Chapter Eighteen #2
Bemused, she stole glimpses at the pair, more and more uneasy. By the time a small cottage came into view, Katie was feeling grim.
Outside the house a woman was talking to two boys. Judging by the way she was waving her finger at them they were getting a scolding.
All three turned at the sound of the horses.
“Susan!” the woman cried out, running toward them.
Susan laughed with delight and waved. “I’m widing! I’m widing!”
The duke dismounted before lifting down the little girl, who ran to her mother and was swiftly caught in a crushing embrace. “You had me worried half to death!”
Susan’s lower lip once again shoved out, the glory of the horse ride forgotten. “Davy and Bobby weft me, Mama.”
“I know they did, dearest.” The woman wrenched her gaze from her child, her cheeks flushing a fetching cherry red when she turned to the duke. She hastily lowered Susan and dipped a low curtsey.
“Thank you for bringing her back, Your Grace.”
Dulverton ignored her thanks and turned a glare on the two boys, who hastily doffed their caps. “Did you abandon your sister by Mr. Roman’s pasture?”
The older one—perhaps ten or eleven—cut a nervous glance at his mother before nodded. “Aye, Your Grace. But she was followin’ us even though we told her not to.”
“That’s as may be, but her safety should always be your first concern. Mr. Roman’s bull is in that field and Susan might have wandered into it.”
Both boys suddenly looked horrified, as did their mother.
“Do not leave her alone like that again,” Dulverton chided.
“Aye, Your Grace.”
“Thank you, Your Grace,” the woman said again, nervously pushing back a silky lock of dark blonde hair that had come loose. Her gaze slid to Katie.
Dulverton either did not see her curious look or chose to ignore it.
When it became clear that her husband would make no introduction Katie said, “How do you do?” She had aimed for amusingly wry but landed somewhere between confrontational and arrogant.
The other woman looked startled but dropped a curtsey. “Anna Wilson, Your Grace. Would—would you care for some cider, Your Graces?” Mrs. Wilson asked, cutting a look between the two of them.
“Not today,” Dulverton said curtly.
The crushed look on the other woman’s face made Katie feel guilty for her earlier aggression. She forced a smile and said, “Perhaps another time, Mrs. Wilson.”
Her answer—as polite as it was—made the other woman’s cheeks flame and her mortified gaze slid to the duke.
He ignored her and mounted his horse, dipping his chin slightly before leading his horse back to the path.
“Is Mrs. Wilson the wife of one of your tenant farmers?” Katie asked when Dulverton made no effort to speak.
“She is a tenant, but the cottage does not have a farm.”
“What does her husband do?”
Dulverton’s lips tightened. “She does not have a husband.”
“She is young to be a widow.”
His eyes narrowed at either her expression or tone or both, but he did not speak.
Katie’s mind bounced the beautiful woman and her three handsome tow-headed young children to the attractive cottage to the fact that the duke knew the children well enough to deliver a fatherly chastisement. Was that because they were his children?
She looked at her husband; his haughty profile was to her. He had told her he did not take lovers from among the ton. Did that mean he kept one on his own property? How convenient that would be for him!
Seething, Katie turned away from Dulverton, struggling to understand the emotions roiling inside her. She identified disappointment, anger, despair, and something else. Something that felt suspiciously like jealousy.
Good God. She hoped not. She didn’t love Dulverton. She didn’t even like him. But she loved what they did in her bed every night. Could she really be so shallow that she would feel jealousy for a man who clearly felt nothing for her except lust?
If that was true, then she was even more foolish than she had believed possible.
She had entered this marriage with the knowledge that her husband thought so little of her that he did not care if she took lovers.
All he cared about was an heir and that she did not bring shame on his family name as his first wife had.
The duke’s voice interrupted her frantic musing. “No, not that way,” he said as Katie guided Robin toward the right-hand fork in the path. “We will keep to the left.”
“What is to the right?” She asked the question more to keep her thoughts from spiraling out of control rather than a desire to converse.
“That leads to the Morris farm.”
“Who is Morris?”
“Morris works the largest of my tenant farms.”
“You are not going to introduce me to the Morrises?”
He blinked. “I had not thought to do so.”
“Why not?”
“There hardly seems to be any point.”
“There is no point in the mistress of Briarly meeting her tenants?” Katie could not help thinking of Hy, Selina, Phoebe, and Aurelia who all knew their dependents by name.
“You will not spend much time at Briarly in the future, so it—”
“So, where will I live, then? Or do I have no choice in the matter?” she demanded, the tension inside her boiling over.
He opened his mouth, but then closed it, his indecisive expression looking strange on his stern, determined features.
“I suppose you will want me to live at Spenwood with your mother?”
He regarded her steadily. Normally, Katie found it difficult to meet his gaze, but not today.
“I told you there are several other estates besides Spenwood and Briarly for you to—”
“What if I wish to spend my summers at Briarly?”
“That would not be wise.”
“Why not?”
“You know why.”
“You mean it will inconvenience you to have your wife in the same place where you keep your mistress?”
His face, which had worn a faintly perplexed expression, hardened at her words. “I mean that you and I can never be in each other’s company for ten minutes without arguing.”
So, no denial about his mistress, then.
Fuming, now, she glared at him. “Never?” she repeated scoffingly. “We have been married exactly a week and this is only the second or third time we have actually been alone together.”
He raised an eyebrow at her.
“Other than that,” she hissed. How dare he allude to their time in bed! Especially now that she knew he kept a mistress on hand. Just when did he have time to service poor Anna Wilson. Not that three children didn’t speak of a great deal of servicing going on at some point.
Katie thrust the vile thought from her head and said, “We are having a discussion right now, not an argument.”
“We are disagreeing, as we always do,” he said firmly. “We are also off the point.”
“I’m sorry, what was the point, pray?”
“Your question about living at Briarly.”
“Ah yes,” she snapped. “And me living at Briarly is not permissible, I take it.”
Dulverton gave a pained sigh. “When my visits to your chambers are no longer necessary then why on earth would we live in the same house and expose ourselves to such disharmony if there is no reason?” He looked genuinely perplexed.
His words were worse than a slap. Actually, they were like a slap, a kick, and being spat upon.
“No reason? We are married.” Only after the words left her mouth did she realize she was shouting.
Not only that, but her claim was hardly compelling.
After all, her parents were married and lived in different countries to avoid each other.
Plenty of married people lived separate lives.
And you agreed to exactly that.
That was true; she had. All Dulverton wanted was her womb. Yet here Katie was, begging to live in the same house with him. She was pathetic.
His eyebrows had descended, and he was staring at her as if he’d never seen her before. “Yes, we are married. But what does—”
“Never mind. I misspoke. You are correct.”
He hesitated only a fraction of a second before nodding, accepting her admission with a calm arrogance that made her hands itch to shove him off his horse.
Katie smiled at him, although it was not a nice smile, and said, “There is no reason for you to introduce me to your people.”
Again, he nodded.
There is no need for you to put yourself out, dear husband, because I am perfectly capable of introducing myself if and when I decide to meet them.
She did not speak another word for the rest of the ride, not that he seemed to care.
When she returned to her chambers to change out of her riding clothes, she discovered that her flux had commenced.
So, she was not with child and would not be expected to remove herself from Briarly and her husband’s presence just yet.
Katie hated the burst of joyous relief she felt at the thought. What was wrong with her? Why would she want to foist herself on a man who clearly did not want her?
“Because you are an idiot who believed Betje when she said there was a chance for this marriage,” she whispered as she stared at her reflection in the mirror.
Becky’s head popped out of the dressing room. “I beg your pardon, Your Grace?”
“I didn’t say anything,” Katie lied, resuming her staring match with herself when Becky disappeared.
She had at least another month with Dulverton, and would spend that time proving to Betje that her optimistic hopes were horribly misplaced.
You can use that time to extinguish your own unfortunate attraction for Dulverton, while you are at it.
Yes. Yes, she could. And she would.
With any luck, she would be with child by the end of the next month and would never have to see her husband’s face again.