That she meant nothing to him.
Whilst he meanteverythingto her…
“I am abysmal at choosing men to fall in love with,” she managed through her sobs.
“There, now.” Hattie passed a soothing caress over her back, calming her. “Shrewsbury was a rotter, I will own.”
She had forgotten all about the marquess.
“It is not Sh-Shrewsbury,” she sobbed, aware she was making a mess of her dear friend’s elegant gown.
Her emotions were as unpredictable as the weather.
“I gathered as much.” Hattie drew back, her brow knitted in a frown as she studied Catriona’s face. “I was only attempting to make you smile. You look as if you have just left a grave. Tell me what Rayne has done, and together, we will come up with a fitting punishment. I would say Montrose should meet him at dawn, but we all know how that went the last time round.”
Monty. Wild, madcap, beloved Monty, who was the reason for all this, indirectly. She loved him and she hated him, all at once.
“This is all Monty’s fault,” she said on a sniffle. “If he had not been sotted—”
“You do realize every bad turn in Montrose’s life begins with just such a phrase, do you not?” Hattie interrupted with a small, sad smile.
“How is the viscount?” Catriona asked then, reminded, instantly, of one of Monty’s most egregious sins.
Hattie’s smile vanished. “He is not yet himself. Though whether or not that is a boon or a curse remains to be seen. But enough of our scapegrace brothers. Tell me what has brought you here. Is your honeymoon over?”
“What’s a honeymoon?” Olivia asked.
Hattie’s attention was diverted to the child for a moment, her eyes narrowing upon the cage. “Who is the miscreant, and why is she carrying a rat about? Has she no notion of the pestilence they carry?”
“Here now, Ashes ain’t no rat,” Olivia said, forgetting her lessons in her umbrage.
“Ashes is not a rat,” Catriona somehow found the presence of mind to correct her charge. To Hattie, she added, “Ashes is a mouse. Olivia’s pet.”
Hattie raised a brow, her gaze flicking back and forth between Catriona and the child. “And who, precisely, is Olivia again?”
“Olivia is Rayne’s ward,” she explained, though it was perhaps not entirely legal just yet. Itwouldbe legal, she vowed. She would not be separated from the child. Olivia needed her.
And the truth of it was, she needed Olivia, too.
“I see.” Hattie’s frown returned. “That is not the reason, surely, for your upset?”
“No.” She took a deep breath. “I am leaving Rayne. Before he leaves me. And I do not wish him to find me, should he attempt it. That is why I am here. If I go to Riverford House, he will find me, and if I go to Hamilton House, he will find me there as well. I hope we might be able to remain at Torrington House until Rayne returns to Spain. I cannot bear to see him again. If you cannot accommodate us, I understand. After what Monty has done…”
“What Montrose has done will be his to answer for, one day,” Hattie said coolly. “You are like a sister to me, and you are welcome here regardless of your scoundrel brother, as ever. Now tell me, if you please, why you have come. What has Rayne done to chase you from your very home before he leaves for Spain? I thought freedom was what you wanted most.”
“It was,” she agreed on a sniffle. “Until I fell in love with him. Until I realized he will never be able to love me in return. I can only blame myself. He never wanted anything from me but an heir, and now he is returning to Spain.”
“Poison seems a fitting punishment,” Hattie said. “Not enough to kill him, of course, but enough to make him virulently ill.”
Her friend was not serious. Was she?
The room was beginning to spin about Catriona before she could contemplate anything else, and she knew what was going to happen next.
She recognized the signs. Her body went hot, then cold. She tried to take a deep breath, to regain her calm. But just as before, the weakness caused by her inability to keep sustenance where it belonged made her all too susceptible.
“Catriona!”
“My lady!”
