Catherine forced a smile, wishing her own life at Haventon had been so easy to escape. She doubted that Bella’s wicked stepmother had treated her as abominably as the Tresswells had treated Catherine.
“Do not be glum. We can talk together of happier times we shared with our mothers,” Bella said, “and your father. Assuming those memories are happy?”
“Oh, yes! I was a very happy child. It is only in later years…” she began, but trailed off.
I should not reveal too much of myself. Should not share so much. I have only just met this woman—for all that she seems trustworthy.
Bella was looking at her expectantly, and Catherine fished for something to end her sentence with, when a figure materialized from around a corner of the house. He strode towards them with purpose, raising a hand in greeting. He was tall with a profusion of fair hair and a ruddy complexion. Catherine thought she also recognised him—he, too, had been invited to the wedding breakfast.
“Lord Everdon, good morning!” Bella said brightly, waving back.
Suddenly, Catherine remembered the cigar-chomping man who had escorted her to Aaron at the Spencer club. He grinned, smiling as bright as day.
“Lady Isabella. What an unexpected surprise! Well met indeed!”
He swept a courtly bow and bent low over her hand. She blushed.
“Lord Everdon, there is a Duchess before you, and you make all this fuss over a mere Viscount’s daughter.”
“Because the Duchess is already taken,” Jeremy said with a wink before addressing himself to Catherine.
“Your Grace,” he professed politely.
Catherine could not help but smile.
“Bella, this is the man who graciously introduced me to the Duke after all the years we had been apart. He brought us together, so to speak,” Catherine said.
“I did, indeed. And saddled you with the grumpiest man in Christendom. For that sin, I must sincerely apologize,” Jeremy replied, “where is that old crab by the by?”
Catherine shrugged. “I can’t say. I have not seen him this morning.”
“Then I have an idea where he might be found. At his favorite spot in the South Woods.”
He pointed to a cluster of brooding woodland that bordered the lawn to the south. A flicker of memory stirred in her.
“You mean theWild Woods. That is what we called it when we were children, and I was particularly frightened of the gloomy place. I would not go in without Aaron to hold my hand,” Catherine shuddered at the spine-tingling sight.
“That is simply the sweetest thing I have ever heard!” Bella cooed, and Catherine jolted.
“There is a pool in the middle of the woods where he likes to bathe. Or swim with the three reprobates that he calls friends when all have had too much of the grape,” Jeremy said, lowering his voice with a mischievous glint, “come, I will show you—if we’re lucky, we might even catch him washing.”
Catherine recalled the pool. Recalled summer days beside it, dabbling their feet in the cool water. Aaron had always been deathly afraid of the dark, still surface with its long weeds, grasping up from the bottom.
“He has learned to swim since I knew him,” she said as they walked across the lawn towards the woods.
“Indeed. If he could not before, he certainly can now. I have never been able to beat him across the lake, and I was considered the athlete of the Royal Wessex Rifles,” Jeremy commented.
He had offered his arm to Bella, who accepted it graciously. Catherine walked alongside until they reached a small gate in a fence that separated the gardens from the woods. A later invention.
There, she took the lead, remembering the way. As she strolled, she grew lost in thought and recollection. The woods did not seem as dark as she recalled. Or as close about her. She listened to chirping birdsong and enjoyed the warm sunlight on her face where it reached through the canopy.
The sound of Bella and Jeremy’s conversation receded. Without thought, when a fork in the path was reached, Catherine took it absently. Presently, she found herself walking in silence except for the natural sounds of the woods. She stopped, looking around and feeling a moment of disquiet.
They must have taken the wrong fork! Or I did.
She did not recognize this part of the woods, which increased her anxiety further. The pain in her head returned with a vengeance, and she shivered though the sun was warm upon her, shining through a break in the woods caused by a fallen tree.
Catherine hugged her body, glancing around and feeling a vague sense of threat. The shadows felt as though they hid watching eyes with hostile intent. Panic surged in her, threatening tooverwhelm her self-control and send her running back down the path.
