The Husband Mission (The Spy Matchmaker #1)(8)

"Mayhap we should let him go to The Chronicle," Emma suggested, absently twisting a piece of her coarse braided hair around one plump finger as she sat on the bed Katherine shared with her stepsister. "Seems like if that editor be so foolish as to bad-mouth General Wellington, he ought to be expecting a poke in the nose for his trouble."

"Uncle doesn't intend to punch him," Eric told her from where he was curled up at the foot of the bed. "He wants to run him through."

"Surely he couldn't murder Mr. Perry," Constance protested from the head of the bed, one hand clutching the gold cross she wore about her neck. "'Let not the sun go down on your wrath,' Ephesians 4:26."

Bixby shook his head, leaning back against the wood-wrapped fireplace. "Sir Richard's not a vengeful man, but he isn't himself when he's been drinking. Still, he is full-grown. Perhaps Emma has the right of it – we should stop interfering."

Constance and Emma nodded sagely. Eric looked thoughtful. Perched beside him, Katherine stared at them.

"Have you all considered what would happen if he disgraces himself outside this house?" she scolded. "He would be mortified when he came to his senses. He might even go deeper into this decline. Not to mention what effect his misfortune would have on Constance. She only has six weeks left. Do you wish her doomed?"

Only Eric had the stomach to meet her gaze, and his eyes were wide.

"I wish you would not remind me of the date," Constance murmured. "The right man will come along, Katherine. Be content to let me wait for him."

Katherine grit her teeth. Waiting would get them all into trouble. "I do not wish you to feel pressured, love. But facts are facts. Your father, Eric's and my stepfather, was certain you needed encouragement to wed. Your incentive was his fortune, which you will lose to your cousin if you are not married by your twenty-first birthday." 

"That's not very far from now," Eric pointed out helpfully. "You better hurry, Constance."

She sighed. "I am trying, Eric, truly I am."

Emma patted her hand on the coverlet. "Of course ye are, Miss Constance. Ye be so lovely, I know some handsome bloke'll snatch ye up, so he will."

As Bixby nodded, Constance offered them all a brave smile. "I pray you are right."

"I know they are right," Katherine said with equal fervor. "Just think, Constance. The perfect gentleman may appear on our doorstep tomorrow."

"Or today," Eric said with a grin and a wink to Katherine.

Katherine laid a hand on his shoulder in warning lest he give away the game with his enthusiasm. "Precisely," she said. "And with that in mind, Constance, I think you should dress in your very best tomorrow."

"And which dress would that be?" Constance asked with a teasing wink. "All my clothes are lovely. You should know, for you chose most of them."

Katherine felt a pang at her manipulations. In truth, it pleased her to dress Constance in pretty clothes. Of course, with Constance's beauty, Katherine would have been hard pressed to find anything that failed to flatter the girl. Constance had no way of knowing that several of the more recent acquisitions had been chosen with a far more important goal in mind than the girl's own delight.

"What about that new dress I purchased for you?" Katherine asked her stepsister with a great deal more innocence than she felt.

Bixby caught her eye and nodded encouragement. "And that pretty scent you wore the other day," he said to Constance. "Like violets it was."

"Oh, that dress," Eric said wisely, and Katherine had to pat him again.

Constance frowned as if she had noticed their odd behavior, but she nodded. "Certainly I can do those things, if they please you."

Katherine smiled her thanks, although she knew it wasn't so much their pleasure as Lord Borin's they had in mind. Purple was his favorite color and violets his favorite flower, according to his old nurse, whom Bixby had found retired in London. If one was going to lay a trap, after all, one needed to use the proper enticement.

Of course, she didn't like thinking of it as a trap, so much as the logical solution to a problem. Katherine considered the matter as she finished up her duties that evening and settled herself into bed beside Constance. Even asleep her stepsister looked lovely. Her skin glowed in the moonlight, and her breath was as soft and quiet as a newborn kitten's. Though they shared no blood, they were closer than many sisters Katherine had seen. She knew from experience that her stepsister was as lovely inside as she was out. Any man should be pleased to have Constance for a bride.

Knowing that, she had not expected to have to work so hard at finding that man. Her mother and stepfather had been carried away by the influenza just before Katherine's first Season. Society called for a mourning period of no less than six months, which would have effectively cancelled her Season, but she had her hands too full with seventeen-year-old Constance and five-year-old Eric to worry about what she was missing.