The Engagement - Regency Brides 02 Read online

  “No,” Thomas stated firmly, causing her to bring her gaze back to his. “I prefer to find that answer when we return to Derbyshire.”

  A myriad of emotions passed over her face, most of which Thomas could not decipher.

  ʻWhat-are you saying, Mr. Thornton?” she asked carefully.

  “I am asking if I might call on you the day after tomorrow.

  Shall we say ten in the morning?”

  The dread he saw in her eyes when that question left his lips had him truly baffled. But it disappeared as quickly as it had arisen. “Indeed, Sir. My family and I shall eagerly anticipate it,” she told him formally. “Now if youʼll excuse me, I must go find my cousin so we may leave.”

  “Yes, of course,” he murmured as he watched her hasten away.

  Thomas stood there for a moment, puzzled as to her quick change of mood. One moment she appeared to show genuine interest in him; the next, she became cold and proper!

  It was a mystery he was determined to solve! They would have ample time at Rosehaven to get to know Katherine a little better and find out if possibly she was the right woman for him.

  He then thought of his son, Ty, and wondered how she would respond to the toddler. That was also an important consideration in his quest for a wife.

  A quest he now hoped and prayed would end with Lady Katherine Montbatten as his wife.

  “I think perhaps I should tell you something Iʼm not sure you are going to like,” Katherine began as she stood before her parents in their elegantly furnished drawing room two days after the ball. The gentle candlelight shining through the crystal lamps about the room should have been soothing to her nerves, but until she finished this meeting, nothing would help. She had wanted to avoid telling them of Thomasʼs visit, but knowing he would probably want to speak to them, she had to prepare them.

  “Do sit down, dear, while you tell us. It is giving my poor neck an ache having to look up at you,” her mother, Lady Montbatten, complained as she waved about a lace handkerchief she was rarely without.

  Stifling a sigh because of her motherʼs frequent complaining, Katherine sat down on the blue velvet settee across from her parents. Still dreading to tell her parents the news, she took a moment to smooth the cream taffeta of her day dress.

  “Well, spit it out, girl!” her fatherʼs loud voice boomed, causing her, her mother, and her sister, who was pretending to read a book, to jerk. His tall, large stature frightened those who didnʼt know him, but all his friends and family knew that underneath his austere gruffness, he was quite a marshmallow.

  “Yes, well, I need to tell you someone will be coming to call here this morning,” Katherine started again, unable to blurt out the news as she wanted.

  “Who, dear?” her mother asked when Katherine did not finish.

  27

  “A man, Mama. A man who will come to call on-me.”

  A loud, thoroughly irate sigh came from the duke as he slapped his large hand on the delicate wooden arms of the chair, making her mother frown with disapproval. “Is this to be a game of charades or question and answer? Say what you must and cease shilly-shallying!”

  “Thomas-Thornton-is-the-man!” she all but yelled in one quick breath. “There! It is said!”

  “Dear, a proper lady does not raise her voice so-“

  “Margaret, please! Did you not hear what she just told us?”

  her father interrupted, his voice sounding stunned.

  Her motherʼs eyes widened. “Thomas Thornton, did you say?” She fell back in her chair, waving her hand in front of her face in a frantic motion. “I do believe I might need ʻmy smelling salts. Lucinda, please ring for Amelia to bring them,” she ordered Katherineʼs little sister.

  Lucinda, or “Lucy” as most everyone called her, showed her displeasure at having to leave the room by loudly plopping her book down on an end table and making a huffing noise. “I do not understand why I am always sent on one errand or another to do everyoneʼs bidding!” She whirled dramatically after opening the door, then paused. “Isnʼt that what we have servants for?” she cried and, without waiting for an answer, flounced out of the room in typical twelve-year-old fashion.

  “That girl must be taken in hand! She has grown so very wild in the last year.” Her mother groaned, still in her semi-reclined condition. “We must see to finding her a new governess.”

  “Yes, yes, all that can be dealt with later, but letʼs get back to the subject at hand,” Montbatten complained impatiently, still staring at his daughter. “How is it youʼve become acquainted with the Thorntons again, Daughter? I would have thought you would have found any connection with that family distasteful and even hurtful.”

  If her father only knew the truth of how she had deliberately sought out Thomas Thornton, of how she planned to ruin his familyʼs name. “We met at the Beckingham ball, Papa, two nights ago. We were always friends, you know, before”she faltered, then continued-“before the incident.”

  The duke continued to frown, and Katherine became distinctly uncomfortable under his penetrating gaze. “Are you saying you would welcome his suit if he should choose to pursue you?”

  No! she wanted to cry. She wanted nothing to do with anyone from the Thornton family. But she could not say that.

  Minutes before sheʼd met with her parents, Theodora had reminded her—strongly-of her purpose, her mission.

  “What would you say, Papa, if! Said yes?” she asked instead.

  Katherine had expected her father to vehemently oppose any sort of match between Thomas and her. In fact, part of her secretly wished he would, so she wouldnʼt have to go through with the plan.

  “Why, I think it is a marvelous turn of events!” Montbatten crowed, lifting his arms in a triumphal gesture. “I had despaired of your ever receiving another offer for your hand, and the fact it is Lord Kenswickʼs brother makes the whole affair work to our advantage!”

  Katherine frowned. “Papa, he is just coming to call, not pledging his troth, and how would his pursuing me work to our advantage?”

  “It will speak loudly to all the ton if the Earl of Kenswickʼs brother shows his favor to you; then all those rumors about you and the duel will be unfounded. Donʼt you see-if they were true and Kenswick did throw you over because of something you did, then his brother wouldnʼt speak to you, much less come to call!”

  Katherine sat there stunned as her fatherʼs words sank into her. To think her reputation could be restored simply by being seen with Thomas Thornton. The need to ruin him and his family would no longer be necessary. All she would have to do was be seen with Thomas, making it clear she was not interested in marriage, and in a month or two, they could go their separate ways.

  Her reputation would be restored, and there would no longer be a need for the plan.

  “You are right, Papa, even though I had not thought of it that way,” she murmured as the excitement of her new idea took root.

  “But you must, darling!” her mother chimed in, apparently fully recovered from her swoon without the aid of smelling salts. “Since the breakup of your engagement, it has been hard on all of us, especially me.” She fell back in her chair again, laying her hand over her forehead. “Being snubbed at every gathering can be quite vexing on my fragile health!”

  Shaking her head and stopping short of rolling her eyes, Katherine retorted, “It is my aim in life, Mama, to put right every wrong in my life so that it might benefit your own.”

  The sarcasm breezed right over her motherʼs flighty head.

  “I appreciate that, dear. Truly I do.”

  Katherine and her father shared a wry glance, then stood.

  “If you both will excuse me, I had better freshen up before Mr. Thornton arrives.”

  “Yes, do make yourself extra presentable, dear. We canʼt lose this one, you know. It might be quite some time before another comes to call!” her mother said, her voice shaky with false bravado. “If you happen to pass Lucinda in the hall, can you please tell her to rush with t
hose salts, dear?”

  “Yes, Mama,” she said in a singsong voice as she hurried from the room.

  It was Theodoraʼs room she ran to, however, instead of her own. “Dora! I have just met with my parents, and Papa made the most excellent point!” Excitedly, she told her cousin what her father had said. “So you see, Dora, we do not have to carry out this plan to the bitter end! Just being seen with Mr. Thornton will boost my reputation.”

  “No!” Theodora practically screamed at her as she stood and took Katherine by the arm. “You must see this plan through you must! Itʼs the only way we — I mean, you — can be fully vindicated!”

  Katherine became alarmed at Theodoraʼs anxiety. She had not expected such a response. “But we do not have to ruin Thomas to be vindicated. Just getting my good name back would be…”

  “Enough? Is that what you were going to say?” Theodora spat. “Enough for all the turmoil you have been through?

  Enough for having your heart broken into a million pieces?”

  Katherine knew the breakup of the engagement was more of a humiliation than a heartbreak, but her cousin seemed in no mood to hear that. She seemed quite vexed!

  “Dora, I just think this would be so much simpler-“

  “We will stick with the plan, Kate. We must if we are to see all made right! We must!”

  Katherine backed away from her, pulling her arm out of her painful grasp, and walked to the window. Confusion crowded her mind and heart as she wrestled with the dilemma.

  Two riders on horses appeared in her line of vision, and she focused to reveal their identity. The two handsome men were dressed for riding in their fine suits, both expertly handling their mounts as they rode up the path.

  It was Thomas and North, the Duke of Northing shire.

  ~

  “Are you absolutely sure you want to pursue this?” North asked Thomas again for the third time as they rode toward Ravenhurst Castle. “Many other women would be glad to be your wife and the mother to your son.”

  “Yes, but there is something about Katherine I must follow up on. There was such a strong connection between us that I cannot help but think God had something to do with our meeting again.”

  And he was yearning to see her again.

  “Three days, Dora! Three days have passed since I last saw Mr. Thornton! Not that his visit to Ravenhurst was very memorable, since he stayed for only a few moments!”

  Katherine complained as she paced before Theodora. The cousins had been strolling in the park and had stopped to rest-at least one of them was resting. Katherine found she could not. “We have ridden or walked to this park not once but two times a day, and nothing!” She threw her arms up in exasperation. “I must have said something to put him off. Did I not make it clear I was interested in meeting him again?”

  Theodora scanned the area around them and frowned with disapproval toward Katherine. “The whole village will know you are interested if you speak any louder.”

  Katherine stopped and returned the glare with one of her own. “Do not scold me as if Iʼm a child, Dora. My nerves have been so on edge this week that I fear turning into my mother!” She flounced herself down in a most unladylike manner, not caring one whit whether Dora disapproved or not. “And, speaking of my parents, have you not heard for yourself their conversations of a wedding between Thomas and me that will never take place? Itʼs a terrible prospect to bear, Cousin, knowing I shall break their hearts when I refuse to marry him.”

  Dora reached over and gave her hand a brief pat. Katherine knew even this little show of affection was a stretch for her rather cool cousin. “Weʼll cross that bridge when we arrive at it, Kate. We need to focus our concern now on Mr. Thornton 33

  and how we can get his attention.”

  Katherine stood again, too jittery to sit still. “Oh, why can we not forget about this stupid plan? I know I was all for it when we first spoke of it, but I did not realize how taxing it would be on all concerned.”

  Katherine was watching a lady enter the park pushing a baby carriage when she heard Theodoraʼs sigh. “When it is over and you have been vindicated, you will thank me,” she claimed, just as she always did when Katherine began to have doubts.

  Katherine thought of something else. “But what of my parents?

  They are ecstatic I am being sought by Thomas! They will disown me when I deliberately do not show for my own wedding!”

  “Then you must plant doubts about his character in their minds,” Theodora reasoned.

  “What about his character could I say? He has shown to be a gentleman in all things.”

  “He has not called on you in three days, Katherine. Start with that. Say he often neglects you and, if nothing else, lie.”

  Katherine got a sick feeling in her stomach. “Iʼm not very good at lying,” she said quietly as she turned and looked back across the park.

  “Then learn,” was Theodoraʼs harsh reply. “You can do this, Kate. You must do this.”

  “I donʼt know,” she murmured, her attention becoming more drawn to the woman who had stopped the carriage and was taking the toddler into her arms.

  “What donʼt you know?” Theodora demanded as she got up from her seat and came to stand by her.

  “Dora, who is that lady?”

  Theodora barely glanced over, clearly disinterested. “I have no idea, Katherine, but can we—“

  “Heʼs such a beautiful child, isnʼt he? And those dark brown curls are precious! I must go and have a closer look!” She started across the park, but her cousin grabbed her arm.

  “What can you be thinking, Katherine? We donʼt even know who she is! What if she is from a family that is beneath our attention?”

  Katherine pulled her arm away from Theodoraʼs grasp and shot her a pointed expression. “I did not realize you had become such a snob, Dora. I will only be a minute. You do not have to accompany me.”

  “And I shanʼt!” her cousin called after her.

  Katherine walked across the small park to where the lady was now watching the child play with a ball while sitting on the grass.

  “Hello,” Katherine greeted her. Now that she was closer, she saw the lady was dressed in conservative black like that of a nanny or governess. “I couldnʼt help but admire the child and had to come over for a closer look. “

  The woman peered up at Katherine, and her eyes grew big with recognition. She stood at once and bobbed a curtsy. “My lady! It is a stupendous honor to make your stupendous acquaintance. Just stupendous!”

  Katherine was momentarily nonplussed, but she recovered.

  “Well-I see you know who I am. May I have the honor of knowing your name?”

  She was presented with another of the womanʼs incredibly big smiles. “Indeed, my lady. I am Mrs. Sanborne, employed as a nanny for the young Master Tyler Thornton.”

  Katherine was glad the woman chose that moment to bend down and pick up the child because, for an instant, she could not speak-so shocked was she from that bit of news.

  “Would his father perchance be Mr. Thomas Thornton, rnaʼ am?” she asked breathlessly.

  “Yes, he is, my lady.” She hugged the smiling child to her, and for the first time, Katherine got a good look at the boy.

  Of course, he was Thomasʼs child. There was no mistaking his

  “Thornton” blue eyes.

  “I know Mr. Thornton, but this is the first time Iʼve met his son,” she told the lady, still gazing upon the sweet child.

  Every maternal feeling in her body reached out to the boy who was now motherless in this world with only his father and nanny to care for him.

  You could be his mother, a voice whispered in her head, and for a moment, she let herself think about how it would be.

  How lovely it would be.

  “May I hold him, do you think?” she asked impulsively.

  Mrs. Sanborne was taken aback briefly. “Of course, my lady.

  But watch those pretty pearls you are wearing. Heʼs broken a neckl
ace or two of my own!” .

  ʻʼYou wouldnʼt break my necklace, would you, dear boy? Oh, my, you are a handsome young man!” she crooned and was startled when Ty did reach out to grab her necklace. She caught him just in time. “Why, you are a little scamp!” She kissed his soft curls. ʻʼAnd you are so much like your father,” she added.

  “Are you saying I am a scamp also, my lady?” A deep, teasing voice sounded behind them, and she turned to find Thomas standing there, dressed handsomely in brown and light beige, his feet shod with his black shining Hessians.

  With both the piercing eyes and his brilliant smile focused solely on Katherine, she found it very hard to answer without stumbling over her words. “I think you can be a scamp on occasion, Mr. Thornton,” she said slowly, thankful she was holding on to her composure.