“No. You two took your time,” Devon replied with a laugh.
“Ironic,” Annie retorted. “Coming from the man who took five years to marry his wife.”
Devon lifted his wine glass playfully as if proposing a toast. “Better late than never.”
Lily raised her glass too. “I’ll drink to that.”
Annie sighed and turned her attention back to Kate. “I still say it’s romantic that you met the duke at a country ball, and he asked you to marry him.”
Kate nodded. “Yes, I … I thought I was very much in love.” She could still feel James’s eyes upon her, but she couldn’t look at him. He’d been so quiet. Barely spoken since they’d all arrived. Was he angry with her? Did he wish he were somewhere else? Was coming out to the country a silly waste of time for him when he could be doing things like planning his next pamphlet or attending to business in his study?
“You weren’t always in love?” Annie asked, and she quickly yelped when her sister elbowed her in the side. “Ouch. What?” Annie rubbed her side.
“Don’t ask Kate such a thing,” Lily replied. “You’ve put her in an impossible position. She cannot answer that.”
Kate shook her head. “No, no. I don’t mind. The truth is, I learned quickly after my marriage began that love wasn’t all that I thought it to be.”
Annie reached out a hand and covered Kate’s. “Oh, but love is the most wonderful feeling in the world.”
Kate smiled wanly. “I suppose. If it’s the kind of marriage that you and Lord Ashbourne have.” Ashbourne inclined his head. “Or you and Lord Colton, Lily.” Devon smiled at her.
“It’s all about finding the right person to marry,” Lily replied.
Annie shook her head sadly. “There are many people who marry for connections or to fulfill a duty.”
Kate nodded. “Yes, but my husband and I were supposed to be marrying for love. Sadly, we realized, it wasn’t love at all. We were completely incompatible.”
Lily reached out and put her hand over Kate’s this time and squeezed. “You were very young.”
“Yes,” Kate said.
“I do hope you still believe in love,” Annie added.
Kate glanced away. She wasn’t about to tell them, but love scared her more than almost anything in the world. The promise of love had kept her in an unhappy marriage for ten years and now had her facing a sentence of death. Oh, how her life would have been different if she’d found a husband like Lily’s or Annie’s. They were very lucky women indeed.
James spoke, his voice tight. “Love is a luxury many cannot afford,” he said in a clipped voice.
Lily nudged at James’s sleeve. “Present company notwithstanding, I hope you mean to say.”
“Of course.” He inclined his head and took a long draught from his cup.
Annie slapped her palm on the tabletop. “Oh, here we are, Kate, we promised you a grand time and we’re making you sad, bringing up the past. Let’s speak of happier things.”
By the time the morning was over, Kate was rosy from the two glasses of wine she’d had. No doubt her face was pink from the laughter she’d enjoyed, and her cheeks ached from all the smiling she’d done. She should be in mourning. She should be in prison. Oh, none of it made any sense, but she’d just had the most wonderful time in all the world. She’d gone back to a farm, if only for one day, and it would have to last her the rest of her life.
They rode horses, played in the snow, watched the sheep roam the fields, and played with the baby piglets once they were awake from their nap and their mama was otherwise occupied with her lunch.
And thankfully, James became less distant. He helped her build a snowman, raced her across the fields during their ride, and scooped up the tiniest piglet, handing it to her to allow her to hold the little thing. Kate smiled at him shyly but not before glancing over and noticing that Lily and Annie had taken note of the solicitous way James was treating her. It made her cheeks heat, but she couldn’t help but beam at him. Being in his company made her heart race. She cuddled the baby pig and cooed to her. “If you were mine, I would name you Margaret the Second,” she whispered.
“An illustrious name.” James grinned at her, before gently taking the piglet and laying her back in the hay next to her brother and her mama.
All too soon, their party prepared to return to London. The three ladies walked arm in arm back toward the coaches that had been brought around. They stood together in the barren snow-covered meadow. This time, Annie led them to James’s coach and Kate entered first. Lily stuck her head in.
“Remember to keep the windows closed,” Lily warned, pulling at the curtains from her vantage point.
“And keep your hood up when you get out of the coach,” Annie added, from outside.
Kate shook her head. “Aren’t you coming with me?”
“No, we thought we’d all ride back to my house together and let you and Medford share the coach to his,” Lily said.
Kate gulped.
CHAPTER 18
Minutes later, James and Kate waved good-bye to their friends and soon the coach was in motion back to London.
James watched her carefully from across the seat. It was dark in the coach with the shades still drawn.
Kate’s neck worked as she swallowed convulsively. “Surely we can keep the shades open while we’re in the country like this,” she said, pulling back one of the curtains. “There’s no one to see us here.”
He shrugged. Was she suddenly shy to be alone with him? Had her hand trembled earlier when he touched her? All he could think about was how beautiful and vulnerable she looked today and how lovely she’d been when she laughed. He was glad she was able to laugh. This trip to the countryside had been a good idea. He desperately wanted to make her laugh again. He’d started the day attempting to keep his distance, remembering their kiss at the ball. He’d been tortured by it for the last two days. He’d decided it would be much better for both of them if they remained apart, and he’d meant to do so, honestly. But when the coach had arrived this morning to take them to the country, he hadn’t been able to refuse to go. So he’d decided to ride in a different coach on the way there, assuming it would make things easier. And once they’d arrived, he’d watched her, surreptitiously, unable to keep his eyes from her. And then they’d had a wonderful morning, laughing, riding, playing in the snow. He couldn’t remember having had fun like that even when he was a child. And it was so easy with Kate. He couldn’t keep from smiling and laughing around her. He knew Annie and Lily had been watching him closely, but it didn’t matter. He’d promised Kate fun while she wrote the pamphlet for him and, by God, he intended to keep that promise. He smiled to himself thinking about her reaction to the piglet.
“Tell me something,” he said. “Did you really have a pig when you were a child?”
Success. She laughed, and it was a musical sound. “I did.”
“As a pet?” he continued.
“Yes, she lived in the house and everything. She was a very small pig,” Kate clarified. “But a pig just the same.”
James couldn’t help but smile at that. He tried to picture a young Kate chasing a pig around the house. But he couldn’t picture her as a child. He couldn’t picture her any way other than the lovely woman she was, sitting across from him, self-consciously pushing a lock of shimmery golden-red hair behind her ear and glancing up at him from behind velvety black lashes.
“Please tell me something,” she said in a saucy tone to which James was immediately drawn.
He nodded. “As you wish.”
“What exactly is a raccoon?”
His laughter shook the coach. “It’s a furry little animal that’s sort of black, gray, and white with a long striped tail. Looks as though it’s wearing a mask. Quite common in the Americas or so I’ve heard.”
“Do Lily and Annie really have a fox and a raccoon?”
He grinned at her. “Yes and no.”
