He’d seen all he needed to see.
A couple of minutes later he strolled back into the dining room, adjusting his breeches conspicuously. “Nice place you have here, Garrick.” He aimed a discreet nod at Pendregast.
Garrick grunted. “I’m due for renovations.”
“So you’ve said.”
Pendregast pulled out a pocket watch. “Damn, I’ve forgotten an appointment. Garrick, my thanks for the fine food and company. Amberley, I’ll stop by to see you later.”
More senseless chitchat that lasted an hour, then longer. Hearts wounds, Trick thought, would this never end? What the hell was taking Pendregast so long?
Garrick grew restless, pacing the chamber but unable to politely escape while Trick kept eating and engaging him in conversation. It got to the point where Trick wondered if he could cram in another morsel of food without vomiting, but he supposed the meal might hold him for the long ordeal ahead. Although this had been surprisingly easy, the next few days would be much harder.
But then this would be over. With any luck, by Monday night he’d be joining Kendra in their bed. For the rest of his life, if he had any say in the matter. And no more secrets.
At last the butler announced another arrival.
Trick followed Garrick to the door. “Sir Harold,” Garrick said, finding Pendregast on the other side. “Have you forgotten something?”
“I’m afraid so,” Pendregast said as a balding man with a scar across his cheek stepped from around the corner. “The sheriff.”
Seventy-Five
“KENDRA! CAIT!Open up!”
Kendra scurried into the far corner of her old bedchamber while Caithren made her way to the door and opened it a crack. “Your sister doesn’t want to talk to you,” she told Jason. “Or Ford, either.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake. Tell her it’s dinnertime, and we’ve strawberry tarts for dessert.”
Trust a man to think food would solve his problems, Kendra thought. Most especially a Chase man. Well, he wasn’t going to coax her by tempting her sweet tooth. “Tell him I’m not hungry,” she called to Cait. “Tell him I’m not going to eat until the absurd marriage he arranged is annulled.”
“She’s not hungry,” Cait started. “She’s—”
“Forget it.” Jason stuck his boot in the doorway when Caithren would have shut it. “Tell her I’ll be here when she’s ready to talk. Tell her that until then she can starve for all I care. Tell her Cook is baking cherry pie for supper.” He paused for a breath. “Are you coming down for dinner, then?”
“Nay. I believe I’ll stay here with Kendra.”
“Women.” Following the single terse word, Kendra heard his boots stomp down the corridor.
Cait closed the door. “Cherry pie later, Kendra.”
“Oh, my. I suppose I’ll have to save some room.” She went back to her dressing table, where a veritable feast was laid out, delivered by Cait’s loyal maid, Dulcie. Sitting down, she stabbed her spoon into her second strawberry tart. “I believe I’ll skip the sallet and asparagus, then.”
“You didn’t mean that about an annulment, did you?”
“I’m not sure what I meant.” She knew she and Trick had come too far to go back to their old lives, but she was too furious at his deceptions to think straight. “If I were you, Cait, I wouldn’t believe a word I said right now.”
Not about Trick and not about her brothers, either. After all she’d been through in Scotland, coming to love Trick and deciding her brothers had been right after all, her blaming them made no sense.
But then, her emotions rarely did.
Cait took a bite of roast beef. “Your anger certainly hasn’t affected your appetite. For sweets, anyway.”
“Nothing ever does.” She licked strawberry juice off her lips, looking at Trick’s amber bracelet where it lay on the table’s marble surface. Her wrist felt empty without it.
Her heart felt empty without him.
She turned to Cait. “Have you ever been this angry at Jason?”
