Married to the Marquess (17 page)

“That would be nice,” Katherine sniffled as she hugged her sister-in-law.

“Does he really call you ‘Kate’ all the time?” Diana asked as she sat back, grinning.

Katherine groaned. “Yes, and I cannot make him stop. Although, don’t tell him this, I am starting to like it.”

The grin broadened. “Are you really? Oh dear, he must never know that. I’m sure he only does it to irk you.”

“Oh, I know he does. But I think I could be a Kate rather than a Katherine,” she mused, pondering it.

Diana smiled. “It suits you, you know.”

“What does?”

“Kate.”

She smiled shyly. “Then you may call me Kate as well. But not when he is around.”

“No, of course not,” Diana agreed, looking horrified. “Then we would have to tell him he was right about something, and the swelling of his head would never subside.”

They laughed almost in unison about that, and Katherine sighed, still smiling. “Thank you for sharing a bit about Derek with me. I would like to understand him, and I am trying to allow him to do the same with me, but it’s difficult to become someone else.”

“I think both of you are just learning who you really are together,” Diana said softly. “And you know, Derek would never tell you any of this himself.”

“He wouldn’t?”

She shook her head. “Derek is all about appearances. It’s why no one knows he loves music, why no one knows he hates working outside, and why only I know that he hates geese.”

“Geese?” Katherine repeated with a surprised laugh.

Diana nodded, smiling a bit. “He has no fears, but geese make him uneasy. He avoids them in the park, and will go to great lengths to do so.”

“He has a fear,” Katherine murmured softly as she realized the truth herself.

“He does?” Diana asked in shock. “What is it?”

“Failure.”

For a moment, there was silence. But then, “You
do
know him well, don’t you?”

“No,” she said with a shake of her head. “No, not at all, I am coming to find out.”

Again, Diana reached out a hand to cover hers. “Don’t sell yourself short, Kate. You know him better than you think you do. On a level that you are perhaps afraid to consider.”

They heard male voices then, and Diana looked to the door expectantly. Katherine was relieved to have an interruption, she admitted to herself. Diana’s words had struck something in her, and she would need some time to understand just what it was.

“Well, have you ladies talked about me enough?” Derek asked as he came into the room and took a seat in between the two on the sofa.

Diana gave him a look. “What makes you think we were talking about you?”

“Well, it is the only thing you two have in common, and as Kate has already said that she cannot talk to me about me, the logical deduction is…”

“Shut up, Derek,” Diana said with a roll of her eyes. “The words ‘logical’ and ‘deduction’ do not belong in your mouth together. Edward, couldn’t you reason with him?”

Edward smiled an easy smile and shrugged his shoulders as he took the open chair. “I tried, my dear, but you know how Whitlock gets.”

“Yes, I do,” she scowled.

Edward grinned and nodded at Katherine. “Hello, Lady Whitlock. How are you?”

“I am well, thank you, Lord Beckham,” she said with a returning nod.

He waved a hand dismissively. “Please, we are family. Edward will do just fine.”

“Edward it is, then,” she agreed with a smile. “I am sorry we have never been so informal before.”

Again he shrugged. “It is a pity, but the past is the past.”

“So help me, Edward, if you start going off about new beginnings again, I am going to throw myself out of the window,” Derek warned. It was Edward’s favorite topic, and Derek had heard quite enough about it.

“Promise?” Diana asked, perking up with interest. She looked to her husband. “Oh, do go on about them, darling. I’ve been trying to send him out of a window for
years
.”

Edward and Katherine laughed and Derek only glowered. “I think it is time to leave, Kate, don’t you?” he asked in an imperious tone.

She offered him a cheeky grin. “If you would like to leave, then by all means we can, Derek, but just so you know, Diana and I are great friends now, so you had better get used to it.”

“God save me,” he muttered as he hauled himself to his feet.

“Oh, are you really going?” Diana asked in disappointment, her humor gone. “I never see you anymore.”

He smiled down at her and helped her up. “Sorry, Di. Why don’t you and Edward come over for dinner soon? We’re getting a new chef.”

“Yes, and he is very excited about it,” Katherine said with a laugh as Edward stood and offered her a hand up.

Diana’s eyes widened. “Oh, didn’t I warn you?” She leaned closer and whispered loudly, “The only proper way to control a Chambers man is through food.”

“Duly noted,” Katherine replied.

“True enough,” Derek sighed, stretching his arms widely. “Give me a fine meal and I will bow to any bidding.”

“Any?” Katherine asked with a skeptical quirk of her brow that sent Edward and Diana snickering.

“Well, within reason,” Derek amended, shooting her a dark glance.

She shook her head, smiling, and moved to embrace Diana. “Thank you for humoring me,” she said softly. “I hope it was not too much of an imposition.”

“Not at all,” Diana returned with a tight squeeze. “You are welcome any time, with or without invitation.”

“You as well,” Katherine insisted as she released her. “Any time.”

“Within reason,” Derek said again, glaring at both of them.

The girls rolled their eyes and scoffed at the same time, which made them laugh again. “Do you know, I think we are in trouble, old boy,” Derek murmured to Edward as he watched his wife and sister laugh in an eerily similar fashion.

“I have been in trouble for a couple of years now,” Edward sighed in resignation. “It only gets worse.”

Derek shuddered, clapped his brother-in-law on the back, then gestured for Kate to lead the way out.

“Just a moment, Derek, if I may,” Diana said suddenly.

Surprised, he turned to her. “Yes?”

She smiled at Kate, and said, “It will be brief, if you don’t mind.”

“No, not at all,” she replied, looking curious, but accepting as she left the room.

Once she was gone, Derek turned back to his sister. “Yes, sister dearest?”

She punched him in the arm. “Derek, why have you been so mean about her?” she hissed rather malevolently. “She’s wonderful!”

“Give it time,” he ground out as he rubbed the arm. His sister had always had a rather powerful punch. “She may just be hiding her true self.”

“You don’t sound very convinced.”

“I’m not.”

“Derek,” Diana said slowly, looking up at him. “Do you like her?”

“Kate? Sure I do. When she is in a mood for it.” He shrugged. “I have yet to determine if she is going to attack me in my sleep or not.”

Edward looked like he would laugh, but one glare from his wife and the ceiling suddenly became very intriguing to him. Diana looked back at her brother and her eyes were stern. “Derek, I think you know what I mean.”

“Leave it alone, Diana,” he warned, losing humor. “You cannot meddle in this one. I don’t even know if this friendship between my wife and I will work, let alone if it will ever go anywhere further. She may be lying in wait for me to grow comfortable and careless, and then she will strike with a vengeance and all you will find of me will be my coattails and front teeth.”

“Derek,” she tried again, looking earnest.

“No,” he said firmly, kissing her forehead briefly. “No, Diana. Leave it alone. Good bye.”

“What if you are wrong?” she persisted as he turned to go.

He growled and whirled to face her. “You know that Shakespeare play, Diana? ‘Taming of the Shrew’?”

Her brow furrowed in confusion. “Yes, of course, who doesn’t?”

“It just so happens I may find myself in the middle of the sequel, ‘Revenge of the Shrew’.”

A sudden smile appeared on Diana’s face. “Methinks the gentleman doth protest too much.”

The glare she earned was so full of warning and irritation, Derek was rather proud of himself. “Methinks my sister is both interfering and insane. Good day.” Without a further word to anyone, he turned on his heel and left the room.

Diana turned to her husband with a grin as her now riled brother was leaving.

“What?” Edward asked as he took his wife into his arms. “What are you thinking in that conniving head of yours?”

“Derek just may be falling in love with his wife,” she confessed with a light kiss to her husband’s mouth.

“He
what
?” Edward cried, rearing back a bit in shock.

She nodded fervently.

“He didn’t look like a man in love to me,” Edward said skeptically, looking back to the door.

“No, but he does look like a man in denial,” Diana allowed with a smirk. “And that is always a good way to begin.”

C
hapter
T
en

“T
ell me more about the duchess rules.”

Katherine jerked out of her thoughts and looked up at her husband. “What?”

He took her arm and pulled her back from the street where a coach had nearly run her over. “Shocked, are you?” he quipped with a grin. “I was listening most intently, and I want to know. Tell me.”

She scowled up at him and started towards the street again. “You want me to tell you about the duchess rules my mother forced on me as a child?”

“Yes,” he replied with a nod.

“No.”

“Why not?” he asked as he followed her towards their house. “I married a future duchess, I think I am entitled to know what I’m getting into.”

“Did you not tell me only a few hours ago that a duchess can do whatever she wants, be whoever she wants, wherever she wants, and that was all that mattered?” she returned with a raised brow.

“I did, indeed. But the fact remains that there are more rules than just that one in your head, and I want to know what they are.”

Katherine frowned just a bit. After the whirl of the day, she really could use some time to herself to think, but talking with Derek could help as well. Diana had said he was a good listener, so perhaps he could genuinely be of some assistance. But what if he mocked her? What if this was to be the turning point that ruined their budding friendship?

“Kate?”

She looked up at him again, and found that they were stopped in front of their home, and Derek was looking at her with a touch of concern, and a good deal of curiosity.

“What will I receive in return?” she asked, swallowing to moisten her dry throat.

“For what?”

“For telling you the duchess rules, of course.”

His furrowed brow relaxed. “Oh, that.” He thought for a moment, and then shrugged. “I will tell you the rules for being a Chambers.”

She had not expected that. She had hoped he would ask what she wanted to know, and then she could approach whatever subject she wanted clarification on. But for him to offer to share something so similar to hers was too intriguing a prospect to pass up.