Now, entering the Chinese Salon, a further uncomfortable thought struck her. Could she hide her marital history from a potential employer who would very likely consider it shocking? And what about references? She could hardly ask Nick or the Duke for a recommendation. A sudden bizarre notion flashed into her mind and she could imagine Nick penning a letter to some elderly lady who had wanted a companion.
I can recommend Miss Cunningham most highly as an accomplished pursuer of highwaymen. She is skilled in assaulting magistrates and is capable of conversing with such varied members of society as the Governor of Newgate prison and Will the Fly …
‘You are looking very cheerful, my dear Katherine,’ the Duke remarked as she entered.
‘Good evening, your Grace. Just a foolish thought that entered my head.’
‘Not so foolish if it can bring a smile to your lips. Now, my dear, allow me to introduce you to two members of our household who have been away from home visiting the Bishop. Mr Crace, our learned archivist …’ Katherine exchanged polite bows with a tubby little man who beamed at her ‘… and the Reverend Rossington, our equally learned chaplain.’ A large, rather shambling man with bushy eyebrows and bulging pockets.
‘Mr Crace, Reverend. I do hope you had a pleasant journey back from Bishop’s Auckland.’ She smiled, inwardly wondering what, if anything, his Grace had told the two men about her position in the household.
The Duke took her elbow and steered her towards a chair by the fire, murmuring, in uncanny echo of her thoughts, ‘Mr Crace is also our lawyer and Mr Rossington will be able to advise on the ecclesiastical aspects of your proposed course of action, Katherine. I have already apprised them that you are considering an annulment, and they stand ready to advise you and Nicholas at any time. I thought you might be more comfortable knowing exactly what the extent of their knowledge was.’
‘Thank you, your Grace,’ she said. That at least solved the problem of seeking legal advice, which had been exercising her greatly. If Nick chose to be difficult, she shrank from the thought of revealing such a sensitive matter to a strange lawyer.
Nick and Robert entered on the thought, both of them with the vaguely guilty air of schoolboys late for dinner. After greeting the other men, Nick made his way over to her chair. ‘And what, madam wife, is causing you to smile your cat at the mousehole smile, might I ask?’
Katherine tipped back her head to look at him. ‘You and Robert looked about fourteen coming in just now, as though you had been out playing and had come in late for dinner.’
He grinned. ‘True enough. One of the things that can still fill me with a healthy dread is Father’s wrath at unpunctuality.
And, yes, the two of us have been out schooling that grey horse, Xerxes.’
‘Did you enjoy yourselves?’ ‘Very much. Robert fell off three times, I fell off—’ ‘I have been thinking,’ the Duke announced with a sublime confidence that every other conversation in the room would cease. ‘And I have decided that, to announce to local society that my elder son has returned, I will hold a ball.’
Chapter Nineteen
‘A ball?’ Nick echoed his father icily. ‘And exactly how do you expect to introduce my wife to society at the moment, sir?’
‘As Miss Cunningham,’ his Grace suggested with equal froideur. ‘That leaves all Katherine’s options open, I believe.’ He smiled benignly at her.
‘And how do we account for the fact that an unmarried lady is living unchaperoned in an all-male household? Sir,’ Nick enquired with a politeness that did not convince Katherine for a moment.
‘I will simply not appear at all,’ she said hastily.
‘You are my wife, I will not have you skulking like some demirep I am ashamed to produce!’ he thundered, making her jump. The chaplain and archivist began an earnest conversation in a far corner about ecclesiastical Latin, obviously used to effacing themselves while the Lydgates robustly exchanged opinions.
‘Cousin Fanny,’ the Duke announced, ignoring Nicholas’s bristling indignation. He continued to address himself to Katherine. ‘Lady Fanny Craven, a cousin of somewhat straitened means who enjoys a visit to Seaton Mandeville now and again. I am sure she will be delighted to oblige and, as she lives in Durham, I foresee no problems with her travelling here in time.’
Katherine cast a hasty glance at Nick, who was still looking far from appeased. ‘Thank you, your Grace. That would be most kind, if Lady Fanny is able to spare the time.’ The idea of a ball in the great house, the thought a dancing in Nick’s arms, was powerfully tempting.
‘I am damned if I am having her living in the Dower House,’ Nick stated.
‘Of course not. Fanny shall have her usual rooms. I wrote this afternoon,’ he added, with sublime disregard to the effect this high-handed approach was having on his son and heir. Katherine, silently musing on how much like his father Nick could be, kept her counsel.
‘When do you plan to hold the ball, your Grace?’ she ventured, deciding it was time to intervene before Nick exploded.
‘In ten days’ time.’
‘Dinner is served, your Grace.’ Heron appeared at the door as Nick and Katherine said in unison, ‘What the devil am I supposed to wear?’
‘But I have no ball gown!’
‘You will both have to take yourselves off to Newcastle tomorrow and see to it,’ the Duke announced calmly, offering Katherine his arm and proceeding to take her into dinner.
Behind her she heard Nick’s sudden laugh and loved him for it. He was never a poor loser, despite, she suspected, rarely finding himself in that position.
The next day Katherine went in search of John. She had every intention of getting him to drive her and Jenny into Newcastle and not going with Nick, as she was quite certain her husband intended.
On her way out she pressed a letter into Heron’s hands. ‘His Grace has been kind enough to frank this for me.’ It was a brief account of her whereabouts for Arthur, and a plea to keep her present circumstances a secret. She was reluctant to commit anything to writing, but Arthur had been a good friend and she hated to think of him worrying. And now he knew her direction, he could let her know if he heard anything about Philip.
When she reached the stable yard, the grooms were polite but somewhat vague about John’s whereabouts. He might be in the tack room, or on the other hand he and Durren had been seen talking to the corn chandler. Would her ladyship like the boy sent to fetch him?
‘No, that is quite all right,’ Katherine assured them. ‘I will find him.’ She recalled Jenny telling her where John’s room was, so she made her way from the main stables into the quieter secondary yard and climbed the flight of external stone steps that led up to the room above the hay store which Jenny had described.
The door stood open, but inside all was silent. Just in case, Katherine looked round the door and froze in incredulous silence.
Her groom and her maid were locked in each other’s arms in what she could only describe as a passionate embrace. Katherine stole backwards as quietly as she could, but her very presence must have alerted the lovers for Jenny looked around.
‘Miss Katherine!’
‘I am sorry, I should have knocked, excuse me …’ She was already backing away down the steps when John appeared at the top.
‘Miss Katherine, please—may we speak with you?’
Flustered, Katherine climbed the steps again. She was definitely not of the school of employer who believed