Scandalous Miss Brightwells [Book 1-4]

He shrugged again. “I’m sorry for it, but it is the truth.” He closed the gap between them and took her hands. “Katherine, you know how I feel about you.”

“And you know how I feel about you,” she whispered, raising her head to see his eyes clouded with unhappiness.

“Yet we could make each other happy,” he suggested. “I know you don’t love me, but it would be in Diana’s best interests if you and I were wed.”

“I am not responsible for the scandal attached to our—”

“Friendship,” he supplied. “You and I know that’s all it is but the rest of society has drawn its own conclusion. I’m sorry, Katherine. I would not have put you in such a position, but think of the future. Many unions grow strong from far shakier foundations. I think you and I could be like that. You’re lonely…and it’s not as if there is anyone else. Please, think about it.”

She closed her eyes and gently pulled her hands away. Derry wasn’t an unkind man. After all, she’d been drawn to him before she’d married Freddy. But she was not in love with him. And after seven years of knowing him, she knew she never would be.

“Miss Katherine! Miss Katherine! Katie says she seen Miss Diana.” It was Mary, bursting into the room, her eyes red-rimmed.

Katherine stepped away from Derry and hoped the maidservant wouldn’t infer anything inappropriate may have passed between the two of them.

“Then tell me where she is.”

“Katie says she were lookin’ through the window when she seen Miss Diana climb inter that other carriage that were ’ere. The one belongin’ ter Mr Patmore.”

“Lord, why didn’t Katie stop her?”

“She says she thought Miss Diana were s’posed to be goin’ on a carriage drive, an’ wiv the two carriages behind each other—Lady Hale’s an’ Mr Patmore’s—she didn’t think ‘bout whose

was whose.”

Derry glanced at his timepiece. “They’ve been gone some time. I wonder why they didn’t just turn back when they discovered the child.”

“P’raps Miss Diana fell asleep an’ they didn’t notice,” Mary suggested, twisting her apron around her fingers. “‘Tis a large carriage, an’ she might ‘ave climbed into one of them boxes strapped ter the back.” She drew a quavering breath and said with growing alarm, “P’raps they don’t know she’s trapped an’ bouncin’ along. Oh, Lordy!”

Katherine bit down on her fingers as Derry said, “I came on horseback, and that’s the fastest way to catch up with them.” He strode to the door, turning, and clarified, “They were on the northern road heading for Patmore Farm? Right! I’ll be off this instant to bring her home.”

Jack considered the dilemma. Odette was tired and emotional. She didn’t want to return to London with the child, but he saw no alternative.

Sighing, he signalled to the coachman to stop by a roadside tavern.

“Some refreshment will do us all good,” he said, persuading Odette to take his hand so he could help her out into the fresh air. Diana looked perfectly content curled up against the opposite door, but she leapt up exclaiming ‘My favourite!’ when he suggested they ask the tavern keeper if they perchance had apple pie.

She tucked her hand into his while Odette clung mulishly to his other arm, muttering, “It’s just the kind of thing a daughter of Lady Marples would do.”

“I’m sure I don’t know what that’s supposed to mean,” Jack said mildly, raising his eyebrows at her.

“Just that your friend is impulsive and so is her daughter.”

“Impulsive?” Jack took offence on Katherine’s behalf though he tried to hide it.

“She eloped, for goodness’ sake. Who but the most wild and impulsive young woman elopes! And now her name is linked in another unsuitable liaison, Jack,” she said under her breath as they mounted the steps to the front door which was opened by a maidservant in a clean white apron over a print dress.

When Odette saw Jack’s knitted brows, she said quickly, “I know you’re very defensive of your friend Katherine, and I don’t mean to malign her, but it’s the truth, and you know very well that society considers her behaviour scandalous. It’s not just me saying it. Poor Diana obviously needs someone to keep her in check.”

“Oh, there is apple pie!” exclaimed Diana excitedly, breaking off a hurried separate conversation with the maidservant who’d been leading them up the corridor. “And they’ll bring it to the private parlour.” She looked as if she were on a grand adventure as she ran ahead into the room to which the maidservant led them.

The weight on Jack’s shoulders intensified as he took a seat opposite Odette and Diana, who couldn’t sit still she was so excited at the prospect of apple pie. He smiled when he caught her eye. Diana reminded him so much of Katherine.

Odette leant across the small space and shook her finger at Diana, her voice stern.

“You were very naughty to jump into a carriage when you didn’t know who it belonged to or where it was going,” she said. “What will your mother say?”

Diana leaned back in her chair. Her feet were dangling well off the ground, and she looked contemplative rather than contrite.