“Daddy.” Dorothea’s voice drifted through the grogginess. “Daddy, wake up. It’s late.”
Joseph opened his eyes to find Dorothea sitting in his lap, staring at him with a worried frown.
“I thought you would never wake up,” she said with a frown. “It isn’t like you to sleep in this late.”
Slowly, still buffeted by exhaustion, he glanced at the window to see that the sun was indeed far higher in the sky than it normally was when he woke in the mornings.
“Forgive me, Dorothea,” he murmured, sitting up. “I suppose I was still just too tired.”
Worry flooded her eyes. “Would you like to go back to sleep then?”
“No, no, I’m fine. I should get up.”
She scrambled off his lap as he shifted. She watched his every move, not saying anything else until he was finally on his feet.
“Maybe Stepmother is really tired as well.”
“What do you mean?” Joseph asked as he gave in to a yawn and stretch.
“I knocked on her door, but she didn’t answer. I think she’s still sleeping.” Dorothea pouted a little. “I had hoped that we could all have breakfast together as a family.”
Joseph sank down to face her. “Why don’t you go to your bedchamber and get dressed? And then we can all gather in the drawing room within an hour to have breakfast. How does that sound?”
She perked up with a bright and happy smile. “Lovely!”
“Run along then!”
She raced off and out of the room, her little footsteps echoing down the hallway which brought a smile to Joseph’s face. He hadn’t meant to sleep in. He couldn’t tell when he’d last allowed himself to remain in bed past eight o’ clock in the morning, but for some reason, he felt no urgency, no need to make up for lost time. If anything, the thought of having breakfast with his family was far more appealing.
He had an apology to make, after all. Even if he wasn’t quite certain how he was going to go about it.
It consumed him as he got dressed, neglecting the help of his steward so that he could be alone with his thoughts. The entire time, Joseph listened for Catriona leaving her bedchamber nextdoor, but there was nothing. At some point, he wondered if she might already be up and about in some part of the large manor.
Even so, he stopped by her door all the same. Trepidation seized him suddenly. He drew in a breath before he knocked.
His knock fell a little flat as her door drifted open. It was ajar?
Something was wrong. That trepidation morphed into dread. Slowly, Joseph pushed the door open, peeking his head in. The room was perfectly in place, Catriona nowhere to be found. He made his way to the bed, noting the fact that it was cold to the touch, as if no one had slept in it the night before. Panic seized him.
Calm down, Joseph. You are overreacting.
She had probably gotten up early and was somewhere else in the manor. Simple.
But when he turned to leave, his eyes snagged on the slip of paper sitting on top of her desk, held down by a paperweight. It was so out of place that it only made that panic grow.
Joseph made his way over to the desk in slow, hesitating strides. He was already reading before he picked up the note, recognizing Catriona’s elegant scrawl.
She was gone.
She was rather to the point about it, which was very like her. She’d stated that she could not bear to remain in the same house as him, not when they had grown to have such differences, and that she had left right before dawn. She told him not to come for her, that she would be safe with her uncle, and that she would return once she’d reconciled with her future, but for now, she needed the space from him.
His hands were shaking by the time he made it to the end of the note. He wanted to bolt from the room, to bark orders for his horse so that he could go chasing after her. He wanted to march right into Heaton Manor and demand to have his wife back.
But what good would that do? Would that not only make her resent him further?
Slowly, he folded the note into a small square and tucked it into his pocket, trying to tamper down the fear and panic making an uncomfortable mixture in stomach. What would he tell Dorothea? The truth? That he’d made his arrangement with Catriona so uncomfortable for her that he had basically chased her out of the house?
This was why he’d wanted to draw a clear line of boundary between them in the first place. He knew this would happen. He was not capable of anything but hurting others.
