“Good girl.” He dropped a quick kiss on her lips and then opened the door of the coach, waiting until it stopped once more. Then he jumped down, with a brief word to the driver.
Kitty leaned over and pulled the door shut, tugging a blanket around her and trying not to worry.
She was tired, she knew. Getting married unexpectedly, going to a ball, questioning a bereft lover and now getting a mystery ride in a coach…well it was all a bit wearing. Leaning back against the soft squabs, she closed her eyes for a few moments.
Not one for introspection, she found it hard to ask herself the important questions she knew she must answer. Was her marriage a fake? A convenience to get them into one of the biggest balls of the Season? But if so, why had Max gone to such trouble to set it all up?
She looked back to the first time she’d met him. Cold, distant, eyes like icicles looking her over. He’d been oppressively superior, in her opinion, and had raised her hackles at their first encounter.
But was it her hackles, or might it have been something else?
She’d become aware of him so quickly, knowing when he walked into a room, or was heading her way at a ball. Certainly he was tall, and that made him more noticeable, but what she experienced was on a different level. It was a certain sensation, inside her, that lit up when Max was around.
Maybe, just maybe, it was the awakening of desire.
Or maybe, again just maybe, it was the awakening of an even deeper passion. One she dared not name, lest it vanish. One she wasn’t even sure she believed in.
Looking ahead, she tried to imagine her life without Max. Going back to Ridlington, perhaps and doing…what? There was little there for her. Family of course, but they had their own lives to live now. Edmund and Rosaline with baby Hugh, Simon and Tabby setting up at the Vicarage, and Letitia at FitzArden Hall.
Getting together with them all was a joy. But living with them? She would be the odd penny. Hecate…well, she was well cared for. What lay ahead for her was anyone’s guess.
No, Kitty realized that if she had her preference, she would remain Mrs. Seton-Mowbray.
Forever.
Because, she admitted to herself, she could not imagine letting another man as close to her as Max had become. He’d broached her carefully created defenses, spanked her bottom and made her scream his name in her ecstasy. He’d insinuated himself into her life and become a part of it, even recreating her life for her so they would both fit nicely together.
He’d done an excellent job.
So excellent in fact, she was now afraid the impossible might have happened.
She’d fallen head over heels in love with Max Seton-Mowbray.
