Bewitching the Duke

Kate sat upright. “You told her she couldn’t, right?”

“How am I supposed to do that? She was only here because of . . .”

“My miscarriage. If I can say it, you should be able to at this point. But Selina can’t leave.”

He drained his glass and frowned. “Why not, if that is what she desires?”

“That is not what she desires,” Kate muttered in an angry tone.

“What do you mean?” He rose and poured another glass for himself, wishing this day would end already. Kate held up her snifter for him to add more. Apparently, he wasn’t the only one having a difficult day, or evening, as it were.

“She’s just scared,” Kate finally replied.

“Of what?”

His sister shook her head and waved her hand around the room. “This. You. Us. Society. All of it.”

“You mean your mother.”

“Of course not. Selina and Mother were getting along fine.”

Colin sat back down. “Are you mad? Weren’t you at dinner tonight?”

Kate smiled. “Ah, I understand now. Mother brought up those things for your benefit.”

“What!”

“She mentioned the walking in the dark as a reminder to you that you were behaving improperly. She thought it might make you realize how you have treated Selina so you would do the right thing.”

“The right thing?”

“Marry her.”

“Georgina wants me to marry Selina? The woman is no one. The ton will eat her alive.”

“Not with Mother and me by her side. We are both very influential and have many friends who do not want to get us angry.”

This was the last conversation he’d expected to have with Kate tonight. It still made no sense that the duchess would accept Selina. “Why would your mother want me to marry her?”

Kate smiled and shook her head. “You really don’t know?”

“Of course not, that is why I asked you!”

“The same reason she has pushed women at you every Season. She wants you to fall in love and find happiness.” Kate sipped her brandy. “We can both see how you feel about Selina. The way your eyes follow her when she enters a room. The slight smile that you sometimes try to hide when she’s near. And quite honestly, I believe you have been intimate with her. I don’t want a niece or nephew born on the wrong side of the blanket.”

“Did she tell you we had been lovers?”

“No. But Mother and I both noticed how you put her in your adjoining bedroom when there are many other rooms she could have slept in, including the one she’d been hiding in for more than a week before I found her.”

Colin frowned again. “What room are you talking about? She hadn’t been hiding in the house.”

Kate laughed and then finished her brandy. “Right under your nose.”

“How is that possible? I would have heard her, seen her.” Sensed her. Then he remembered the apparition he’d thought he’d seen in the third-floor bedchamber. She had been the ghost. “Why?”

“Because you removed her from her cottage. The servants were not about to let that happen so they helped her by hiding her upstairs.”

His own servants had gone behind his back. In hindsight, he knew they would have done anything to keep her here. Even risk their positions. They hadn’t cared because they owed him no allegiance after how he’d treated them, the tenants, and the estate.