The Scandalous Love of a Duke (14 page)

“You may keep it,” she announced, in imperious judgement. “You must write and thank the Countess.”

“Thank you,” Katherine breathed, wishing to hug her mother for the first time in her life

“May I see it,” Jennifer asked, her face glowing with excitement.

“Kate and I were just going out, Jenny,” Phillip said. “We shall be back for dinner, Mama. We are going to Pembroke Place to accept our invitations.”

“Can I come?” Jenny asked.

But at the same moment Katherine’s father said in a savage voice, “Katherine has no need to go. Go alone, the girls should stay here.”

Oh why must there be family disputes today, Katherine wanted to feel happy.

“Kate wishes to come, Papa. John is her friend also. And you may come if you wish, Jenny, but you shall have to squeeze into my curricle.” He looked back at their father. “I cannot see why you question it.”

“I question it, Phillip, because is it not odd for a duke to pursue a friendship with Kate?”

She felt struck. He may as well have slapped her, and she could see Phillip was equally shocked. Her father was usually the one to support her.

“Go and get ready, Jenny,” Phillip said. Then he looked at their father. “Let us speak in the study.” He’d said it to take the conversation out of her hearing, but Katherine heard it through the door anyway as her mother walked away.

“Do not judge him by yourself, Papa. John has known Kate years. He is merely being kind. He saw how things were last week and he changed them, something you have never done.”

“And why should he have done that?” She heard her father answer. “He is singling her out. He is not just being kind, Phillip.”
Her father knew what she had done.
She hoped Phillip never did. There would be no one who loved her then.

~

Katherine was nervous when Phillip drew his curricle to a halt before Pembroke Place. She had never been inside and she was feeling vulnerable after her father’s tirade.

Half a dozen grooms raced forward to greet them and one of them handed her down then turned to help Jenny.

Katherine’s heart thumped.

Phillip offered them an arm each to walk in.

There was a row of broad, shallow, pale yellow stone steps ascending to the portico of the Palladian mansion, and four giant columns rose upwards. Her eyes followed them and saw palm leaves carved at the top. While the triangular stone decorating the head of the portico bore roundels of some sort of sculpted flowers.

It was overwhelmingly grand.

Her heart beat even harder.

Her father had a point, he really did, what on earth could John want with a woman who had come from nothing when he had all of this?

“Is the Duke at home, Mr Finch?” It was the same man who’d let Phillip in, in London, who opened the door.

“His Grace is, Master Spencer, will you wait in the hall a moment.”

It was huge and Katherine saw Jenny’s eyes were just as wide as hers felt. Jenny had never been here before either.

It was lined in a mottled beige marble, the whole thing, on the floor and rising in columns, with fireplaces at either side of the room. And it stood two storeys high, flooded with light from two long windows which reached the height of the room either side of the door. Above the door was another window, but the other walls were decorated with paintings of nymphs and Gods, and on the ceiling above was a massive circular painting of all the Gods of Olympus reclining on their clouds.

She could not believe the audacity she had to even come here.

Phillip removed his gloves and his hat, so Katherine did the same, as did Jenny, passing all their outdoor articles to a footman.

“If you will follow me.” Looking up, she saw the butler had reappeared.

They were led through doors at the back of the hall to a room beyond which contained the most beautiful staircase she had ever seen. It was pale carved stone, like the house, and it seemed to hang in the air as it climbed upwards about the square walls. The banister struts were glossy metal with elements of gilding and the rail was polished mahogany. She was truly awed as they climbed, surrounded by stunning pictures of foreign lands. She spotted images of Venice and Rome.

It is another world
.

At the top of the stairs, the butler carried on along a hall lined with busts and portraits, she presumed them John’s ancestors, but there were artefacts from foreign lands too.

Then they stopped before a carved wooden door.

The butler opened it and stepped inside, leaving them outside unseen.

“Master Spencer, Miss Spencer, and Miss Jennifer Spencer, Your Grace.” Katherine watched the man bow deeply but then he stepped aside.

As they entered, Katherine’s eyes spun about the room.

John was not alone. It was full of people. His family were already here.

“Kate! How wonderful!” It was Mary who shouted and rose. Then she rushed across the room.

Behind Mary, Katherine saw John rise too.

He moved to welcome Phillip, as Mary took Katherine’s hands. “Oh it is so lovely to see you.”

Katherine curtsied blindly, as Mary then turned to Jenny and introduced herself. Katherine took over and formally gave Jennifer’s name.

John’s stepfather had risen and greeted Phillip.

John’s grandmother and mother were also among the group.

Katherine and Jennifer bobbed curtsies at them all.

Oh,
Katherine felt such an interloper here, like she had been deceiving them and trying to steal John.

Several of the younger children were in the room too, some were sitting about one table playing a card game and others were lying on the floor about a wooden arc with numerous painted animals. It was a family scene that would never have been portrayed in Katherine’s home.

Katherine looked sideways at John and found him looking at her but she had no idea what he was thinking, his gaze was completely masked. She was thrilled to see him though.

“We thought we would come in person and accept your invitation…” Phillip was saying.

“Oh I am so glad you did,” Mary extolled, as John held Katherine’s gaze a moment more. “Mama and Grandmamma are managing it all.”

I love you,
Katherine thought the moment before John turned away, and she longed for him to know.

Having said something to Mary in response, and then Jenny, John came to Katherine and took her hand. Her heart beat wildly and she felt herself flush pink as she lowered in a deep formal curtsy, incredibly aware of his light hold on her fingers.

“You are coming I hope, Katherine,” he said as she rose. “Did you receive Eleanor’s gift?”

It was from him, she
knew
it was from him. She nodded, “She is very kind. I am grateful. You must tell her thank you.”

“I shall, and I know she will be very pleased you like it.”

“I love it,” she answered.

He smiled and it warmed her soul right down to her toes.

He turned to speak to Jenny again, who his stepfather was also talking to. Mary grasped Katherine’s arm and led her to a sofa, where they both then perched amidst his family.

Katherine felt like a fraud as she acknowledged John’s grandmother, the Duchess, and sick, as she smiled at his mother too. But they spoke to Katherine pleasantly with no reproach for her status.

“Is Eleanor here?” Katherine asked of Mary when the conversation fractured into pockets about the room.

“Not yet.” Mary smiled. “She and the others are coming to stay the day before the dinner. Everyone is coming, and I know we are not to be exuberant because we are still in half-mourning, but even so I am excited. It will be the most fun I have had in an age. And Grandmamma approves wholeheartedly. She…”

Katherine did not listen beyond hearing Eleanor was not here. How had he engineered the card from her when she was not here?

Katherine looked at him. He was looking at her. He smiled. She smiled back before looking away, longing to speak to him privately.

“…And I am trying to persuade John to at least let us dance after dinner, after all we are only in half-mourning.”

There was to be dancing then as well as dinner.

“Where would you like the refreshments served, Your Grace?” the butler asked of the Duchess.

“We shall take them on the terrace, I think, Finch,” she said, rising, “as it is a nice day. So the children might play. And we shall have lemonade for them and tea for us.”

“That’s a lovely idea, Mama.” John’s mother stood too.

Mary rose also and began rounding up the younger children.

There was suddenly a mass of motion and noise as the children excitedly packed up their games.

“Katherine.”

John.

She looked up. He was standing beside her chair, holding out a hand towards her. She gripped his fingers and rose, then let go, though she longed to cling.

“Will you walk with me?” He offered his arm as the others began leaving the room.

Jennifer had gripped Phillip’s arm. He was walking beside John’s stepfather, and Mary was minding the children with her mother and grandmother.

Katherine nodded and laid her hand on his sleeve. The muscle in her abdomen clasped with a spasm of longing as she remembered all of their wicked games in the tower room.

“How are you?” he asked, quietly as the distance between them and the others grew.

She looked up and smiled, meeting his pale gaze.

“Well. Thank you for the dress. But how on earth did you involve Eleanor, does she not suspect something?”

He slowed their steps, creating even more distance between themselves and everyone else ahead of them, and laughed quietly. “Possibly, yet she said herself you would not come unless you were given something to wear. You have refused every invitation from her after all.”

She held his gaze and saw him looking deep into her eyes as if he sought answers.

Had he feared she’d refuse it?

“I would feel out of place with Eleanor on my own, but at your party Phillip will be there and… you…”

His fingers covered hers as they lay on his arm.

“I would not have let you send it back or say no, you know. The whole damned thing has been planned for you.”

She heat flushed her cheeks.

“I am not allowing people to treat you as they have been anymore Katherine. This party will secure the ground we claimed the other night.”

“When can we meet again, John?” she asked as they reached the top of the stairs. The others were at the bottom.

He stopped and turned to her, his eyes welling with an emotion she did not understand, although his expression was still hard. “I think
never
, Katherine.” The words took her completely off guard. “I have been unfair to you.” There was warmth in his voice which denied the rejection he was speaking. “We both know our little intrigue can go no further. It is over. It should never have begun. I’m sorry.”

Her smile died. She had known it was folly.
She had known.

“Katherine?” he prompted. “You do understand? After the party I shall be going back to London. The House of Lords is due to reconvene soon.”

No. She refused to understand. While she had been falling more deeply in love with him, he had just been entertaining himself during the summer break.

I am a fool. He has offered me nothing other than a bonnet and a dress.
How had she expected it to end?

Her father had asked Phillip why John would be interested in her. Well here was the answer, just to play immoral games when he was bored.
Why must I love him? Why can’t I love someone who will love me back?

“Katherine?” His fingers came up and touched her cheek. “I am truly sorry. I should not have asked you to do what we did. I offer no excuses. I merely ask you to forgive me. At least there can be no lasting harm.”

No lasting harm! He was tearing her heart to shreds and he thought there would be no lasting harm. She would be in agony for the rest of her life.

Footsteps rang on the marble below.

“Katherine!” Phillip. “Are you coming?”

John drew away.

She turned and went on ahead, hearing John follow.

She was so glad to see Phillip when he approached the bottom of the stairs that when he offered his hand, she hugged him instead. “Katherine?” he whispered against her hair before she let him go.

She forced a smile as his gaze met hers, visibly wondering what was wrong.

“Mary has suggested we play badminton, in pairs. Will you play?”

She bit her lip, feeling tears in her eyes.

Phillip looked up at John, who must have stopped on the stairs.

“I have estate business to review,” John stated. “I shall see you a week on Friday.”

Phillip nodded, but he looked confused when his eyes returned to Katherine.

Deliberately smiling brightly, she looked back at John, infusing happiness into her voice, acting as though he had not just cast her off. She did not wish him to know how much he’d hurt her. “Yes, we shall see you then.”

He just looked at her, his eyes blank and his expression granite. “Enjoy your game.”

She turned away, wishing to leave immediately, but she could hardly do that. Instead her smile ached as she went outside, but she’d learned many things from John during their dalliance and the most significant was how to hide how she felt. She even laughed when she played badminton with Jenny, Phillip and Mary, desperately hoping John would hear and think she had not been hurt at all.

Yet John’s family did not hide their disappointment that John had stayed indoors. When the game had finished, they took lemonade with his parents on the terrace and Mary complained that John had become a bore.

“He is busy with the estate,” John’s stepfather said.

His mother spoke then. “I admit though, Mary, I had hoped, as he asked us here, he would keep us company some of the time.” She sounded disappointed.

“Give him time,” his stepfather answered.

John had said he did not feel a part of his family, but by the sound of their conversation, he kept himself apart from them.

When eventually Phillip handed Katherine back up into his curricle, after Jenny, he said in a low voice, “Are you well? You look pale, Kate.”