People who had so recently turned her back on her and her mother now congratulated her? Now, preening over her while showing them with praise and conversation? She did not know how she was to cling onto Richard’s arm and play the doting wife while sharing a bed with him andnottouching him. It was hard enough to be in separate rooms and keep her hands to herself.
Furthermore, the notion of Lady HarringtontouchingRichard for any reason—even just to shake his hand in greeting, made jealousy well in her throat painfully. That was not how she wished to spend her time.
What was he going to say when she told him of the invitation? She already knew the duke was going toinsistthat they attend. Anything that would make him look better. Though she would be curious to see how he handled being in the home of the woman to whom he had broken a promise to. He would want to attend simply to make Richard look bad for marrying another woman when Lady Harrington and the duke had had a deal.
It sounded wholly exhausting.
Worse even still, she had dedicated the party intheirhonor. A celebration for their nuptials…to congratulate them as a couple. It was certainly done so that she would have no choice but to accept the invitation, or else it would publicly shame both herself and Lady Harrington for the snub. Catherine was attempting to rebuild her reputation for her mother’s sake…so she could not refuse, even though the whole situation felt like a trap.
For better or for worse—she had a garden party to attend.
Chapter 24
Lady Harrington’s Estate
To say that she felt nervous would be a gross understatement of her emotions. It was a concentrated effort to keep from placing her hand over the space of her lower stomach where she knew that inside her grew their child. Richard, seated across the carriage from her, looked nervous enough as it was. It was not as if she did not wish to tell him, she just needed to choose her moment.
Catherine knew that if Richard had to split his focus between the duke, Lady Harrington,andher pregnancy…he would do it, but then something might slip. She did not wish to be the reason that he fractured. He meant far too much to her. But even more than that, she wanted for this to be happy news….to be a good thing. Catherine knew thatshewould be crushed were the news not to be received well.
Lady Harrington’s estate was exactly as splendid as she expected that it might be. Even from just the carriage ride to the house alone, it was clear that she had gone all out and spared no expense whatsoever for their celebration. Carriages lined the drive in front of them. All of the trees on either side of the path toward the estate had ribbons tied around them with flowers and adornments.
Music came from the quartet the dowager duchess had hired for the occasion, and they were seated on the steps to the entrance. People unloaded from their carriages and moved up the polished marble steps and into the house slowly.
One by one, they were greeted by Lady Harrington, who stood at the door of her beautiful home in a shockingly pink gown. Her hat wide-brimmed and adorned with brightly colored flowers and ribbons to keep the afternoon sun off of her fair skin.
Catherine wished that she did not look quite so beautiful in such a garish gown. It was not fair that she pulled it off as well as she did.
The moment that their carriage pulled to a stop, the dowager duchess gave a loud shriek andflewdown the stairs leading up into her house toward their carriage.
“My friends! My friends have arrived!” she gushed happily, a bright smile on her face.
Across from where she sat, Richard’s hands balled into fists on the top of his thighs where they rested. Thankfully, the duke seated beside him did not seem to take notice in the slightest.
It was strange to see the man contort and stretch his face into the approximation of a smile. It pulled his skin in strange ways and almost appeared frightening. Not that Lady Harrington seemed to notice as she urged the footman to open the door hastily. The duke stepped out first, naturally.
He embraced her warmly and kissed the air on either side of her face. It was strange to see him play-act the approximation of a human man with the capability of kindness. It was hard for Catherine to watch. Even harder to plaster a smile on her own face in response. This was one of the very women who had turned her back on her.
Richard stood outside of the carriage like a pillar of strength. He extended his hand to her, and she reached for it like a lifeline. Her grasp on him was harder than it strictly needed to be as she clung to him, holding to his arm and keeping close to his side.
It was like she could breathe again.
They had not allowed themselves to be this close to one another in quite some time. She missed it. Sheneededhim. His false smiles and words of greeting gave her strength to do the same, a person to stand in solidarity with her.
“Remember our goals,” Richard whispered to her just before Lady Harrington turned her focus toward them.
Catherine congratulated herself on the fact that she did not react as Lady Harrington pressed her ample check into Richard’s as she greeted him, lingering her kiss on either side of his face. She also thought that it was rather good of her to keep from shoving the woman away as she briskly kissed the air on onlyoneside of Catherine’s own face and did not bother to make eye contact with her whatsoever before turning and gesturing them grandly into the house.
Catherine was not a violent person, but she could have clobbered her host for that alone.
“I am so, so happy that you have joined me here!” Lady Harrington slipped her arm into the duke’s as she walked. Wholly unaware of his darker nature, it would seem. “I knew that the moment that I heard of your wedding that there was only one thing that I could do! True love should always be celebrated!”
To an onlooker, Lady Harrington was a sweet woman. Petite and yet impossibly curvy, she tended to draw the lustful eye of all around her.
All but Richard, Catherine mused to herself smugly.
“Well, we are honored to have you host such an event,” Richard answered for them collectively. “Even if it was wholly unnecessary.”
Lady Harrington’s smile slipped for a moment.
