“Robert recognizes the need for an heir,” Kate said, surprised to find Lady Charlesworth, who looked so demure, a little calculating. But might she be right? An older woman must surely be wiser in these matters.
Lady Charlesworth smiled proudly. “He is a man of some consequence now, isn’t he?” Her fine brows rose. “Forgive me for saying this, but you love him very much, don’t you? I see it in your eyes when you speak of him. It’s difficult for one woman to hide from another.”
Kate nodded. “I want a good marriage.”
Lady Charlesworth smiled. “Then you shall, I’m sure of it. I suspect you are just what Robert needs.”
“I do hope so.” Kate sighed, not at all convinced of it. “Thank you for inviting me into your home. I mustn’t keep you from your children.” She rose to put on her hat with an urgent need to find Robert and talk to him. Although what that would achieve, she wasn’t sure.
Robert’s mother stood. She took Kate’s hands and squeezed them. “If only there was some way I might mend this hurt, but I’m afraid it lies in Robert’s hands. I wish you both happy, my dear. Could you, do you think, call on us again?”
“I should be delighted. If you’d like me to.”
Lady Charlesworth hugged her. “Oh do, please. Don’t stand on ceremony. Call anytime. We would love to see you.”
Dusk closed in as the carriage bore Kate home through traffic-filled thoroughfares busy with the men of business seeking finance and trade. The coffee houses and elegant shops began closing their doors as dusk fell. London changed dramatically when night enveloped the city. Soon, the glow of oil-burning street lights would appear as the city came alive, and the playhouses, theatres, pleasure gardens, and gentleman’s clubs and gambling dens began a busy trade.
The carriage stopped, held up by traffic when a cart lost its load of vegetables. The delay gave Kate time to think of what she had learned. How awful that Robert suffered the loss of his father when just a boy. She’d experienced the pain herself, although she’d been grown up when her parents died.
And after, what he perceived as his mother’s betrayal, the woman he’d loved and wished to marry broke his heart. Kate tried to bury her curiosity about her. It was painful to think he’d loved this woman passionately. And no doubt, she very different to Kate in every way. Tall and fair perhaps, like Lady Elphinstone?
Kate sighed.
If nothing else came of this visit, she now better understood Robert, and why he was afraid to love again. To him, love must mean loss, betrayal, and heartache. She grew determined to make him understand that her love was constant. To gain his trust. She frowned. This would not be achieved in a day. She tapped her fingers on the window ledge, gazing out at the busy streets. The spilled cabbages had been swept aside, and the landau began to move forward.
With a throb, her soft heart ached for Robert, and her love spilled over. Had she been wrong to push him away? What had Lady Charlesworth said? Sometimes men needed to be persuaded. She thought of the mistress Brigitte had told her about. If Robert felt more in control with a mistress, then Kate determined to act like one, to at least get closer to him.
She called to the driver. “Please stop at my modiste in Albemarle Street, John.”
*
Robert spent theday in discussion with the manager of the pottery factory. He had decided not to sell. They’d devised a new business plan, to enter the porcelain market and broaden their range, which excited him. He called in to White’s to discuss it with a friend, who promptly invited him to dinner. He declined, surprising himself at the need for a quiet evening spent at home. He would like to discuss this venture with Kate who had first given him the idea. But there had been an icy silence between them since his clumsy attempted seduction, and like the coward he seemed to have become, he’d removed himself from her presence.
And there was the matter of his mistress. Anastasia had requested that he visit her later tonight. He had been seriously neglectful. He wasn’t sure what he might do about that. Only that a man had needs and his were not being fulfilled.
