continued clasp of strong hands was oddly reassuring, and strangely reminiscent of a certain someone’s touch in the dim and distant past. Katherine raised her head, only to find the breath leaving her body in a faint gasp for a second time as she gazed at the swarthy, wholly masculine features looming above.
For a moment it was as much as she could do to stare into thickly lashed, dark eyes, as she tried ineffectually to capture an elusive memory. She saw them widen fractionally, clearly revealing a hint of appreciation in their warm brown depths, as they calmly began to scan every contour of her face. Although not precisely unaccustomed to receiving admiring glances from members of the opposite sex, she was forced silently to own that there was something both faintly disturbing and remarkably engaging about the directness of this tall gentleman’s unwavering gaze.
He seemed reluctant to release her, but after a further unsettling moment he allowed his hands to fall to his sides. ‘Are you certain you are all right, ma’am? Perhaps I should summon the landlady. You are a little pale, if I may say so.’
‘I am perfectly well,’ she assured him swiftly, if not quite truthfully. ‘But I thank you for your concern, sir.’
Bemused by the peculiar sensations this enigmatic stranger had somehow managed to evoke, Katherine successfully slipped past him and out into the crisp morning air. Fortunately he made no attempt to detain her further, but she could almost feel those attractive, almond-shaped eyes boring into her back as she hurried across the forecourt to the waiting carriage.
‘Why, you look as if you’ve seen a ghost!’ Bridie remarked the instant her young mistress had scrambled into the post-chaise and had begun to make herself comfortable on the seat opposite.
‘I feel as if I’ve just seen one,’ she didn’t hesitate to admit. ‘Did you happen to notice that tall gentleman who entered the inn a few minutes ago?’
‘Can’t say as I noticed a soul, miss. Why, was it someone you know?’
Katherine frowned in an effort to remember, for there was something there still lurking in the dim recesses of her memory which she just could not capture. ‘He seemed oddly familiar, yes. But for the life of me I cannot imagine where I’ve seen his face before—certainly not in Bath, I feel sure.’
‘And was it a handsome one?’ Bridie couldn’t resist asking, thereby earning herself an impatient glance.
‘I wouldn’t have described it so, no. He was attractive, certainly, but not what I would call handsome.’ Katherine paused to straighten the skirt of her dark blue carriage dress. ‘Not that it would have made a ha’p‘orth of difference to me if he had been a perfect Adonis.’
‘No, I know it wouldn’t!’ Bridie retorted, with the speed of a striking snake. ‘And we both know why, don’t we?’
Katherine elected not to answer, and turned her head to stare resolutely out of the window, a clear indication that she considered the conversation at an end. Unfortunately the action didn’t prevent her from thinking about her maid’s prompt rejoinder.
She didn’t suppose for a moment that Bridie had intended to be heartlessly cruel. It was not in the woman’s nature. In fact, the opposite was true. Bridie, loving and unfailingly loyal, had always been there to offer comfort and encouragement. Which was possibly just as well, Katherine reflected, for she sometimes felt she would never have survived the many heartaches she had suffered in recent years without the constant support of that occasionally infuriating and frequently overprotective Irish woman.
It was from Bridie, who had been there to witness the event, that Katherine had learned that she had been born during what had been one of the worst storms to hit Ireland in living memory. While the high wind had been battering the country, leaving a trail of devastation in its wake, Charlotte O’Malley had been giving birth to a daughter, a protracted and agonising ordeal that had almost brought about her own death and had resulted in her not being able to have any more children.
Oh, yes, she had indeed been a scourge to those close to her since the day of her birth, Katherine reflected dismally. Although blissfully unaware of the fact during her idyllic childhood, she had been forced to accept in recent years, after the series of tragic events which had struck her life, that she did indeed bring ill fortune to those for whom she cared most deeply. Only one person seemed immune to the lethal Katherine O’Malley curse.
She couldn’t prevent a tiny sigh escaping as she instinctively cast a glance at the plump, middle-aged female seated in the opposite corner of the carriage. It would be foolish to hope that any prospective husband might be similarly protected, and Katherine certainly had no intention of burdening her conscience further by encouraging the advances of some poor unsuspecting male. It was perhaps fortunate, therefore, that her silent resolve never to marry had not been tested thus far.
During the six years she had lived in Bath, she had been introduced to numerous very personable gentlemen, and yet not one had ever succeeded in arousing in her more than a faint interest. Not once had she ever experienced the pull of mutual attraction … At least, she silently amended, never until today.
She couldn’t deny that she had felt oddly drawn to that tall gentleman back at the inn. His touch had been strangely reminiscent of her father’s—gentle, yet wholly protective. It was perhaps just as well that their paths were unlikely ever to cross again, for she very much feared that the enigmatic stranger might be just the type of man who would test her resolve to remain a spinster to its limits.
* * *
By early afternoon, when the hired carriage had pulled up outside her aunt and uncle’s charming house in Hampshire, Katherine had succeeded in thrusting the brief encounter with the disturbing stranger from her mind. After being admitted to the house by Meldrew, the very correct manservant, and discovering that both her aunt and cousin were at home, Katherine removed her outdoor garments and, leaving Bridie to take charge of the unpacking, went directly into the comfortable parlour where she discovered the two female members of the Wentworth family happily engaged in their favourite occupation.
Mrs Lavinia Wentworth, raising her head at the opening of the door, betrayed her delight by a warm smile. Setting aside her sewing, she was on her feet in an instant, her arms outstretched in welcome. ‘How lovely to see you, my dear!’ she announced, after placing a kiss on the face which so closely resembled her dear, departed sister’s.
After returning the embrace with equal warmth, Katherine turned to the only other occupant of the room, who betrayed no less delight at her arrival. ‘You look blooming, my dear Caro. Captain Charlesworth is a lucky man! I trust everything is in readiness for the party tonight?’
‘Yes, indeed,’ Caroline assured her. ‘Mama and I have been busy all week finalising the arrangements. We are expecting around a hundred guests. And I’m so very glad that you are to be among them. When you failed to arrive yesterday, both Mama and I began to fear that you had changed your mind, and didn’t choose to risk making the journey, after all.’
Eyes glinting with unholy amusement, Katherine sat beside her pretty cousin on the sofa. ‘My, my! What a feeble creature you must think me! I might be almost three years your senior, Caroline, but I’m not in my dotage quite yet. No, it was merely that a threat of snow yesterday afternoon forced me to take shelter at a posting-house. That, and a desperate need to silence the dragon-lady’s continual carping.’
Knowing precisely to whom her niece had referred, Mrs Wentworth could not forbear a smile. Although Katherine had grown into the image of her lovely mother, she had inherited her wonderful dark auburn hair and blue-green eyes, made more striking
