Scandalous Miss Brightwells [Book 1-4]

he very difficult subject before her, but an excited cry from further up the passage made them break away abruptly.

“Mr Marwick?” The shocked recognition was followed by a pause before the large and venerable society hostess whom Katherine remembered well from descriptions given to her by her mother, followed up her original question with, “Miss Fenton?”

Mr Marwick chuckled as he took Katherine’s hand and led her towards the Duchess of Lexington. “Lady Russell, may I present my new wife, Mrs Marwick, no longer Miss Fenton. Yes, we’ve been wicked; we’ve just eloped, but we hope society will forgive us as it did your very own niece last year when she hastened across the border with a man who has now been welcomed into the family.”

Lady Russell hesitated as she was joined by the earl, their three daughters, and respective husbands. And then suddenly the passage seemed filled with half of London society offering Katherine and Freddy their best wishes.

And amidst their gaiety and well wishes, Katherine knew that her fate was sealed.

Part II

Seven Years Later

Chapter 15

Jack stood on the stern of the SS Eglinton, and watched the shores of his homeland grow from a tiny speck in the distance, to discernible landmarks while he worked to suppress his excitement. A new phase of his life was about to begin, and after years of toil, travelling, a generous mentor and clever investments, he was returning to the land that had always occupied his heart, a self-made man with a substantial fortune.

A new decade had begun, and he foresaw the forties as heralding an exciting era of innovation and prosperity for the British people. Trade routes were opening up, and that could only mean exciting and hitherto unthought-of opportunities for those with energy and an eye to the future like himself.

So much had changed since Jack had first journeyed to foreign shores on the Hugh Lindsay. After a year in the West Indies, Jack had travelled to Bombay where he’d worked in various capacities these past six years. When he’d been taken under the wing of the astute but kindly Zebediah Worthington, three years before, Jack’s fortunes had soared.

Now Jack was returning to England a prosperous merchant. He’d purchased an estate to please the worthy bride he’d chosen. The only daughter of his mentor, Odette had arrived in Bombay the previous year to visit her father and had left with him to return to England three months earlier.

Strange, then, that Jack’s thoughts should be occupied so much by Katherine.

When he’d left England, it had been the same. He’d thought more about the girl he loved during the long crossing than he had about the prospect of adventure and success. He’d not expected to feel such a sense of loss; as if the aching void could never be adequately filled now that he’d discovered what made him feel whole. He’d thought of writing to Katherine to beg her to join him if she felt as he did. He wanted to tell her that if she loved him, they’d find a way to make it work.

What a green boy he’d been. He turned up the collar of his coat and wiped his spray-wet eyes with his sleeve. He’d wanted adventure, and he’d longed for Katherine’s spirited company but he’d been right to know that the two were quite incompatible.

When the first letter from his mother had caught up with him three months after his departure, it had contained the news that Katherine had eloped with Freddy Marwick within a day of Jack sailing away. Before he’d boarded the boat even. That had wounded his pride more than he’d ever admit.

All the hours that the howling wind had delayed the ship sailing, Jack had paced the small chamber of his Southampton tavern with only one wish: to see Katherine burst through the door, begging him to take her with him.

And he could have. The captain, as it turned out, was travelling with his wife and three small children whose nursemaid had abandoned them on the eve of their departure. Katherine could have fulfilled the role had fate played into their hands. That is, if she’d been reckless enough to follow her heart and had chosen to elope with Jack rather than with the already established Marwick, now Lord Marples.

Instead, she’d channelled her adventurous spirit into other directions, and following her marriage to Marwick, produced one child at last count.

Well, he hoped she was happy. His mother’s last letter, received eight months previously, for Jack had been on the move, hinted at some cloud over Lord Marples’s reputation, but no doubt he’d overridden that. Freddy Marwick had money, position, and benefactors.

Jack was proud of the fact that his own success hadn’t been secured by family connections. His adoptive father was a gentleman, but with no considerable fortune or influence, and he had his natural children to worry about. Patmore Farm was prosperous, but it was no grand estate like the one over which Katherine would now have dominion.

Jack had always been conscious of his good fortune in being elevated from the foundling home. He knew nothing about his natural parents. There was nothing he could know; no information on record, meaning he must be extra enterprising in making his own way in the world.

But soon Jack would have his own family. When the Eglantine reached shore before the sun set, he’d be greeted by the lovely daughter of the man to whom he owed so much—the young woman who was to become his wife in six weeks.

Jack had not taken much notice of Odette Worthington when she’d first arrived but after her father had fallen ill, he’d found himself increasingly called upon to squire Odette around Bombay in her father’s stead, with Zebediah Worthington’s sanction.

Almost without Jack realising it, an understanding appeared to have been accepted by old Mr Worthington and his daughter that intimated marriage. Six months before, with a great sense of inevitability, Jack had made a formal proposal that had been accepted.

Now, within hours, he’d be greeted by his bride-to-be and conveyed back to the London townhouse in which she lived with her ailing father.

It certainly wasn’t an unpleasing prospect. Odette was lively and engaging. In fact, she had all the attributes he’d have looked for in a wife, had he been looking. But perhaps it was better this way. Odette seemed delighted by the arrangement. In the last two postal deliveries, he’d received an accumulated six gushing letters from her.

He tried to remember what she looked like as he leant over the railing and closed his eyes against the spray. Instead, he saw Katherine’s face, impish and lively, the dimples in her cheeks popping out when she smiled at him, the sparkle in her eyes when she caught his gaze upon her, the limpid, dreamy look that came over her when he held her in his arms.

But Katherine was out of reach now. Her family would have grown, and she’d be weighed down by the cares and responsibilities of being, no doubt, one of London’s notable society matrons. He could well envisage Katherine excelling in whatever role she undertook and, as Lord Marples’s wife, she was no doubt immersed in charitable activities while smoothing the way for her husband’s career to climb.

Giving himself a mental shake, he forced his mind back to Odette. He supposed it was not surprising that he couldn’t remember the colour of her eyes, whereas every time he saw a sapphire, he was reminded of Katherine’s and the way they’d sparkle as she was about to impart some secret piece of information or amusing on dit.