“Gracias, Montrose,” he said. “Do you have the direction?”
Having been abroad for so long, he could scarcely find his way around Town.
“Never mind that,” the duke said. “I shall accompany you.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Finish your tea,”Hattie ordered Catriona. “And eat another biscuit. You are still looking so horridly wan.”
“Yes, Mother,” Catriona grumbled, taking another hesitant sip of tea. Fortunately, her angry stomach was beginning to settle, and the brew did not make her instantly want to retch.
“You cannot go about swooning all over London,” her friend added.
“This is the second time she’s swooned now,” Olivia added around a mouthful of biscuit.
Catriona frowned at her charge. “Ladies do not speak whilst they are chewing, Olivia.”
“Sorry,” she said, crumbs flying from her mouth.
“Second time swooning?” Hattie’s eyes narrowed upon Catriona. “What is the matter with you, dearest? You have one of the heartiest constitutions of anyone I have ever met.”
Ordinarily, she did. But it would seem she was making up for her good fortune now.
She sighed. “I am perfectly well. It is merely that I am—”
“She’s having a babe,” interrupted Olivia.
“Olivia,” she chastised. “Ladies do not interject during the dialogue of another lady.”
“I ain’t no lady,” Olivia said with a gamine grin. “Can Ashes have a biscuit? She’s hungry.”
“I am not a lady,” she corrected. More lessons in deportment were in order, clearly. “And I suppose Ashes may have a portion of a biscuit, as long as Miss Lethbridge does not mind.”
“But youarea lady,” Olivia argued, true to form.
On yet another sigh, Catriona turned her attention to Hattie. Her friend gawked at her.
“Do you mind?” she asked hesitantly. After all, it was rather uncommon to take tea with a mouse.
Hattie flew from her seat and gathered her in a tight embrace. “Catriona, how dare you not tell me I am going to be an auntie? You should have said so from the moment I saw you!”
“Forgive me for not relaying the news sooner,” she said, hugging her friend back with all the strength she could muster. “It has been a long few days of upheaval and travel, and I am afraid not even someone with the halest of constitutions can withstand the rigors of being in a delicate condition.”
“It is more difficult for some women,” Sadler chimed in with an air of authority. “My own mother was terribly ill each time, in the early months.”
“Splendid,” she said weakly, wondering how she would survive months of biliousness and dizziness.
And carrying on without the man she loved.
Hattie pulled away, glancing down at her with a quizzical air. “Does Rayne know?”
“Yes,” she said softly, feeling a fresh rush of tears coming on. “It is why he is leaving me.”
“God’s fichu, what a spineless weasel,” Hattie said distastefully.
God’s fichu.
Catriona found herself frowning at her friend. “That is one of Monty’s nonsensical curses.”
