Chapter 26
“Would you pass on my thanks to the cook for this marvelous breakfast, Sally?” Catherine chimed, sampling the home-made strawberry jam before spreading it on her toast.
She was famished. Last night had been... extensive. She felt the pleasant ache of it in muscles she hadn’t known she possessed, and when she shifted in her chair, heat flickered through her at the memory. Hours. They’d taken hours with each other.
“Of course, Your Grace! Mrs. Dodds is particularly proud of her strawberry jam, I must say. She makes enough of it for all of us as well…”
Sally abruptly blushed and busied herself with laying out the rest of the breakfast things. Catherine laughed.
“Don’t panic, Sally. I will not object to the Caerleon staff enjoying the same strawberry jam as the Duke and I.”
“The Duke can be…”
“Grumpy?”
Sally giggled. “Strict, I was going to say, though I shouldn’t. It is hardly professional of me.”
“But truthful. You never need to worry about speaking your mind in front of me.”
The morning sunlight poured through the long windows of the breakfast room, glinting off the china cups on the breakfast table.
Catherine felt an affinity for the bright sunshine, as though she, too, were composed of happy, bright rays.
She liked the smile that her words brought to the young maid’s face.
It is so easy to bring happiness to another simply with a kind word and a smile. I must try to influence Aaron to do the same. His household would be so much brighter.
“Will His Grace be joining you for breakfast this morning, Your Grace?” Sally asked.
“He will,” she replied.
Two words, but carrying so much meaning for her. She knew he would because before he had taken his leave of her the night before, he had promised that he would join her. It had been a sincere promise which Catherine believed wholeheartedly.
They had slept in separate rooms but had parted after many hours of lovemaking and talk. She wondered if she should have intimated otherwise to him. If she should have communicated that she wanted to share his bed.
The very idea still made her blush.
Sally left only to return moments later.
“Begging your pardon, Your Grace, but there is a visitor outside wishing to speak to you. I wouldn’t ordinarily, when you are at breakfast, but I think she is in some distress. It is Lady Isabella Merrick.”
Catherine frowned, putting down her toast and dabbing her mouth with a linen napkin.
“In distress? Then of course I will see her. Please see her in.”
Isabella entered like a whirlwind, and what little control she had managed was lost at the sight of Catherine. The young woman dissolved into tears. Catherine hurried to her side, guiding her to a seat.
“Bella, whatever is the matter?” she asked.
“Your Grace,” Isabella began, her voice trembling, “I beg you forgive this intrusion so early, but I knew nowhere else to turn.”
“Has something happened?”
The younger woman’s lips quivered before she found her words.
“My father has… he has forbidden me from seeing Jeremy again,” her voice broke on his name. “He says he has heard things. Ugly, cruel things about his conduct, his debts, his reputation—” She faltered, looking down at her tightly clasped hands. “He says Jeremy is not a fit suitor.”
Catherine’s heart softened. “I am sorry,” she said gently. “I have gained some idea what he must mean to you, from seeing the two of you together.”
The young lady’s eyes brimmed with tears. “He has become a very great deal to me. I am extremely fond of him, and… it is so very unfair! He is kind and noble, whatever others may say. I know it to be so!”
Catherine listened sympathetically.
“There, there, Bella. We will find a solution. Perhaps if Jeremy could speak to your father…”
Isabella shook her head decisively. “He will not receive him! He says that he has made up his mind and will not allow him to step over the threshold. Worse still, he has resolved to arrange a marriage for me. I cannot marry a stranger!”
Catherine hugged her, cut to the quick by the plaintive look of fear on her open and innocent face. She knew that terror well. Hadn’t she taken extreme measures to avoid it herself?
“Do not worry about that. As long as I draw breath, I will not let you be forced into a marriage that you do not want.”
“I am sorry, Catherine. I have brought trouble to your door, and you barely know me! I was desperate, but how can I put you at odds with my father? I should not have come here. I should not put you in this predicament…”
“Nonsense! We may not have known each other for very long, but you could be a complete stranger, and I would help you. I have been in a similar situation and would not wish it upon any woman. Do not worry, Bella, you are safe here. I will speak to him,” she promised softly, “we shall contrive something.”
Catherine left Isabella to take some breakfast and tea, having learned that the young woman had left her own breakfast and practically dashed out of her father’s house.
Blackmere Hall was less than two miles from Caerleon.
Catherine was only glad that the weather had been clement and Isabella had not attempted to run the entire distance.
She hurried to Aaron’s study, looking for him. The door opened as she raised her hand to knock. Aaron looked surprised, but it quickly became a broad smile that transformed his face.
Did I really once think that he looked savage? Wild? His face is warm, expressive and kind. And so very handsome.
“Catherine! Am I so late for breakfast?”
“Not at all, but I have something I need to ask. A… small favor.”
Aaron frowned, stepping back into the room to allow Catherine to enter. He closed the door behind her as she walked in and stopped in the middle of the room. She turned and looked at him with no little anxiety.
“We have received a visitor. Isabella Merrick from Blackmere Hall. She is in a dreadful state. Her father has forbidden her from seeing Lord Everdon. He does not think him a suitable fiancé, and…”
Catherine found tears welling up. It was too close to her own situation. The fear was too real. The bitter taste of it in her mouth.
Aaron crossed the room, taking her in his arms. She nestled against his broad chest, feeling his arms holding her tightly. A feeling of safety seeped into her. Her concerns fled from the strength of his embrace. They became as insubstantial as mist.
“He will make her marry someone of his own choice,” she finished.
“Ah, I see,” he replied softly.
“I could not tolerate it. Not to someone as young and innocent as she. I could not stand by and let her be parceled up and sold off. Like… like livestock! Not when I know how it feels!”
She looked up at him as he gazed back. Truthfully, she expected the same response that she had received from him that night at Spencer’s. Instead, she saw compassion in his face now.
“Of course not. But how are we to prevent it? We cannot keep her here. Her father has the right to demand her return if she is under the age of one-and-twenty.”
“I thought perhaps we could invite Lord and Lady Blackmere for dinner. Invite Lord Everdon too. Let them see him and come to know him.”
“Everdon… will need to be on his best behavior,” Aaron said with a wry grin.
“He will be, if he cares anything for Bella. Which I believe he does—if I am any judge at all.”
“I have never seen him so devoted to any one particular woman, certainly.”
He pursed his lips thoughtfully.
“A dinner,” he repeated slowly, “yes. That might serve. And it would reflect well upon us. Another example to the jackanapes that call themselves society that we are not hiding, not skulking.” His mouth curved faintly.
“Besides, I would not see the girl in despair. Very well, Catherine. We shall host it.”
Her eyes widened, then warmed. “We will? Truly?”
“Truly,” he said, and there was an almost boyish light in his expression. “Draw up the invitations and give them to Mr. McKay for immediate delivery.”
“Mr. McKay?” she said, gently, thinking of Aaron’s refusal to use titles when it came to his servants.
“Mr.,” he echoed. “It suits him.”
She smiled, seeing her influence upon him and feeling immensely flattered. More granite chipped away from Aaron’s walls, revealing the true man beneath.
He kissed her, softly but enough to light a fire within her.
Catherine felt her heart lift. For a moment, she glimpsed not the guarded, secretive man who haunted her dreams, but the boy she had once known. The boy who had smiled at her in stolen hours, who had once seemed to belong wholly to her.
It steadied her, warmed her in ways she did not dare name.
Gideon strode through the entrance of Spencer’s and was greeted by a steward.
“Is Lord Everdon here?” he asked.
He had already been to Everdon Grange, some five miles distant from his own house, and discovered that Jeremy was in town.
“He is in the private lounge on the third floor, Your Grace,” the steward replied.
Gideon assaulted the stairs, taking them two at a time.
The notion of a dinner did not displease him.
Indeed, the prospect of appearing in society, with Catherine shining at his side, filled him with a strange mixture of pride and unease.
Pride, for she was radiant, and every eye would be upon them.
Unease, for every eye meant every whisper, every chance that the wrong word might unmask him.
Still, I agreed without argument. There is definitely a benefit to us in the notion, even if it is a risk to me personally.
The truth was that Catherine had asked, and he found himself unable to deny her.
The presence of Aaron over his shoulder, the snigger, and the sneering voice that came out when he was doing anything that went against the Spartan training imposed by their father, was a buzz.
It was a fly, flitting about his head. He found that he could silence it, though he still felt the ghost watching him, eyes cold and hard.