“Fine. But I am adding a postscript.”
“If you insist,” he said, the corner of his lip tipping up in a third of a smile. I counted it a success.
“I do. Now, March, 1811.”
“£17…”
Thirty-Six
THORNTON HALL, KENT - OCTOBER 20, 1814
KATE
There wasno knock on my door last night, or the night before. Even now, I wasn’t certain if I wanted there to be a knock or not. At some point the nightly visits had to resume, right? Hugh needed an heir, tenuous marriage or not.
Was it even an unhappy marriage any longer? The days since my return had been… Pleasant? Astonishing? Confusing?
Hugh spoke to me in a way he never had. He asked my opinions, considered them thoughtfully, and implemented my suggestions. More than once, he sought me out. I was fairly certain, if I metthisman in that ballroom all those months ago, I would have been desperate to marry him.
But the change was so abrupt. How could I trust him to remain like this? I had no idea he was even capable of it in the first place. Was this man my husband? Or was it the man I spent all those taciturn months with? Something in between? Someone else entirely? I liked this man very much, so I wanted this to be the man he truly was.
I could think of that later, for it was all I did when I was not buried in ledgers. Tonight, Mr. and Mrs. Wayland were due to dine with us.How nice that sounded.I’d had no time to visit Jules between my return and tonight’s supper. But I cried when I read her letter in Lincolnshire. The lengths she undertook to be able to wed the man she so loved… It was too much. And now, to be settled so near… I could not be happier for her, it simply wasn’t possible.
Agatha had kindly feigned another megrim. It was most gracious of her. That left Hugh and I alone in the drawing room when our guests arrived. And oh, what a change in her. When I had left her in London, Juliet had been withdrawn. Now she sparkled. We exchanged giddy smiles. Michael, on the other hand, looked exactly as he had when I met him, and nothing at all like that man too. Somehow, he’d managed another blackened eye. But instead of being surly and taciturn when he greeted Hugh, he was warm and affectionate. It was everything I had hoped for.
Michael, one spoonful of soup into dinner, commented, “if I thought we would have her for any length of time, I would steal Mrs. Hudson away from you.”
“I would fight you. It was miserable enough the week she was away for the wedding. And that was when she was stifled with my mother’s preferences. Now that Kate has returned, she will stay here for as long as we can keep her,” Hugh answered.
“I suspect it will not be long if Augie has his way. He’s had names picked out since we were fifteen.”
“And pray tell, what names does a fifteen-year-old boy select for his future offspring?”
“I believe the girls were named for their mothers and the boys for their fathers. It was tragically sweet and not at all worthy of mocking, which was a sore disappointment to me.”
“Most inconvenient. Is Anna aware she’s birthing at least four children?”
“She agreed to wed him, so I suspect not,” Michael answered with a crooked grin.
“And, Michael, may I inquire as to the cause of today’s injury? Was it caused when you informed Anna of her husband’s plans for the birthing bed?” I asked.
“Certainly not, Anna knows to direct her fists where they belong. No, my darling wife was overly enthusiastic during her morning constitutional.”
“Michael! Ignore him, he walked into a worker carrying a rather large beam.”
His grin weakened only slightly when a rather indelicate thunk sounded from beneath the table. The bruising in his eye may not be from her, but there would be a dark spot on his shin with her name on it.
“Duchess, darling, you’re ruining the roguish reputation I’ve managed to build for Kate. She’ll begin to suspect all of my other blackened eyes have perfectly innocuous causes as well.”
“And then where will you be?” Juliet asked.
“Quite right. She finds me amusing and charming now, but if she realizes that I’m actually quite a suitable choice, she may drag some other rake out to the country to woo you.”
“I would never,” I replied in an attempt to clear my name from such obvious slander.
“Oh yes, your matchmaking machinations had nothing to do with why you begged me to join you in the country,” Michael teased.
“My machinations were responsible for perhaps as much as thirty-six percent of thepolite requeststhatmayhave occurred.”
