Her impertinence annoyed him. “I do not believe I have to answer. Good day, Miss Addison.” He would have grandly walked away but she practically jumped into his path, a gloved hand raised to block his way.
“I trusted you,” she said. “And I must know if I was wrong. I gave so much.”
“Kate, I have never given you cause to distrust me. I thought we cleared the air between us the other night.”
“Then answer the question.”
“Why is it so important?”
“Because I believed you were different from other men.”
“I was not married when we knew each other in London. Andwhat ifI married after we parted? What gives you the right to have a say?”
She blinked as if surprised by his reason, and then demanded softly, “Did you?”
A part of him was unreasonably angry. They hadn’t spoken since the other night when she had let him know she was done with him. What was this attack about?
Another part of him was overjoyed. Kate had come to him. Every membrane, every fiber of his being honed in on this moment. Even the air around them seemed to change and insulate them from the world.
“There was no wife. I’ve never had one.”
Kate looked away, troubled.
“You don’t believe me?” Bran shook his head. “Who told you I had married?”
A flash of fire came to her eye. “Mrs. Warbler. She is a good friend of the dowager duchess.”
“You don’t have to explain who Elizabeth Warbler is to me. I know exactly whom she is, and a bigger gossip has never existed in all of time.”
“She wouldn’t make up that you married.”
“You haven’t been in Maidenshop long. There are all sorts of stories circulating about me. Very few of them true.”
“Then you should correct the record.” She sounded charmingly prim.
“I don’t have time for that. And I thought you were more intelligent than to believe secondhand tales. Besides, I ask again, what is it to you if I had been married?”
Her brows came together. Her gaze slipped away. She looked around, as if uncomfortable and then asked, “Why were you looking at my wagon?”
“Curiosity. Nothing more and nothing less, Kate.”
“I would prefer that you not interest yourself in my affairs.”
“Well, then, I shall hide my gaze from your wagon.” He held up a hand, mocking her presumptuous attitude.
Her hands curled into fists. “Stop that, Brandon.”
“No, you stop it, Kate.” And then, in the abrupt silence, in frustration, he added, “Damn it all,” because this conversation was not going in the direction he wanted. He looked over to where Fred was working on Orion. No one appeared to be paying attention to them, but just in case, Bran took her arm and guided her to the other side of the wagon, away from view.
To her credit, she did not fight him.
Once he felt they were safe, he let go of her arm, but he did not step back. “What is going on here? Did you honestly track me down because of something Mrs. Warbler said?”
Her lips pressed together and then she said, “I had to. We barely knew anything about each other back then. Not really. You could have been married.”
“And then?”
“Then what?” she challenged stubbornly.
