Wedding Night With the Earl (16 page)

She had checked the basket she’d left by the door before she sat down and had been pleased with the contents. The ladies had been generous with their donations today. By the time she convinced Aunt Leola and her two uncles to pilfer their wardrobes again for castoffs to be added, she would have an overflowing basket to take to the orphanage later in the week.

Since Madeline had been the one to start the group, she’d always insisted that any young lady who wanted to tell them about what had happened to her since the last time they met must have the opportunity to do so. Madeline considered it a good way to get the group talking together about the latest gossip and gentlemen, which were the two topics most of them were interested in hearing about anyway.

Penny went first, excited to tell them all about her ride in the park with Mr. Hugo Underwood. It was easy to tell the gentleman had made quite the impression on her. There was a rosy glow to her cheeks and an unusual sparkle in her eyes.

Then she went on to tell whom she’d danced with at the balls of the past week and which interesting gentlemen she had been presented to—including, at the Duke of Quillsbury’s dinner party, the Earl of Greyhawke. Much to Katherine’s consternation, Penny added that she had not been lucky enough to talk with the earl at any length, as Katherine had, and that perhaps Katherine might want to enlighten the ladies as to what she and the earl had had to say to each other. Especially since they had conversed for a very long time.

That statement, of course, prompted Madeline to ask Katherine to expand on what Penny had said. Tired of the troublesome questions directed at her about His Lordship, Katherine decided to turn the tables on them and ask a few questions of her own.

“I’m glad you mentioned that, Penny,” she said to the redhead. “As it happens, I haven’t seen Lord Greyhawke at any of the parties except for my uncle’s. Am I just missing him? Has anyone else seen him at a gathering since that night?”

Katherine was careful how she’d worded that last question. She had seen Lord Greyhawke, of course, but it was at the park, not at a party. She had looked for him every night, hoping he would make an appearance so she could talk with him again and maybe somehow find a way to kiss him again.

The question brought low murmurings around the room.

“I haven’t seen him either,” Madeline concurred. “That’s rather odd, isn’t it? We can only assume the reason he came back to London for the Season was to make a match. I mean, what other reason could there be? And how can he settle on a lady and make a match if he’s not attending the parties to meet us and dance with us?”

“I know the rumor was that after his wife died, he said he’d never marry again,” Barbara said.

“Who could blame him?”

“But that was before he became an earl,” Fern added quickly to what Madeline said.

“Yes, surely he will want to marry now,” Penny said thoughtfully. “He’ll need an heir to inherit the title.”

Darlene laughed. “But you are now interested in Mr. Underwood, aren’t you, Penny?”

“She’s interested in any gentleman who is interested in her,” Barbara said with a smirk.

“As we all are,” Madeline reminded them.

Katherine remained quiet and let the ladies talk and enjoy themselves. She also made note of the fact that Dixon must not be common knowledge around Town. The earl had said his cousin was his heir. Surely if any of the ladies had known about him, they would have spoken up. Katherine smiled. Or maybe, like her, there were some other ladies keeping quiet about what they might know about the mysterious Lord Greyhawke.

And that thought caused Katherine to take a hard look at the faces of each lady in the room. Had the earl kissed any of them? And if he had, had he kissed them with the same passion he’d kissed her?

“Then I’ll just have to find out where he is hiding and remind him that I’m young, strong, and available to bear his heirs,” Agatha said.

Several of the ladies laughed, and the conversation continued on the light side, with most of them taking aim at the missing earl.

Katherine was not about to tell them she’d asked the earl that very question about why he’d come to London and he’d said he hadn’t come back to make a match. It wasn’t up to her to disappoint them and take away the hope that they just might be the one for him. Like the other ladies, she’d found herself wishing that he had returned in need of a wife, because Katherine was in need of a husband.

After they’d said what they wanted concerning Lord Greyhawke, Barbara was the next to talk. She was relishing spreading a little gossip about her brother. She’d overheard him telling one of his friends about an unnamed young lady rubbing her foot up and down his leg at a card party. While all listened, Katherine heard voices coming from the front of the house. She set her knitting aside so she could see who had come in when Melba Tiploft bounded into the drawing room. Her eyes were large and her face was flushed with excitement.

“I am sorry to interrupt, ladies,” she said breathlessly.

Katherine immediately noticed that she was not holding her sewing satchel in her gloved hand, but a sheet of newsprint. To Katherine, that did not bode well.

“Melba, what held you up?” Madeline said in a scolding tone. “You’re very late.”

“I know,” Melba answered, looking as though she were the cat that had just eaten the fattest bird in the nest. “I have a very good reason. I was feeling poorly this morning and decided I wouldn’t come out this afternoon but stay home and rest. I wanted to feel wonderful for tonight’s parties. And it’s a good thing I did.” She held up the paper. “This came while I was resting and my maid brought it up to me. After I read it, I threw off my robe and rushed to get dressed. I hurried to get over here before all of you left.”

“What is it?” Madeline asked.

“It must be the gossip column,” Barbara suggested.

“Who is it about?” Agatha asked in an excited voice, rubbing her hands together hopefully.

“Oh, I do hope there’s something in there about me,” Penny said, laying her knitting aside. “I’ve always wanted to be written about in the gossip columns.”

“Then perhaps you should do something scandalously outrageous for once in your life so that someone will want to write about you,” Madeline suggested sweetly.

Everyone laughed.

Including Penny, who added, “I would, but I can’t find a gentleman willing to put me in a compromising situation. They are all afraid they will be caught in a parson’s mousetrap.”

“And they would be,” Fern boasted.

“Ladies,” Melba said in an exasperated voice. “Perhaps I should just get on with it and read this.”

“Go ahead,” Darlene said. “But please don’t try to sound like an actress on a stage. You really don’t do that well.”

“Ah!” Melba objected. “I have never tried to read like an actress in my life.”

“You do it every time you read a poem to us,” Darlene insisted.

“I wouldn’t,” Melba insisted.

“Ladies, this is not the time for idle bickering,” Madeline declared. “Let’s settle down and let her read however she wishes. We just want to know what it says. Shall we?”

“And it is about someone in this room—but no, Penny, not you,” Melba said. “Now, do the rest of you want me to read this or not?”

“Yes,” several of the ladies said.

Melba remained standing right beside Katherine, unfolded the paper, and began to read:

The new Earl of Greyhawke has returned to London and is setting off more fireworks than you can see at Vauxhall Gardens on a dark night. The first and only sighting of him so far this Season, as best determined at this writing, has been at a dinner party given by the Duke of Quillsbury. It is on good authority of the recounting of events which are written here that the duke’s niece was seen in the earl’s arms before the night was over.

A low, slow, collective gasp sounded around the room, and every eye fixed on Katherine.

Melba stopped reading and held up her hand to silence the room. When everyone’s attention centered on her again, she continued.

But as shocking as that may be to the dear readers of this column, there is an even bigger indiscretion that needs to be reported here today. It has been confirmed by more than one that while at the duke’s table, his niece and the earl, who were dinner partners, exchanged dinner plates.

Melba finished with a deep intake of breath and a satisfied smile on her face. “Now, Katherine,” she said as she folded the newsprint dramatically, “you must tell us what you have to say for yourself about this.”

“Did he really pick you up in his arms?” Penny asked.

“What I want to know is what it felt like to be lifted up in those strong masculine arms,” Madeline said.

“Did you see him coming and fall on purpose so he’d be obliged to help you?” Darlene wanted to know.

“Say something,” Barbara insisted.

Katherine gave the ladies an uncertain smile and looked specifically at Penny. “Do you still want to be in the gossip columns?”

It took another hour, which seemed like four, and no small amount of double talk by Katherine to satisfy the Wilted Tea ladies that the story, as told in the column, had been exaggerated by enormous proportions. She had no idea if any of them believed her in the end, but all eventually, though slowly, bade her farewell and took their leave.

After the door shut behind the last member, Katherine hobbled up the stairs to her aunt’s room. The door was open. Her aunt sat at her desk with her back to Katherine. This was not a conversation she wanted to have.

Swallowing past the tightness in her throat, Katherine knocked and said, “Auntie, may I come in?”

Lady Leola turned a blank face to Katherine. “Of course. And yes, I’ve seen it. I expected it. I’m just surprised it’s taken so long for it to come out in the open.”

Katherine’s shoulders drooped and she leaned heavily on her cane as she entered the room. “Has the duke read it?”

“Not yet, but he will. He and Lord Willard left this morning for Kent. Said they’d be back in a couple of days. You know how restless the duke gets if he stays in one place too long.”

Katherine remembered well. When she was younger, they often moved from one manor house to another, then back to London for a few weeks before retracing their steps to the country. He’d tell her that as long as he kept moving, he wouldn’t get old.

“I’m sure this gossip will make him unhappy.”

“Yes, but it won’t last. He gets over things easily and quickly. Being a duke, he’s always had so many things on his mind to deal with that if he didn’t take care of a problem and then forget about it and move on, he would never get anything done. He is not a worrywart. After he reads it when he returns, the only thing he will want to know is whether I have taken care of the problem. Which I shall do.”

Katherine wasn’t unhappy her uncle Quillsbury was gone. She’d just been hounded unmercifully by her friends, and now she had to get through the same discussion with her aunt. She was glad there would be a reprieve before she had to go through this with her uncles.

She let out a sigh. “It’s just that they made it sound so much worse than it actually was.”

“That is why it’s called scandal, my dear,” her aunt said calmly, and laid her quill aside.

Katherine appreciated that she never heard any condemnation in her aunt’s voice. “What should we do now?”

“Nothing.”

Katherine bristled. She didn’t like that idea. She didn’t want to just give up and let the gossips have their say without fighting back. Living the rest of her life with her aunt and two uncles was not how she envisioned spending her future.

“Nothing,” she repeated. “So this is it? I won’t go to any more of the parties? I’m to be shunned by all of Society?”

“Heavens have mercy, Katherine!” Her aunt rose in astonishment and walked over to her. “Of course you won’t. You are a Wright. Whether or not you are always right, you will hold your head and shoulders high and act as though you are. The duke would never allow a niece of his to be shunned, even if she were caught in bed with a man and with neither of them wearing a stitch of clothing! The best way to put a rumor to rest is to ignore it. That is what we shall do.”

“Good,” Katherine said, feeling somewhat better. “I didn’t like the idea of just giving up.”

“Wrights never give up.” The corners of her aunt’s thin lips turned up in a grin. “We would never do that. Nor will we give it any merit by referencing it or crying foul and furiously denying it.”

“That would only fuel the fire,” Katherine surmised.

“Precisely. We will attend all the parties this evening, and tomorrow evening, and the evening after that, and all the others until there are no more parties to attend. We shall act as if you have been slandered and vilified, but we are above the tawdry efforts of the gossipmongers. We will show them all that you have done nothing wrong, and you have nothing to hide from anyone. Are you up to that?”

“Absolutely,” Katherine agreed.

“Wonderful. We will simply act as if nothing is amiss.” She paused. “Which really there isn’t, right?”

Katherine looked at her aunt but remained quiet. Something was very much amiss, but she didn’t know what she could do about it.

She couldn’t very well admit to her aunt that Lord Greyhawke had kissed her and that she desperately wanted to see him again. When she’d seen him at the park, all she could think of was how wonderful it would be if he could kiss her again. If he held her close and kissed her as he had that marvelous night in front of her house.

But the earl wasn’t cooperating.

Lord Greyhawke refused to come to the parties, so neither she nor any of the other ladies could see him, talk to him, and get to know him. Katherine knew she was supposed to be looking for a husband, a man who would give her strong, healthy children to love and care for. But the only man she could think about was the one who’d said he wasn’t going to marry again. The man who’d obviously loved his wife so much that he became a beast and smashed the furniture in his house when she and his babe had died.

Perhaps that was one of the reasons she’d been so attracted to him. He was unattainable. But he also challenged her. He was the only man who didn’t seem to pander to her limp as much as her aunt and uncles did. He wasn’t bothered by it, either. In fact, just the opposite was true. He thought he could help her learn to walk without her cane.