Scandalous Miss Brightwells [Book 1-4]

“I wouldn’t have minded, as long as it wasn’t with grandmother. And Mr Patmore’s told me wonderful stories and given me apple pie. He’s very nice, Mama.” She paused and sent Katherine a searching look. “Don’t you think so?”

Katherine felt a very sharp tug at her heartstrings. She ventured a glance at Jack. “He is,” she agreed, clearing her throat, then looking at him more directly before she had the courage to put her hand on his arm. “I don’t know how to thank you, Jack.”

“I put no conditions on helping where I can,” he said, sounding surprisingly formal though something in his gaze was at odds with his pronouncement.

Nevertheless, Katherine winced. “I must get Diana up to the nursery. It’s been a long day for her but do say you’ll stay a while. You can’t be thinking to return immediately.” To her consternation, Jack had cast several glances at his carriage as if that was exactly what he intended doing.

“Jack! We’re serving tea in the conservatory. Do come and join us!”

Katherine was glad her mother had made the offer sound impossible to refuse. She was afraid that her own entreaties would have sounded a note that sat ill with his notion of what duty required of him. Odette was, mercifully, not with him but the pull she exerted was apparent. Duty was like the dead spouse whose memory must be served up at the appropriate times to preserve propriety, she thought suddenly.

“Katherine, go and see to Diana. I’m sure you don’t want to say all that needs to be said here for all the world to hear. I’ll take Jack to the conservatory.” Lady Fenton’s hand was firmly about Jack’s upper arm as she began to lead him into the house.

There, he couldn’t refuse now, could he? Katherine thought with a surge of desperation that he stay.

With as much haste as was seemly, Katherine returned from upstairs where she’d transferred Diana into the capable hands of her nursemaid, who was ecstatic to see her young charge safe and in her usual bright spirits. “I’ll be back soon to have a proper talk with you about the decisions you made today, Diana,” she said, trying hard to sound stern but desperate to leave in case Jack should be gone before she returned.

To her relief, he was ensconced in the conservatory with her parents, but not long after Katherine arrived her mother said, somewhat abruptly, “Jack, do you remember the old almond tree?”

He looked surprised. “I spent a lot of time eating cake up in its branches.”

“With Katherine. Yes, I always knew where to look to find her. Katherine, why don’t you take Jack to see the almond tree? I’m sure he’d enjoy such a visit into the past. I thought I might find Diana there. What a naughty child!” But she said it with a twinkle in her eye.

Katherine felt a jolt of excitement at the idea of leading Jack, with her mother’s sanction, to the almond tree, though surely her mother realised the mission was hopeless.

She was even more convinced of this when she saw Jack’s obvious reluctance. “I think Jack wants to be on the road before too long,” she said, eyeing him. “He’s worried about Odette.”

“Fiddlesticks! Odette now has three chaperones: Mrs Monks, Antoinette, and Bertram and it’s highly likely they’re already with Eliza who’s now happily ensconced at Patmore Farm and waiting to welcome Jack to his old home. Jack’s been on the road all day. He must be exhausted. Of course he can’t turn right around and begin another tedious stretch of travel straight away. Now, you two go to the almond tree and tell me if you don’t suddenly feel like children again.”

Katherine sent Jack a stricken look as she raised her eyes. Her mother was treating them like children. Furthermore, she was adopting that tone that suggested she not only had a plan but matters well in hand and was confident of a happy outcome.

The only positive aspect of all this was that it was clear Lady Fenton sanctioned Jack over Lord Derry, but she’d clearly not factored in the strength of Jack’s attachment to Odette.

Still, a little kernel of hope lodged in Katherine’s heart as she saw the betraying flicker of longing in Jack’s eye. He did want to go to the almond tree with her. He did want to be alone with her. Had his time in the carriage with Diana given him a different perspective on how their futures might be?

A twist of pain, longing and fear burrowed into her and nervously she smoothed her hands over her skirts. Had he realised whose child Diana really was? Would it be enough to make him relinquish his ties to Odette? Katherine couldn’t tell him. It would be coercion, but if he deduced it himself…

By the time Katherine had risen and was at the door beside Jack, a myriad of possibilities had flowered in her breast. Maybe her mother was right in not simply accepting as Katherine had done—that Jack was irrevocably pledged to Odette.

She barely knew what to say as they walked silently, side by side, towards the almond tree by the lake.

It was only natural they stop and turn to face one another when they were beneath its laden branches.

Without hesitating, Jack put his hands on Katherine’s forearms and looked her in the eye. In the distance, the clouds had amassed, grey and darkening, while a gentle breeze stirred her hair and brushed her cheek; just as she wished Jack would do in that wonderful, familiar way of his when he was talking to her.

In the moment before he opened his mouth to speak, she tried to read what was in his heart. It was a better ga

uge than what he might say to her, she feared, and yet she could still hope. It was all she had left.

“Katherine.” Her name hung in the air. He cleared his throat as if what he had to say were momentous but he had no idea how to go on.

She stared at him. Waiting. Say it, Jack. Tell me you love me for that’s the truth. Tell me whatever else you have to say for Odette’s sake, but at least say what’s in your heart, she silently willed him.

At last he spoke. “A year ago, I acknowledged to my employer at the time, Charles Worthington, that I owed him a great debt. My success, my reputation as a man of business, was all due to him.”

So this was how it would be. There would be no words of affection to soften the blow. No words of affection that might blossom into a mutual recognition of what they might share together. The hope that had bloomed so suddenly just minutes earlier was just as quickly cut off at the root. Katherine dropped her eyes. What was the point in hearing him out? He was letting her down, as gently as he could.

“And that is when you pledged your loyalties: to him and to Odette?” she interrupted, softly. “There is no need to go on, Jack. Please don’t try to save my feelings or my dignity.”