He moved up again and caught her arm, his fingers digging into her flesh as he shook her. “This impertinence is entirely because of Bethany’s influence. You three are all alike. You, her, your mother…loose women who will not come to heel. It is in your nature to be lost. It is in your nature to be rotted to your very core.”
Katherine tore her arm from his grip and fled across the room from him. “Go home, Father,” she said. “We have nothing more to say to each other.”
“We do not,” he agreed. “This is the time for me to sever my ties to you. It’s the only way to my own salvation. You are no longer my daughter, Katherine. Goodbye.”
She stared at his departing back, tears stinging her eyes. She wasn’t certain how much of them were tears of relief and how much were tears of heartbreak. Her father had declared her a lost cause many a time in her life, but this time there had been a finality to it. A clear break that she knew she would not make any attempts to repair. What was between them had never been whole and she had no intention of trying to make it so now.
Still, though, his words rang in her ears even long after he was gone.
He’d spoken of her nature. It was funny that he had used that phrase to describe what he saw as wanton depravity. Roseford had used the same words on the terrace not so long ago. And to describe what she supposed was much the same part of her. The part these men saw as…loose. Wild.
Her father had hated that part of her. When she was a girl, he had railed on her for having too much fun or learning too much or wanting too much.
Judging from the bet Roseford had made about her,hedidn’t hate her for it. He wanted to use her for it. Harvest the desires she’d been harboring for so long. Cultivate them for his own pleasure and then crow that he had won her.
The duke had said her nature wasn’t wrong. That she ought not deny those things that woke her hot and needy in the night. That they weren’t wrong as her father had said or her husband had said.
But was he right? She didn’t even know anymore. Not when her mind was swimming and her heart was breaking. At any rate, she’d probably lost his interest when she walked away from him. Perhaps that was for the best.
Chapter Five
Robert watched as James leaned over the billiard table and took a careful shot. He had lined it up perfectly, as he always did, and the balls snapped together before one glided into the pocket. James stood and smiled at him.
“I see it, I see it,” Robert grumbled. “You’ve always been better at this than I am.”
“It is perhaps the only activity where I am superior,” James said with a chuckle.
“Emma would likely disagree,” Robert said, looking over the table for a shot. To his frustration, he had few options. Sort of like his life at present.
“Emma would argue that I am perfect in every way. Don’t you dare tell her the truth, for I’m certain she would run away.”
Robert leaned his cue against the side of the table and faced his friend. “No, she wouldn’t. She adores you, flaws and all.”
James’s expression softened. “She does at that. We are…she is with child again. She is due around the same time as Isabel, actually.”
Robert’s eyes went wide. James and Emma already had a little girl, Beatrice, born just over eighteen months before. He had watched, rather shocked, as his dear friend had surrendered himself to the two women in his life. Emma and Bibi had James wrapped around their fingers like no one else could ever do to the powerful duke.
“Congratulations,” he said.
“Do you mean that?” James asked as they shook hands. “You aren’t going to rail at me about how I’m becoming old and boring?”
“Not tonight,” Robert said with a sigh. “Though I do wonder whenyouare going to start lecturingme. I know you know. I know Matthew told you.”
James’s smile faded a little. “He told me you two quarreled,” he said. “And yes, he said why. Even if he hadn’t, Isabel told Emma everything.”
“And all you couples are like units. If one knows, the other does,” Robert said. “I wrote Matthew a letter of apology and he wrote back with forgiveness. But I wonder if he told you something different. We’ll see each other before all of you leave for your country party and I’d like to know what I’ll face. I know I crossed a line.”
He felt his face heat with that last admission, just as it did every time he considered what he’d said to Matthew. How he’d brought up the circumstances of his meeting Isabel, yes. But also what he’d said about Katherine and his plans for her. Matthew’s eyes had been so filled with…disgust.
“Tyndale doesn’t hold a grudge,” James said softly. “You know him. At this point, I think he’s merely worried about you. As am I.”
“And that is why you invited me here,” Robert said with a shake of his head. “All right, my friend, tell me what an ass I am. How ungentlemanly. How beneath me my plans for Lady Gainsworth are.”
James blinked and held his gaze. “You have already decided what I would say. I wonder if it’s because those are the feelings in your own heart.”
Robert pursed his lips. “You assume I am far better than I am. You’d think you’d know me after all this time.”
“I do know you.” James moved toward him a step. “And I know about her. Gainsworth was…I didn’t know him well. He was far older than us, far older than her. What I did know was a rather cold, seemingly pious man, though there were rumors to the contrary. I have no idea if his wife loved him, but he has not left her in the best position.”
