has a grand design, and you cannot know what he intends by bringing him to you.”
“God told you to inflict Cardigan on Val and me? It’s all right for you. You’ll be going home in a few weeks, but I’ll still be here with him, may God shrivel his—”
“I told you not to blaspheme. I’ll try to keep him from you as much as possible. The idea is to remove Lord Cardigan from his usual haunts until these threats are proved false or a malefactor is caught.” Fulke pulled another shard of glass from Alexis’s palm. “I am sorry, Alexis. When the Prince mentioned the problem, I volunteered without thinking.”
“You can make up for it by getting the bastard to help my invalids. Some of their families have no income. And keep him away from Val. Keep him far away from Val.”
Chapter Six
He was watching her, the bastard. He was watching to see if she knew which fork to use. The pig. No, he was too slender to be a pig. He was a snake. An arrogant, pretty snake—black and poisonous.
Kate let her hand drift toward the dessert fork just to tantalize the Marquess of Richfield, then picked up her soup spoon. She nearly snickered. His face fell the way Zachary’s did when one of his practical jokes failed. A familiar sadness welled up at the thought of her brothers. She missed them. Zachary was in San Francisco with his governor, and Robbie was at Harvard. Even long letters didn’t ease the pain of being apart from them.
Letting the conversation go on without her, Kate alternated between her sorrow at the several deaths in her family that year and fuming at the marquess. She would hurry the repairs to MaitlandHouse so she could get out of the reach of de Granville’s condescending patronage.
He didn’t remember her. She could still feel the scarifying humiliation of that night when he had publicly rejected her, and when she returned to England, he thought they’d never met. And how dare he treat her as though she were addled simply because she was a woman?
A servant offered bread. Kate shook her head and tried to shake her foul mood as well. All she had to do was see Mama established in Maitland House amid the Society of her dreams; then she could go back home. San Francisco might be full of gamblers, sailors, and Australian convicts, but it didn’t have any English aristocrats.
“Miss Grey, how is Lady Emeline?”
Kate smiled at Fulke Sinclair. He was a kind man. It wasn’t his fault he was so unbearably upright. Perhaps having served in the government made him so tired he couldn’t help ignoring his wife and preaching at people.
“Aunt Emeline finds it hard to take in what has happened,” Kate said. “I have to keep reminding her where she is and why. I hope to get her back to Maitland House as soon as possible.” She would have said more, but Lady Juliana’s annoyed voice overrode all others.
“My dear Mrs. Grey, I don’t concern myself with the doings of King William’s unfortunate offspring.”
Kate made a fist with the hand that rested in her lap. Fulke had taken her aside before dinner and explained that Lady Juliana had “bad spells,” but that this evening she’d improved enough to come down to dinner. Unfortunately, Juliana and Mama hadn’t taken to each other. Mama loved gossip about royalty, and the illegitimate sons and daughters of Queen Victoria’s uncle were among her favorite topics. Lady Juliana, however, didn’t gossip. At least, not with ladies she considered her social inferiors.
Why did Mama provoke the woman? Juliana was one of the few people who intimidated Kate. It wasn’t her“bad spells.” Kate had recovered from her encounter with one of them. From what she could understand, they weren’t very frequent. Perhaps it was Lady Juliana’s height. She was almost as tall as her son. Perpetually dressed in mourning for her dead husband and daughter, she nevertheless dominated county society by virtue of her birth and force of will.
Juliana put down her spoon. Kate
“God told you to inflict Cardigan on Val and me? It’s all right for you. You’ll be going home in a few weeks, but I’ll still be here with him, may God shrivel his—”
“I told you not to blaspheme. I’ll try to keep him from you as much as possible. The idea is to remove Lord Cardigan from his usual haunts until these threats are proved false or a malefactor is caught.” Fulke pulled another shard of glass from Alexis’s palm. “I am sorry, Alexis. When the Prince mentioned the problem, I volunteered without thinking.”
“You can make up for it by getting the bastard to help my invalids. Some of their families have no income. And keep him away from Val. Keep him far away from Val.”
Chapter Six
He was watching her, the bastard. He was watching to see if she knew which fork to use. The pig. No, he was too slender to be a pig. He was a snake. An arrogant, pretty snake—black and poisonous.
Kate let her hand drift toward the dessert fork just to tantalize the Marquess of Richfield, then picked up her soup spoon. She nearly snickered. His face fell the way Zachary’s did when one of his practical jokes failed. A familiar sadness welled up at the thought of her brothers. She missed them. Zachary was in San Francisco with his governor, and Robbie was at Harvard. Even long letters didn’t ease the pain of being apart from them.
Letting the conversation go on without her, Kate alternated between her sorrow at the several deaths in her family that year and fuming at the marquess. She would hurry the repairs to MaitlandHouse so she could get out of the reach of de Granville’s condescending patronage.
He didn’t remember her. She could still feel the scarifying humiliation of that night when he had publicly rejected her, and when she returned to England, he thought they’d never met. And how dare he treat her as though she were addled simply because she was a woman?
A servant offered bread. Kate shook her head and tried to shake her foul mood as well. All she had to do was see Mama established in Maitland House amid the Society of her dreams; then she could go back home. San Francisco might be full of gamblers, sailors, and Australian convicts, but it didn’t have any English aristocrats.
“Miss Grey, how is Lady Emeline?”
Kate smiled at Fulke Sinclair. He was a kind man. It wasn’t his fault he was so unbearably upright. Perhaps having served in the government made him so tired he couldn’t help ignoring his wife and preaching at people.
“Aunt Emeline finds it hard to take in what has happened,” Kate said. “I have to keep reminding her where she is and why. I hope to get her back to Maitland House as soon as possible.” She would have said more, but Lady Juliana’s annoyed voice overrode all others.
“My dear Mrs. Grey, I don’t concern myself with the doings of King William’s unfortunate offspring.”
Kate made a fist with the hand that rested in her lap. Fulke had taken her aside before dinner and explained that Lady Juliana had “bad spells,” but that this evening she’d improved enough to come down to dinner. Unfortunately, Juliana and Mama hadn’t taken to each other. Mama loved gossip about royalty, and the illegitimate sons and daughters of Queen Victoria’s uncle were among her favorite topics. Lady Juliana, however, didn’t gossip. At least, not with ladies she considered her social inferiors.
Why did Mama provoke the woman? Juliana was one of the few people who intimidated Kate. It wasn’t her“bad spells.” Kate had recovered from her encounter with one of them. From what she could understand, they weren’t very frequent. Perhaps it was Lady Juliana’s height. She was almost as tall as her son. Perpetually dressed in mourning for her dead husband and daughter, she nevertheless dominated county society by virtue of her birth and force of will.
Juliana put down her spoon. Kate
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