Read The Scandalous Love of a Duke Online
Authors: Jane Lark
Tags: #Fiction, #Romance, #Historical, #Regency, #General
The Scandalous Love of a Duke (38 page)
John’s smile broke wider, as his fingers caught hers. “Come on, they are starting a waltz.”
She saw Eleanor, who was now heavy with child.
Katherine’s fingers touched her own stomach. Her condition was beginning to show. She wondered if she would become as large as Eleanor. That was partly why they were going to The Place. John had said they would stay there over Christmas only, and then move on to one of his more isolated estates. He was having The Place decorated once they moved on. He’d told her it was to dispose of his ill memories once and for all.
“John! Katherine!” Eleanor called before they could move among the dancers. She approached with her husband, who gripped her elbow, smiling in the fashion of a proud expectant father.
“You look well,” Eleanor said to Katherine first, and then glanced at John. “You too. What has she done to you, you are actually smiling?”
John laughed and smiled more, the sort of smile he kept for their private apartments. “She has made me happy.”
God
, he did feel happy – happy and not uncomfortable at all - when he’d feared feeling stripped naked by the exposure of his inner self.
“Well, Amen to that,” Eleanor replied, before gossiping to Katherine over something.
John spoke with Nettleton for a moment until the other couple left to continue their circuit of the ballroom.
It was too late to begin the waltz, which was a shame; he had been looking forward to spending more time with Katherine here. He was determined not to argue with her, and not to let the company disturb him. He was determined to stay relaxed.
“John?” He felt himself stiffen instantly, and turned. Elizabeth Ponsonby, could the woman not learn that no meant no.
She smiled her hollow seductress’ smile. It did not entice, it only revolted.
Katherine’s fingers wrapped about John’s forearm, gentle and precious. He felt them wrap about his heart too and the ice inside him melted. He actually found the smile he had become accustomed to in the last weeks lift his lips. “Elizabeth.”
Katherine was facing Elizabeth too.
“What is this, a show of marital bliss? How sickening. It shan’t last.”
Katherine pressed against him in what he knew was a gesture of claiming, and he treasured it, treasured her willingness to hold by him. “It shall,” she answered in a matter-of-fact voice, and then she looked up at him, giving him a cue. He smiled down at her, knowing his love burned in his eyes. He did not give a damn if others knew. He wished them to. “Shan’t it, John,” she whispered.
There was no one else in the room but her as he looked into her eyes. “It will last,” he answered as his hand lifted to touch her chin and his lips lowered to hers. He was not even thinking of what he did until he’d done it, and then he realised … He had just kissed his wife in a ballroom full of his peers… And then he remembered Elizabeth.
He laughed when he straightened, still holding Katherine’s gaze, not quite believing himself and how happy he felt. When he looked back at Elizabeth it was with a dismissive humour. Her presence no longer made him bristle. He really did not care whether she was there or not.
She must have seen what little power she had over him now, because she merely gave him a proud, indifferent look and walked away.
His fingers cupping Katherine’s chin, John kissed her again and then they both laughed.
“Let’s play a hand of cards or two, as your shoulder prevents us dancing.”
A wide, broad smile caught in her eyes and parted her lips, before she nodded.
John remembered the weight of loneliness he’d felt at night when he’d lived in Egypt, a year ago, and the dark stark memories of his childhood, which had not bothered him for weeks. Everything seemed lifted from his shoulders, and all the darkness gone. He did not expect to ever have the dream again. His mind did not need to look back. It had the future to look to now and the birth of his child.
When he turned to the room, those about them were staring, and when he and Katherine walked away, fans and hands were raised and whispered behind. He searched for anger and bitterness inside him and found none. None.
He didn’t give a damn what others thought, not anymore.
Leaning over the cradle, John watched his son gurgle to himself, in a happy one-sided conversation. The infant’s eyes glowed with pleasure. John smiled.
Paul Harding, the Marquess of Sayle, lifted his arms, reaching in John’s direction.
John picked him up. He was heavy. At six months he was a chubby, hearty, healthy child.
His fingers grasped John’s hair.
John caught the boy’s hand and carried him to the window to look out over the grounds of The Place.
In the distance, he saw the folly tower. “All this will be yours one day, Paul. But for now, it is just your playground. I will not let you take its weight too soon, not as I did.” John kissed the child’s head and felt love fill his heart as he smelt his son’s sweet, childish scent.
“So this is where you’ve run off to. Everyone is waiting for you downstairs.”
John turned to Katherine, his smile broadening as he lifted Paul high and tossed him upwards then caught him, making the boy giggle.
“He’s supposed to be sleeping,” Katherine charged, but beneath the accusing words was a note of amusement.
“He’d woken.”
“Because you were watching and disturbed him.”
“I was checking to see he was comfortable.”
“And waking him so you had an excuse to take him down and show him off.”
John grinned.
She came closer. “You will spoil him, John.”
“With love, yes… always.”
She shook her head, her smile saying it was not worth the battle. “Spoil him, if you will,” she murmured, stepping closer, and then she rose to her toes and kissed his cheek, before kissing Paul’s head.
“Then may I bring him down?”
Her eyebrows lifted, “You are incorrigible.”
“I dote on him, and I dote on you. There is no need to be jealous. There is space in my heart for you both.”
She smacked his arm, laughing a little, but then her expression changed and the depth in her eyes increased. “There must be more space though, John.”
His brow furrowed.
“I am only a few days late, but I am never late and the signs are already there…”
One arm holding Paul, his other arm drew her close. He could not comprehend the sudden rush of joy inside him.
“Oh, Katherine, that is wonderful.”
She smiled up at him when he let her go, tears shining in her eyes. She wiped them away.
“I love you.”
“I love you too.”
A year and a half ago Katherine could never have imagined this. John had been so far above her and now she was his equal.
John cupped her nape and brought her lips back to his. “I do not just dote on you both. I am besotted by you both, and I shall be with every other child we have.”
He was very open now, but even so, moments like this were precious, John still held elements of himself just for her, well, for her and Paul.
“Come on.” His fingers fell to grip hers. “Let us go down. Mama and Papa have not even seen him since they came, but I am not sharing our secret, we’ll keep it ours for a little while, shall we?”
“Yes.”
When she had watched him in the lake so long ago, she’d known the quality of this man, but she’d had no expectation, only dreams and longing. Now all her dreams had come true. It was beyond a Cinderella story.
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First published in Great Britain by HarperImpulse 2014
Copyright © Jane Lark 2014
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