“No,” Arabella said and lifted her chin. “But he will.”
“If this man comes to you or me or Jamie tomorrow and states his intention of marrying you, then, of course, it is an entirely different matter. But if he does not, I never want my husband to know his name. Is that clear? And David and Thomas—they must never know his name either.”
“But he loves me, Mama. He wants to marry me, I know.”
“Yes, of course, he does. You are so bright and beautiful, so loving, of course he does. But all the same, wait. Do not speak his name until he asks for your hand.”
“But why?’
“Because if he does not, Jamie or Thomas or David will feel that they must challenge him to a duel. And someone will die. Or be wounded. Or be prosecuted for murder. Do you understand?”
“Yes, but hewillmarry me. There will be no need for duels.”
“I understand,” Catherine said patiently while she howled inside her head. “But still, you will not give his name to the men in this family until he asks for your hand. Are we in agreement on this point?”
Arabella tossed her head. “It’s silly and unnecessary, but yes, I agree.”
“Good.” Catherine smiled a smile she did not feel but she was sure would appear genuine. She had not been an actress for thirteen years for nothing.
She went downstairs to James’ study. All three men were standing. They had been talking in low voices but they stopped speaking when she came in and turned and looked at her.
The mood among the men was dark. Angry. Dangerous.
“Who was the man?” James said and walked toward her.
Catherine folded her arms in front of her chest. “I don’t know.”
“Then I am going to get Arabella down here—” James started toward the door but Catherine caught his arm.
“Jamie.” She looked at the other two men. “David. Thomas. Of the four of us in this study tonight, I will wager that there is not one of us who hadn’t done what Arabella did tonight by the time we were eighteen.”
James stiffened. David and Thomas both looked sullen.
“I know that it is expected of men. But I am not a man and I cannot and will not cast the first stone at my daughter for doing something that I myself did. I thought I had taught her the error of my ways, but I was wrong. It is entirely my doing.”
The men were silent. They were still angry, she could tell.
“We treat her like a child because we want her to be one, but she is not. She says he loves her and will marry her. Let us hope that he is a good man and he will be a good husband.”
Thomas snarled at that. “A good man? A good man would—”
“—rut with whores before he would copulate with my unmarried daughter? It is hard for me to say this, but Arabella wanted this ... intimacy. You three are all married to Lovelock women. Are you so surprised to find out that the fourth Lovelock woman has a hard time reining in her passions?”
There. That had done it. She could feel the violence in the room dissipate as each man thought of his wife and what his wife had done with him and to him and for him in each one’s respective bed.
She gave them a moment before she clapped her hands together and startled them out of their collective libidinous reverie. “So,” she said. “I must know. Who had you decided would be the one to challenge the unknown gentlemen?”
Thomas and James looked at David. David shrugged. “Well, Iamthe best shot.”
“Well, then,” Catherine smiled, “I am sure that your wife Mary will be very happy to hear that we have all decided that there will be no duels, no challenges. We will hope for a wedding.”
Thomas and David drank their fingers of whisky and left shortly after that.
James turned to Catherine and held his hands up. “I didn’t say anything to them. They saw.”
“I know, Jamie,” Catherine said and went to him and put her arms around his waist and turned her face up for a kiss. He kissed her a trifle absently. And she thought she knew why.
“I’m sorry I had to remind you of my past,” Catherine said.
