He waited until she returned to the table with her breakfast before he took the chair next to hers. “Is that all I am to you? A diversion?”
Although the query came out sounding like a tease, Katherine sobered and stared at him a moment. “Hardly,” she whispered. “I cannot tell you how often I have thought of you over the years.”
The comment seemed to appease him, and he turned his attention on his breakfast. “I suppose I could say the same about you.”
She stirred milk into her tea. “Rather uncharitable thoughts, I suppose.”
“I understand now why you married Whyte. I cannot fault you for what you had to do,” he replied.
Katherine sighed. “I have spent a good deal of time wondering what life might have been like had we married—”
“As we should have,” he interrupted in a whisper.
“Wondering how many children we might have had after Jonathan—”
“I would have named him John, after my grandfather—”
“—and if one or two of them might have been a daughter?” When he didn’t reply, she angled her head to one side. “What?”
“I would have named her after a Greek goddess.”
“Which one?”
“Well, not Aphrodite, of course, but maybe Cassandra or Charity—”
“Oh, I like Cassandra.”
“—and I would have had to send her to a nunnery,” Thomas claimed.
“A nunnery?” A look of alarm crossed Katherine’s face.
“Or we’d have to live out in the country somewhere, certainly not in London,” he went on, shaking his head.
“But why?”
He scoffed, as if she should know the reason. “To keep all those young bucks away from her.”
Matching his scoff, she said, “Youwere once one of those young bucks.”
“Exactly. I remember very clearly what I was doing every afternoon with you,” he reminded her.
Katherine giggled and then took a sip of tea. “As do I. I remember it fondly. Frequently. Which is part of why I look forward to picking up where we left off.”
“At the altar,” he murmured. “But onlypartof the reason?” he prompted.
Inhaling softly, she leaned over and kissed him on the corner of his mouth. “Marrying you means I can be a duchess again.”
“You already are,” he countered.
“I amdowagerduchess,” she corrected with a grimace. “The worse possible position to have in the aristocracy.”
He shrugged. “So... you see marrying me as a means of securing another title, and probably the coronet that goes with it,” he complained.
“Oh, I forgot about the coronet,” she said with a grin, her eyes widening in delight. She quickly sobered, understanding his expression of hurt. “Actually, the real reason I wish to marry you is because... well, I love you, Thomas. I always have. Even when you left me at the altar, I couldn’t... I couldn’t hate you.”
He stared at her in wonder for a moment before he swallowed. “Oh. Well. When you put it like that...” He cupped one of her cheeks and kissed her quite thoroughly. “I suppose I can tolerate being a diversion.”
“Just don’t be driving coaches at breakneck speeds in the middle of the night,” she warned.
“Now why would I do that when I can be in bed, spending my nights with you?” he countered.
She tittered and took another sip of tea. “Why, indeed?”
