Kat, Incorrigible (27 page)

“Don’t be absurd,” I said. “You are not an unlikable brother. Trust me. My brother is far worse than you, and we still like him. You weren’t sent down from Oxford for too much drinking and carousing, were you? And you haven’t run your entire family into debt with hopeless gambling, have you?”

“Er … no,” Mr. Collingwood said. “But—”

“Well, then. If we can like Charles despite everything he’s done, then Sir Neville is certainly capable of liking you, if he wanted to,” I said. “It’s his own fault if he doesn’t.”

“But our mother’s death—”

“My mother died,” I said, and felt the words catch in my throat. “She died when I was born too. Just like you and your mother. But my sisters never, ever said it was my fault.”

“Oh.” Mr. Collingwood’s voice sounded strangled. “Miss Katherine, please forgive me. I never meant to bring up bad memories, or—”

“Never mind,” I said, and took a deep, steadying breath.
“The point remains. There is nothing inherently wrong with you as a brother, but if Sir Neville won’t protect you from the gallows, then we had better make sure you don’t get anywhere near them. I think the first thing to do is for me to distract everyone.”

“How?”

“By escaping from the highwayman, of course,” I said. His eyes widened in sudden horror, and his mouth fell open; I kept talking, before faintheartedness could overwhelm him completely. “I’ll creep down to the back of the house, then come racing around screaming from the front. Everyone should come running, and I’ll gather a crowd. Meanwhile, you can come yawning down from the roof, where you’ve been stargazing for the past few hours. Sir Neville may be suspicious, but he can’t have any proof—all he knows is that you’re missing. If I tell everybody that I’ve been in the woods with the highwayman until just ten minutes ago, and you come down from the top floor of the house …”

“Miss Katherine—”

“Just act confident, as if you have nothing to worry about,” I said. “Pretend you’re wearing that mask again, and you can say or do anything. Be a highwayman in ordinary dress.”

“Miss Katherine!” This time, Mr. Collingwood’s voice came out as a high-pitched squeak of terror.

“Don’t worry,” I said, as warmly and reassuringly as I could. Really, Elissa could have picked a braver hero to fall
in love with … but since she hadn’t, I would have to be brave for him. “What could possibly go wrong?”

“Well, let me think about that,” Sir Neville’s voice said behind me.

I spun around. A door stood open twenty feet behind me, leaking light into the dark servants’ corridor. Behind Sir Neville stood two of my dinner companions from our first night’s meal, Major Connors and the red-faced, wine-guzzling man. They were both staring at me as if I were the devil incarnate.

Sir Neville’s face creased into a grin of pure satisfaction. “You tell me, Miss Katherine,” he said. “What exactly could go wrong?”

They marched us out of the corridor and down the grand
staircase. The foyer at the bottom of the stairs was empty, except for the footmen by the main doors, who looked more stone-faced than ever when they saw us. I looked longingly at the closed doors, but I didn’t even try to break away from the men around me. There was no place left to go.

Even from the staircase, I could hear the roar of agitated gossip coming from the salon. As we approached it, flanked by our captors, I looked up at Mr. Collingwood’s pale face. He looked back at me and gave me a twisted grimace. After a moment, I realized it was meant to be a smile.

Two footmen swung the doors to the salon open. The conversations went suddenly silent as we stepped inside.
Then they exploded into a cloud of whispers, broken by Stepmama’s trembling voice.

“You found her!” she cried. She broke through the crowd to come running toward us. “Oh, Kat, you horrid, wicked girl. I am so glad you’re safe!”

I’d never seen Stepmama run in public before. Elissa and Angeline were close behind her, followed by Mr. Carlyle. Neither of my sisters looked as thrilled as Stepmama to see me. They must have known better.

Elissa’s face looked white as chalk as she looked from me to Mr. Collingwood. When her gaze passed to Sir Neville behind us, she put one hand on her chest and swayed as if she might fall over in a swoon. Angeline grabbed Elissa’s arm to hold her up and watched us with wary eyes.

“Kat!” Stepmama said again as she reached us. She took my hand to pull me away from the others.

Sir Neville’s voice stopped her. “Not yet,” he said. His voice was low, but I knew everyone in the room could hear it. “I’m afraid we must talk in private, Mrs. Stephenson.”

She fell back, dropping my hand. “What do you mean? Surely—”

I could hear Sir Neville’s smile in his voice. “You may trust me, ma’am, when I say that your stepdaughters would prefer the truth of this matter not to be made public knowledge.”

Stepmama’s face paled. Then it flushed bright red. “Katherine!” she hissed. “What in heaven’s name have you done this time?”

“Have no fear,” said Sir Neville. “You’ll find out soon enough, I promise. Lady Graves?” He raised his voice to call across the room. “Might I beg the use of your library for a private discussion?”

Lady Graves hurried toward us. “Of course,” she said. “But perhaps it might wait just a short while, Neville? Miss Katherine must be famished with hunger by now, and weary from all her excitement. Perhaps a few refreshments first—”

“I am afraid not,” Sir Neville said. “The matter is too grave to wait.”

Stepmama drew herself up to her full height, until she looked like a battleship ready to charge. “To the library, then,” she said. “And I wish to hear everything.”

She swept past us, leading the way. As I turned, I spotted Lady Fotherington watching us from the crowd. She raised one eyebrow at me in a mocking question. Her lips curved into a smile. She leaned close to whisper something to fish-faced Mrs. Banfield, her neighbor, and both of them burst into laughter.

My fingernails bit into the palms of my fisted hands.

It wasn’t until we reached the library door that anyone spoke. “Major Connors, Mr. Green …” Sir Neville nodded to the two men who had helped him, as a footman hurried past to light the candles inside the room. “You needn’t accompany us inside. But if you wouldn’t mind standing guard outside the doors …”

“Of course,” Mr Green said. He looked at me and
then yanked his gaze away, as if I were too outrageous to focus on. “We’ll be here if you need us, Sir Neville.”

“Call if you want us, and we’ll come straight in,” said Mr. Green. Now that he wasn’t bellowing about hunting, as he had at dinner that first night, his voice was a low mutter. But he looked as sturdy as the highwayman I’d left in the Golden Hall. I didn’t fancy my chances of escaping through the library doors.

“‘Standing guard’?” Angeline repeated. “Really, Sir Neville, is that absolutely necessary?”

“I’m afraid it is,” said Sir Neville. “Now, ladies, if you would step inside … ah, Mr. Carlyle.” He frowned. “You need hardly come with us. Not being a member of the family …”

Angeline took Mr. Carlyle’s arm and stepped close to him. She met Sir Neville’s gaze without flinching. “Mr. Carlyle is a good friend of the family, and he is entirely welcome to join us.”

“Thank you, Miss Angeline,” Mr. Carlyle said, and put his hand over hers. “I think I’d better, if you don’t mind.”

“I’m not sure …,” Stepmama began.

“Come now, Stepmama,” Angeline said. “You know Mr. Carlyle was sent here as Papa’s representative. You could hardly think that Papa himself should not be represented at any family meeting—especially one so grave as Sir Neville has been promising us.”

I was impressed by how reasonable she made it sound … especially considering that Papa had never
once been included in any family meetings, grave or otherwise, unless Stepmama had dragged him inside to parrot her words back at us for added emphasis. But Stepmama could hardly admit any such thing in front of Sir Neville.

So she said, “Yes, well, I suppose, if we really must,” and walked ahead of us into the library without further complaint.

Elissa followed her, darting a frightened glance back at Mr. Collingwood as she passed. The rest of us waited at the open doorway.

Sir Neville regarded Angeline with what looked suspiciously like the beginnings of a nasty grin. “Are you quite certain that was a wise decision, Miss Angeline?”

“Oddly enough, I don’t believe I need you to approve my decisions for me, Sir Neville,” she said, and glared back at him, backed by Mr. Carlyle’s broad shoulders.

“Mm,” Sir Neville said, and his lips curved the rest of the way into a full and unpleasant smirk aimed at both of them. “Well, if that truly is what you’d prefer …” He waited for them to pass, arm in arm, and then gestured me and Mr. Collingwood after them.

He followed us inside, and the footman shut the door behind him. The library was a long, rectangular room filled with books, comfortable-looking couches, and high windows, and at any other time, I might have liked it. But Sir Neville’s presence filled the room as the door closed behind him, and the familiar prickles of discomfort
clouded the air around him, biting against my arms, forcing helplessness down my throat until I nearly choked on it.

I forced the words out anyway. “There’s been a mistake.”

“Indeed there has,” Sir Neville said. “Will you confess the truth to your poor stepmother, or shall I tell her myself?”

“Someone tell me what has happened!” Stepmama said. She turned to Sir Neville’s brother. “Mr. Collingwood, I take it that you rescued Kat from the dreadful highwayman. I am so sorry if she has misled you into any—”

Sir Neville laughed. At the sound, the prickles intensified against my skin until it burned. “I’m afraid you have quite mistaken the matter, Mrs. Stephenson. You see, Miss Katherine never did require rescuing.”

“I beg your pardon?” Stepmama collapsed onto the closest couch. “I don’t understand. I saw—”

“You saw, as we all saw, the results of a despicable ruse, and one that has brought dishonor on both our families.”

“Neville—,” Mr. Collingwood began, in a strangled tone.

Sir Neville ignored him. “I’m sure you must have thought your stepdaughter admirably brave when she rushed to save her oldest sister from the highwayman’s clutches. But what neither you nor I realized at the time, ma’am, was that Miss Katherine never stood in any danger from him. You see, she had been his collaborator all along.”

“What?” Stepmama’s mouth dropped open. If I’d ever looked at her with such an expression, she would have told me off sharply for such unladylike gaping. “But that can’t be.”

“That is an utter lie!” I said. “I didn’t even know who he was until—” Standing behind Stepmama, Angeline closed her eyes with a look of pure agony, and I stopped myself too late. “I mean—that is to say—”

“How could you have met such a person?” Stepmama wailed. “I know I’ve allowed you too much freedom, but still—”

“She met him in Lady Graves’s own gallery, at the same moment that you yourself made his acquaintance,” Sir Neville said. “I told you, did I not, that tonight has brought dishonor on both our families?” He stepped aside to point directly at his brother. “Behold the highwayman. I may safely say that I have never felt such bitter shame in my life.”

“Ohh!” Elissa staggered and fell onto the couch beside Stepmama. It was as if the only thing holiding her up until now had been her hope that Sir Neville might not know the full truth.

Angeline gripped the top of the couch with white knuckles. “What a very dramatic scenario you’ve concocted for our entertainment, Sir Neville,” she said. Her voice was as dry and amused as I had ever heard it, but I could see her knuckles, and I wasn’t fooled. “I daresay you must have some evidence to back up this wild story?”

“Indeed I do,” Sir Neville said. “Your sister’s own confession, overheard as she made plans with her collaborator to return him to the house unsuspected.”

“Overheard by you,” said Angeline. “And you expect us to believe—”

“Overheard by myself, certainly,” Sir Neville said, “and also by Major Connors and Mr. Green, two highly respectable gentlemen. Will you try next to tell us we imagined everything? Or shall you attempt to use witchcraft on me? That is your usual method of persuasion, is it not?”