He could not blame her, for at least one of her erstwhile offspring would be well settled now. As for the other…the Duke of Debauchery was decidedly not Alessandro’s problem.
“Lord Rayne is a most agreeable fellow,” Searle added to the conversation then, his tone grim as Charlotte of apples with apricot was brought round.
Alessandro gritted his teeth at the subtle jibe. Perhaps he and his brother-in-law would never achieve a true peace. But as long as the marquess kept Leonora happy, Alessandro was willing to accept every veiled insult aimed in his direction.
He deserved them all, and worse.
He ate the rest of the meal in self-imposed silence.
*
After dinner, Catrionaand the other ladies settled in the drawing room. Hattie and the Marchioness of Searle flanked her whilst her mother, the dowager Countess of Rayne, and Hattie’s mother chatted to each other quietly on the other side of the chamber.
“I cannot believe you shall be gone an entire month,” Hattie said. “I will miss you, my dearest. What shall I do in your absence?”
“Perhaps you can browbeat Monty,” Catriona suggested impishly, relieved for the opportunity to think of something lighter.
“He requires a beating with more than just my brows,” Hattie grumbled,sotto voceso the mothers would not overhear.
“I agree,” the Marchioness of Searle chimed in. “I love Monty like a brother, but someone needs to take him in hand. A wife, perhaps.”
Catriona did not miss the way Hattie stiffened at the mentioning of Monty taking a duchess.Interesting.
“Marriage would likely do him good,” Catriona added, watching her friend closely. “Monty is too much like our father, I fear. But with a duchess at his side, preferably one who is intelligent and strong, the sort of lady who is unwilling to allow him to run roughshod over her, perhaps he could change.”
Hattie let out a dismissive puff of air. “Forgive me, dearest friend, but the Duke of Montrose will no sooner change his roguish ways than the sky shall trade places with the earth.”
“Your opinion of poor Monty is hopelessly grim,” she observed.
Perhaps too grim. Her friend was protesting just a bit too much.
“Love can change a man,” the Marchioness of Searle said, her bright gaze pinned upon Catriona. “Marriage to the right woman can exert all manner of transformation.”
Catriona thought of the Earl of Rayne and how impenetrable he was, how confusing. He was more intense than any gentleman she had ever known, and yet there was some part of her that could not deny she longed to be the right woman for him.
But of course, theirs was not to be a true marriage. It was to be a marriage of convenience, nothing more. Moreover, he had already found that woman and lost her. She thought then of his first wife, and sadness blossomed inside her, replacing the trepidation.
“Will you tell me about the previous Lady Rayne?” she asked the marchioness before she could stifle the impulse.
Knowing more about her predecessor was unnecessary, but she was curious all the same. What kind of woman had stolen the inscrutable Rayne’s heart?
The Marchioness of Searle frowned at her. “Rayne’s mother, you mean? I know little of her, aside from her position as my father’s third wife. Rayne tells me she was a kind woman, loving hearted and sweet. She taught him to speak Spanish before he learned English, much to the dismay of our father.”
That would explain the lingering hint of an accent in the earl’s speech.
But it did not explain anything of the wife Rayne had loved.
Perhaps Lady Searle did not wish to speak of an upsetting subject.
Guilt skewered her. “Forgive me, my lady. I ought not to have mentioned Rayne’s first wife. It was not my place to ask.”
“Rayne’s first wife?” Lady Searle was looking at her as if she had just announced she was taking a walk to the moon.
“Yes,” Catriona said hesitantly. “He mentioned her to me previously, and he indicated theirs was a love match. I did not wish to pry with him, but I do admit to wondering what sort of woman she was, for him to have loved her so deeply.”
“Rayne told you he was married?” the marchioness asked.
“Yes.” Confusion filtered through her. Lady Searle seemed genuinely perplexed. “Did you not know her, my lady?”
