Guilford’s’ frown deepened, and his gaze skittered to a point beyond her shoulder. By the icy disdain in his usually affable stare, she suspected Harry hovered in the distance. “He is…much the same,” Guilford finally said, when he’d looked back at Katherine.
A woeful smile tugged at her lips. “That is saying nearly nothing, my lord.”
Guilford folded his arms over his chest. “And what would you have me say, Your Grace? What words do you seek?”
His furious disapproval could not be clearer if he mounted his horse and rode through Hyde Park shouting disparaging words of her.
“I…” she faltered. All of Society erroneously assumed the Mad Duchess had taken Harry as her lover. The gossip columns bandied that tidbit about as though it were more delectable than a Gunter’s ice. After all, with his reputation as unrepentant rogue, how could Society think anything else of Lord Stanhope? “I…” She could not discuss such an intimate matter with Lord Guilford. “If you see him, will you let him know I’ve asked after him?"
Guilford searched her face with his eyes, and then gave a curt nod. “As you wish. Is there anything else you require, Lady Katherine?”
Tell him I love him. I’ve never stopped nor will I ever. My heart is and will always belong to him. Tell him to come to me. Tell him my life is empty without him.
Instead, she said, “No, that will be all, my lord. Thank you.”
Guilford nodded again. He swung his leg over the chestnut mare, and panic built in her breast. She took another step toward him. “My lord, is he…well?”
The marquess shifted the reins to his other hand, and his knees tightened about the flanks, in a clear attempt to soothe the eager to gallop horse. His mount sidled backwards. Lord Guilford lowered his voice. “It is my belief, Your Grace, that Bainbridge has not fared well in your absence.”
Her heart thudded hard. She held up a beseeching hand, though Lord Guilford could not give her that which she needed. Only again seeing Jasper would be the balm upon her aching soul.
Guilford continued, seeming to understand her unspoken question. “He’s been rather…” He paused, as if searching for the appropriate words. “Surly. Angry. Angrier than usual,” he clarified with the pointed look she gave him. A ghost of a smile played about his lips.
Her eyes slid closed a moment. She forced them open. “Thank you.”
He bowed his head and kicked his mount forward.
Katherine dimly registered Harry’s approach.
“What was that about?” Harry murmured, staring off in the distance at the marquess’ swift retreating form.
She shook her head. “It is nothing,” she said, unable to speak of Jasper’s friendship with the marquess, and the marquess’s opinions of Jasper.
Harry held out his arm. “Will you join me for a stroll, Your Grace?”
“Er, I think I care to just sit here, Harry.”
His gaze searched hers. “You’re certain?”
She nodded.
With a sigh, he extracted a third kerchief. “Then, as you were, madam.”
Katherine caught it in her fingers. “Thank you, Harry,” she said softly, for so much more than just this scrap of fabric.#p#分页标题#e#
Harry beat his hand against his side. “You’re desiring your own company, aren’t you, Kat?”
He’d come to know her very well in these past months. Rather, they’d come to know one another. They could finish one another’s sentences. They were of like opinions on matters pertaining to the ton—they both abhorred London’s gossipy Society members.
And they’d come to know and respect one another enough to not delve too deeply into the secret demons that tormented them.
She smiled wanly up at him.
“You know he’s not deser…”
“Hush,” she chided him. No one, not her twin sister, Aldora or Michael, and not Harry knew the kind of man her husband was. Jasper possessed the valor to jeopardize his own life to pluck a stranger from the water. He gave the sole volume of poetry to a teasing young lady even as it happened to be the only enjoyment he took from life. He sang taproom ditties to babies. It was Jasper who’d deserved more—Jasper who’d had more, in his wife, Lydia.
Katherine would never be anything but a pale shadow in the other woman’s otherworldly glow of perfection.
Harry captured her hand and raised it to his mouth. He brushed his lips along the tops of her knuckles.
After he’d taken his leave, Katherine returned to what had become an all-too-familiar wrought-iron bench within the garden, considering Guilford’s appearance. And more, his revelation of Jasper.