty nose in the air.
‘And until they can, we shall make a point of snubbing them,’ Cecily added. ‘It is insulting, Colonel Kennedy, to imagine that simply because we look alike we are the same person. We are not interchangeable. I notice that you can easily distinguish me from Cecily.’
Fergus laughed. ‘And I notice that you like to exploit your remarkable likeness to play games on the unsuspecting. That is Cynthia. You are Cecily.’
The twins clapped their hands together in unison. ‘Oh, well done. You have no idea how refreshing it is for a man to take the time to tell us apart. If only you were one of the duke’s candidates for our hands.’
‘Alas,’ Cynthia chimed in archly, ‘I suspect Brockmore has other plans for you, does he not, Colonel?’
Hearing the truth spoken aloud deepened his unease. He did not like to think of himself as a fly caught in the duke’s web. ‘I have no firm plans,’ Fergus said stiffly, ‘save to enjoy the pleasant company.’
‘Oh, come, Colonel,’ Cecily exclaimed, ‘there is no need to equivocate. We are all here for a purpose. Sir Timothy for example, clearly he is not here to secure a wife.’
Cynthia giggled. ‘Like all rich men, he is married to his money. And of course some, such as the Lovely, Luscious Lillias Lamont, are here to oil the party wheels, should it flag. Have a care what you say around Lillias, Colonel, for she reports everything back to the duke.’
The dinghy bumped against the jetty. A waiting manservant caught the rope. Fergus wondered, as he helped first Cecily and then Cynthia on to the shore, whether they too would dance to the duke’s tune, by the end of the week.
Would he? He’d been so carried away by the promise of a far-flung posting, a new, exciting life away from his Whitehall desk, that he’d not really weighed up the price to be extracted. A suitable wife was all very well in theory, but the reality of this bloodless and frankly calculated marriage was proving trickier to swallow. Marriage was not a commercial transaction. A wife was not a commodity, but a flesh-and-blood woman. A husband was also a man. It disturbed him deeply, that his blood heated when he looked at Katerina, and yet it seemed to freeze in his veins when he was in Lady Verity’s company.
Katerina, now, she was another matter altogether. Not only had there been a spark between them, it had threatened to become incendiary. He’d been so close to kissing her, it made his blood heat just thinking about it. Last night, on the tightrope and on the mat, her supple body had formed impossible yet perfect shapes. She was so lithe and yet so elegant in that tiny tunic, like a tumbling constellation. It had been there again as he watched her performance, he was certain of it, that visceral pull of attraction between them.
‘A penny for them, Colonel Kennedy. You were miles away.’ Cecily slipped her arm in his, her gaze speculative, as Cynthia took his other arm.
‘I was thinking how fortunate I was to be a Scots thistle between two English roses.’
‘I am not at all convinced that is what you were thinking, but it is a delightful image. Though not as delightful an image as the thought of you in your regimentals, for we ladies love nothing more than a man in a Red Coat,’ Cynthia teased.
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