‘Indeed.’ Nick thought she would have rather more than ‘something’ to say, but he preferred that it was not said in the inn courtyard. Not that she was likely to be saying anything at all to him after the way they had parted last night. On that thought Kat appeared, Jenny at her heels.
Nick conjured up all the sang-froid at his disposal and opened the carriage door. She was wearing what must be her best day dress, he realised. Her bonnet was smart whilst being restrained and her hair was rigorously constrained beneath it. All in all, the perfect new daughter-in-law. His heart ached at the effort she was making.
Katherine nodded in the general direction of Nick as she climbed into the coach. She found she could not meet his eye and neither could she find any word of greeting. It was as though a pane of glass had descended between them and all they could do was gesture at each other through it.
The glass shattered as he entered the carriage on Jenny’s heels. Katherine stared at him, aghast. She had not expected this, none of her defences were in place to deal with him.
‘Good morning,’ he said pleasantly, settling back opposite the two young women. ‘I hope you slept well.’ The query was directed straight at Jenny, who smiled unaffectedly and nodded.
‘Oh, yes, sir. Good feather beds they have here, sir.’
‘I passed an indifferent night,’ Katherine remarked and was surprised at the fire in the dark eyes as they focused on her.
‘Indeed? So did I. Perhaps our unrest had a similar cause.’
She had hoped to discommode him; now he had thrown the challenge straight back to her. ‘I have no doubt it did,’ Katherine agreed warmly, aware that her temper was showing in her eyes, but uncaring of the fact.
‘To what do you attribute it?’
Damn him. And damn him for making her use bad language, even in her thoughts. She smiled sweetly. ‘I am nervous of meeting my new family, and I am sure you feel some apprehension after all these years, Nicholas.’
Her husband made no attempt to reassure her about his family and her heart sank. This was going to be every bit as difficult as she feared. They both fell silent. To Katherine, completely at a loss as to how to pierce his armour, it seemed that Nick simply retreated into his own self-contained world. What he was facing could not be easy, yet he was not going to let her glimpse the slightest sign of inner turmoil.
Pride, she thought resentfully, then wondered. Was last night’s outburst of passion some glimpse into an inner turmoil?
She had hardly formulated the thought when Jenny remarked, ‘What a long wall.’
Katherine leaned forward to look out of the window. On the nearside of the carriage stretched a high freestone wall, neatly mortared, regularly buttressed and apparently endless. After ten minutes, when there was no break in it, she remarked, ‘The park of a great estate, one assumes.’
‘Yes, the Duke of Marlowe’s.’
‘A family with which you are acquainted?’ That might give her some clue as to his family’s local standing.
There was a pause, then Nick replied evenly, ‘I was close to the younger son at one time.’
They drove for perhaps another two miles in silence. Katherine found the monotony of the uniform wall cast an almost hypnotic spell over her and she could do little other than gaze at it. Then the carriage slowed. Glancing at him, she saw the sudden alertness in Nick, the way his eyes darkened. Expecting John to turn left, away from the wall, Katherine was taken by surprise as the carriage made a right turn and passed between high gateposts.
Off balance, she swayed against the movement of the carriage and was thrown forward. Nick caught her forearms and settled her back on the seat. The incident was over in a moment, but it was enough for her to miss whatever John called down to the gatekeeper as the great gates swung open and the carriage was all at once bowling through parkland.
A herd of fallow deer browsed under the spreading branches of a coppice of sweet chestnuts. They raised their heads to regard the passing carriage with great soft, incurious eyes and bent to the short grass again.
‘Miss Katherine—’ Jenny began, then stopped abruptly as Katherine’s hand closed tight on her wrist. She met her mistress’s wide eyes and read the unmistakable message of silence on them. As one the young women turned and stared at Nicholas Lydgate.
He was not watching them. Instead, his face unreadable, he was gazing out of the carriage window as the acres of parkland unrolled before them. His eyes were wide, dark and bright with unshed tears.
Katherine caught her breath, yearning to lean forward and touch him, terrified of disturbing his fragile control. This … this great estate must be home.
She found her mind was prey to theories and questions tumbling one after another. What were they doing apparently driving up to the mansion of the Duke of—what did Nick say? Marlowe? Was his father the steward to the Duke? Or perhaps as he was the greatest landowner Nick felt it incumbent on him to call upon the Duke first? No, surely not … The questions trembled on her tongue, but the look in Nick’s shadowed eyes warned her to keep silent. Inside the cold knot of apprehension grew and burgeoned.
Then the house appeared, reflected in its lake like a mirage, and all the questions disappeared. ‘Oh, how beautiful!’ Katherine was not aware of speaking aloud.
‘I have always thought that from this view across the lake it seems more like a dream than a real building.’ Nick cleared his throat and spoke dispassionately, only his right hand balled into a fist on the ledge of the window betrayed emotions he would not display. Katherine glanced at his face—his eyes were dry again.
Cold greyish-white stone, turrets and towers, a shifting pattern of roofs as the carriage moved—it was like a fairytale castle at one moment, a palace the next.
‘It is vast.’ Katherine heard the shake in her own voice and stiffened her spine. It seemed that this was their destination and that Nick must be some connection with the family who inhabited this awe-inspiring dwelling. Not a younger son, that she knew. She turned to him, suddenly agitated out of her usual calm self-control at the answer that was forcing itself into her mind. ‘Nick, why are we here?’
‘Because this is where I live,’ he said simply as the carriage drew to a halt at the foot of a great double sweep of steps. They rose gracefully to a balustraded platform in front of the doors.
Nick got up and threw open the door before John could climb down. Katherine found herself handed out, a gaping Jenny at her heels. ‘Follow the drive round to the side, you will see the stable block,’ he called up to John, then took Katherine’s arm and began to climb the right-hand branch of the steps.
Stunned into silence, she let herself be guided. The hand under her elbow was steady and, glancing up, she saw his face was calm, severe and quite unreadable. With a sudden flash of insight she realised this was the face he would have shown to the mob at the hanging. They arrived on the wide flagged platform and, as if at a signal, the doors swung open.
Katherine did not know quite what to expect. This seemed to be a dream so fantastical that if the great Chan of China or the Prince Regent had emerged she would not have been surprised. The reality was more prosaic. Firstly a liveried footman and then, stepping primly in his wake, a thin, elderly man in dark clothing, unmistakably the butler.
‘Good day sir, madam, I regret that his Grace is not—’ He broke off and stared. ‘Mr Nicholas! My lord!’ His face turned white. For a moment Katherine thought he would faint, then Nick had him by the shoulders and the colour ebbed back as he slowly shook his head in wonderment. ‘Heavens be praised, my lord, we thought you must be dead for sure. Six years …’ His voice shook.
‘Heron, if you break down, it will quite unman me,’ Nick said roughly. Katherine could hear the affection in his voice