Nothing But Time (18 page)

“Well, those are
truly excellent reasons to get married.”

There was that sarcasm again and Harrowby couldn’t stop the smile that parted his lips that time.  “I believe she truly thinks so.”

“And what do you think?” she asked.

“I think you probably heard my response to that,” he answered briskly.

Kate softened at his retort
.  She had heard him, but it was nice to know that it hadn’t just been a way for him to lash out at his mother.  So Brand wanted to marry for affection if not love, not merely for standing and social position.  Given what she’d gathered so far, that was probably unusual in his class.

Too bad it wouldn’t be her.  The thought snaked through her mind
,
surprising Kate.  Where did that thought come from?  She didn’t want to marry Brand.  She barely even knew him! 
Oh, s
he was attracted to him. 
God knew she was magnetically, irresistibly attracted to him but, surely,
there
wasn’t
anything
more
to it
than that. 
She was a career woman, Kate argued with herself.  There were tons of things she wanted to accomplish in life before she settled down.  Even though her sister had settled into a happy homemaker state after she’d married five years ago and was content to stay home with Nathan and the baby she had on the way, Kate couldn’t yet imagine herself in that place.

And she would have to be willing to go there for
someone like
Brand, Kate knew.
As a man in this time period – a man of his standing – he would want a wife just like all the others. 
The same kind of woman David Fergusson was looking for as well.  A little woman to keep his home and family.  To rub his feet after a long day’s work.

Kate grimaced.  Although in Brand’s case, maybe his valet might be expected to do the rubbing instead. 

Then there was the fact that Brand was Harrowby and she was nobody.  For that reason alone, Kate knew such a scenario would never happen.  This wasn’t the
twenty-first
century when a prince might marry a commoner.  Brand was too much a stickler for the rules for such a thing… and, if he wasn’t, his mother certainly was.

Feeling better knowing that, even if in a delusional state Kate decided she wanted to be Brand’s wife, it would never happen, she let it go and changed the subject.  “What is this Henley
Regatta you
r
mother mentioned? 
Rowing
,
right?  There is a growing interest in that back home these days.  Adult teams, youth teams and, of course, MIT has a rowing club.  Is this one a big deal?”

“A very big deal,” Brand answered feeling the phrase roll awkwardly off his tongue.  “It’s now the Henley Royal Regatta since Prince Albert first offered his patronage
twenty-five
years ago.  The Queen continues to do so since his death fi
fteen
years ago.  It has become quite a mainstay of the social calendar.  Mother is right in thinking that no one would mind leaving London to attend a house party here during that t
ime.  Membership to the Steward
s
’
Enclosure is limited and is, therefore, a very prestigious viewpoint to watch the racing.”

“Some things never change.
”
Kate quirked her lips acknowledging that through time people always wanted to go where few were allowed.  “Are you a member
?
Of course you are,” she mumbled
even while he nodded
.  “Do you row?”

Kate watched as Brand shifted in his seat.  “You do, don’t you?”

“I do, though not many in my position do so.”

“But you weren’t always in this position,” she reminded.

“True enough.  I was on the teams at Oxford and, though I hadn’t had the luxury of a convenient setting in many a year, the location of Ramble House allows me opportunity to put a boat out now and then,” he said.  “I recently joined the Leander Club as well which is a local team based in Henley.”

“Oh, for fun.  Are you going to race in this Regatta then?” Kate asked, thinking that at least now she knew how Brand had gotten that deep, muscular chest and heavy thighs.  There
was nothing like rowing for a well-toned body.  She could just imagine the sight of him on the water, slick with sweat, muscles pulling and bunching.

“Of course not.”

“Why not?” she asked in surprised, her mind banishing the lovely image she’d built up.  “You should!  I’d love to watch.” 
Man, would I love to watch
, her mind drawled in agreement.

Harrowby looked at Kate seeing the heat in her gaze and somehow knew what she was thinking, how she
was
imagining him.  An answering heat spread through his groin.  If she blessed him with such a look again, he thought that he might like to have her watch him as well.  And if he were to win… he could imagine seeing her admiration there as well.  Feeling it warm him. 
W
hen he made it to shore, he might sweep her into his arms and…  Harrowby cleared his throat.  “Perhaps I will consider the possibility but first I must worry about this house party and the position my mother is determined to put me in.”

“You think she’s going to pull out all th
e stops?” Kate asked.  “Bring
in a bevy of beautiful women to tempt you?”

“She might try,” he responded, “but none could be a
s
lovely as you.”

Kate met Brand’s gaze reading the discomfort there.  He hadn’t meant to say that but she was glad he did.  The earl in him kept his emotions tightly bound and though she had seen moments of affection and desire break through that proper barrier, it was hard to know what he thought of her.  Despite the kiss he’d given her outside
that
day, she wasn’t truly certain if it
was
her, her forwardness or his isolation that made him act.  In truth, she still didn’t know how he viewed her in the big picture, but just knowing that he thought he
r beautiful was enough to send
warmth threading through her. 

They sat there staring at each other for a long while.  Kate hoping Brand might do or say something else out of character and Brand looking as if he wished she would just run away.
“Miss Kallastad, I think it would be best for both of us if we embraced that novel concept you mentioned in the library last week.”

“And what concept is that?”

“That we remain out of one another’s personal space,” he clarified.

“I’m not in your personal space.”

A wry smile twisted Brand’s lips.
“I believe the perimeter you indicated might need to be expanded given our impulsive interaction this afternoon.”

Kate thought of that brief but passionate kiss with a blush.  Her stomach quivered at the thought of repeating the experience.  Something Brand made it clear he wasn’t interested in.  Ah, but his
word
s didn’t reinforce his actions.  There was an attraction between them and Kate was willing to bet it was mutual. 

And wrong.

She knew it.  She didn’t like it, but she knew it.  Kate should just let Brand keep that employee/employer distance securely between them… for both their sakes. 

“
It is getting late and Nathan will
likely wake early
in the morning,”
she said as she pushed out of the chair, resolved to keep her distance.  The impulsive words that followed however weren’t in sync with the logical flow of her thoughts. 
“Will you come visit him in the nursery?  I know he’d like it if you did.” 
So would I
, she added silently.

“Perhaps.  Good night, Kate.”  The courtesy wasn’t nearly as stiff as the one he’d delivered to his mother.

“Good night, Brand.”

Kate left the study without looking back.  Not knowing that his eyes followed her the entire way or that they burned with desire he no longer tried to hide when she wasn’t looking.

“I can’t believe you
abandoned me in there to do that alone,” Kate complained
the next morning
, leaning her shoulder against the doorframe to Brand’s study
and
crossing her arms over her chest
.  The earl had been present in the front drawing room when Kate had been s
ummoned to meet with his mother
but
,
after performing
curt
introductions
,
had lef
t Kate to the older woman’s not-so-
tender mercies.

“I do apologize most sincerely,” h
e offered
, swiftly
scooping up the paper
s before him and dropping them into an open drawer.  “Mother insisted on seeing you alone.  Was it very
terrible
?”

It had been and it hadn’t been. 
Mrs. Belinda Ryder,
Harrowby
’s mother,
was so much more intimidating than any simple Mrs. Ryder might ever dream of being
.  Belinda, Kate snorted in disbelief.  Truly, she struck Kate more as a Maleficent or Cruella giving the impression of a c
lassic
Disney villain
ess
or evil stepmother type right down to her black gown and narrowed gaze. 

She
had grilled
Kate
up one side and down the other regarding her qualifications for caring for her only grandchild.  Kate had answered all her questions as calmly and professionally as she had during her interview with the head of biomedical research at
ISIS
.  Her parents had pounded the importance of good interview skills into her from the moment she’d gotten her first college interview at eighteen.

No, Kate could handle the inquisition
having been prepared for it since overhearing their conversation the night before
.  It was the woman’s
frigid demeanor that left her wondering.
Mrs. Ryder was so incredibly haughty and snooty that Kate thought a dowager duchess couldn’t have been
more
aloof.  There wasn’t an ounce of warmth in the woman
.  She didn’t even necessarily seem to care much for Nathan as a person, referring to him as ‘the boy’ or as ‘my grandchild’.

It was the kind of disassociation Kate thought more common in serial killers who didn’t want to think of their victims as real people
,
than
in
someone’s grandma.
  That scene from
Silence of the Lambs
kept leaping to mind
where the killer spoke to his hostage in the pit
.  It rubs the lotion on its skin
.
  Creepy on the silver screen.

Even creepier in person.

It was simply beyond Kate’s understanding though perhaps it was only because her own grandma was a warm, caring woman who always seemed to have a hot rutabaga pasty or strawberry-rhubarb pie fresh from the oven every time they came to visit.

Moreover,
what kind of mother referred to her son by his title?  Earl or not,
Harrowby
was still flesh of her flesh. 
Mrs. Ryder
couldn’t even call him by his name much less with any warmth.  It sent chills up and down Kate’s spine thinking of Brand being raised by that woman. 
Given what she had overheard the previous evening and witnessed that morning,
Kate would bet that Brand had been a kid who prayed nightly for a good military boarding school.

Susan Ryder Ralston, Brand’s sister,
brought Nathan to the drawing room
about ten minutes into the interview.  I
nitially
, she had
come across as being just as pompous as her mother. 
She refused to look at Kate at all.  She merely stared dispassionately at her mother, nod
ding at whatever the woman said while Nathan sat next to her staring at his feet.
  Mrs. Ralston didn’t seem to care at all about what was being said regarding her son
even with the little boy sitting right next to her
.  Kate thought
she’d never seen a pair of more stuck-up, superior women in her life.  Considering that neither was noble by the standards of the society
in which they lived
, Kate was surprised
.  She wouldn’t
have
dreamed that simply be
ing
related to a man who’d been elevated into London’s noble ranks could give anyone such a superiority complex. 

When
Mrs. Ryder finally exited the room
summoning her daughter with her, Kate had sat down next to Nate and taken his little hand in hers, squeezing it tight.  “Man, she’s kinda terrifying, isn’t she?”

Nathan had only nodded
and swung his feet where they hovered above the floor,
making Kate think her success of the previous day had been prematurely lauded.  “So what do you want to do today?” she asked.  “History?  Philosophy?  Underwater basket weaving?”

Nate tipped his head and looked up at her from the corner of his eye.  “There’s no such thing.”

“Of course, there
is!” Kate teased
,
feeling a rush of relief
that
the progress yesterday
hadn’t been a fluke
.  “It’s a very common field of study among jocks.”

“You mean jockeys?”

“No, I mean…”  Movement from near the doorway caught Kate’s attention and, looking up, she found Susan Ralston lingering in the door, one hand pressed to her mouth and tears in her eyes. 
Kate truly looked at the woman then, a petite feminine version of her brother
,
and saw, not
a duplicate of Mrs. Ryder’s
haughty gaze, but the worried lines of a mother in agony.  This wasn’t Mrs. Ryder’s concept of maternal caring – if Mrs. Ryder felt this same way under her
formidable, Hendricks-like
exterior, it was buried pretty deeply – no, this woman was in pain for her child. 

Apparently
,
Mrs. Ryder hadn’t been much of a mother to either of her children if they
hid
their true emotions so well in
mixed company
.
 

***

Harrowby s
tudied Kate as he waited for her to
answer.  When she had walked into the drawing room an hour ago, he’d found himself almost stunned to silence by her.  Gone was
her casual dishabille of the night before and the
ramshackle appearance she
’d presented
the previous day by the lake
.  I
n its place was a sophisticated, well turned-
out lady. 

Her gown, while perhaps not up to the standards of the
ton
, was very smart.  The bodice of dark green
silk
clung
t
ightly to her corseted torso relieved by a cameo at her throat as well as lace and small gold tassels there and at her wrists.  Her overskirt of the same
silk
was edged in a gold fringe before it gathered up elegantly at the bustle and a gold and green striped underskirt fell in generous folds to the floor.

Her hair had been
dressed
as well.  The long, dark length was
bound in twists and braids into a modest configuration at the back of her neck.  She looked lovely, well-to-do and not at all like a maid in his house
, a far cry from her more
in
formal attire the previous night
.  That insane desire he always felt in her presence flooded
Harrowby
once more and
he
had to clear his throat and shake his head to rid himself of the image of undoing each one of the dozens of buttons that ran from
beneath
Kate’s chin to her waist
.
“Well?”

“No, it wasn’t so terrible,” Kate said
finally,
sauntering into the room and
dropping into one of the chairs in front of his desk
, crossing her legs as she’d done in his presence before
.  She
propp
ed
an elbow up over the back
of the chair
so that she might rest her head against her palm
.  “You
r
mother’s
just
a bit much to take – no offense.”

“None taken at all.  I am well aware of my mother’s
many
attributes.
”
H
e waved away the insult.

“But your sister seems good-hearted,” Kate finished.

“I suppose she is.
”
T
he earl leaned back and gazed at her thoughtfully.  “In truth, I don’t really know my sister very well.  We shared a nursery until I was ten and then we were parted to go our own ways.  I
,
to Eton
,
and she to stay with a cousin who had a daughter of
a
similar age.  After that, we rarely spent much time together.”

“Do you regret that?”

“Perhaps, bu
t Susan tends to act just like M
other whenever we’re together,”
Harrowby
explained.  “
I
f I were to be honest, it’s hard to like the person she presents to the world.”

“She loves Nathan.”

“I cannot argue that,” he agreed.  “Nathan and
Charles, her husband, were the only ones I have ever seen her warm to.  She would fight Mother tooth and nail to do what is best for Nathan, but I would have to say, it is all Susan would fight Mother about.”

“That’s kind of sad for her, I think,” Kate said thoughtfully.  It was sad for the entire family, but at least Susan had had a husband to love for a
while and she
still
had Nathan as well.  Who
m
did Brand have
?  Who
m
did he have to hug and love?  Who
m
did he have who would comfort him when he was down?

From what she had seen, he had no one in this huge mausoleum he rattled around in that he could even be friendly with. 
He had no company that she knew of, hadn’t seen any friends about. 
He was solemn, solitary and self-contained as if he needed no one. 
There was no laughter in this house beyond the servant’s quarters.

How lonely he must be.

Or was he a d
ifferent person in the company of others
?  Did this noble persona slip away when among friends or wa
s Brand as withdrawn with them
as he was in this house? 

“Excuse me, my lord,” Geoffrey said from the doorway.  “I don’t mean to interrupt but Mr. Wilder,
the manager of the coal mine in
Coventry
,
has arrived for your meeting.  You did mention that you didn’t want to keep him waiting after his long journey.”

“I did.  Thank you, Geoffrey,”
Harrowby
replied
,
pushing back from his desk
with a sigh
.  “Please
show
him
to
the library and let him know I will be with
him
presently.”

“Very good, my lord.
”
T
he butler bowed and left them once more.

“
My apologies
, Kate, I must go.  Business calls.” 
Harrowby
moved around the desk and to the door where he lingered waiting for Kate.

Kate pushed herself up from
her chair and
approached but
,
rather than move into the hall, she stopped
in front of him
pushing the door half-shut, blocking them from view
from
the hall.  If that hadn’t surprised him enough, she then slid her arms around his waist and pressed herself against him, squeezing him fiercely.

“Whatever are you doing?”
H
is appalled words
were
at odds with the warmth that flared inside of him as she laid her head against his chest
.  It was not a
sexual gesture at all for she ju
st held
him
there tightly, making no other moves.
“I thought we agreed to avoid each other’s personal vicinity.”

“I’m not putting the moves on you, Brand. 
I’m hugging you,” she said into his chest.  “Have you not had enough of them to recognize them when they are given to you?”