Sally James (22 page)

Once more Kate found herself describing her mother's life to someone who had known her as a girl, and, Kate thought, someone who had loved her more than her parents had. She warmed to Mrs Crosby, and when Adam said it was time they were leaving she bent impulsively to kiss the old woman's papery cheeks.

'Bless you, child. Come and see me as often as you can, when you're wed to Master Adam here.'

Kate managed to keep her temper until she had scrambled into the gig and Adam was driving them back along the lane.

'How did she come to have the odd notion that I am going to marry you?' she demanded furiously. 'How dare you tell people something that is untrue?'

'I have told no one,' he replied mildly. 'But the terms of your grandfather's will are known, and people have drawn their own conclusions. Of course they see the marriage as natural in the circumstances.'

She didn't know whether to believe him or not, and was not sorry, on their return to Malvern Court, when he said he had business with his steward and would see her at dinner. She escaped to her room, where there was a good fire, and rather reluctantly began to study the copies of Elizabeth Smith's
The Complete Housewife
and Elizabeth Raffald's
The Experienced English Housekeeper
. She knew that Adam would insist on playing that ridiculous game he'd initiated that morning, when he acted the part of a servant and forced her to give him commands.

When Joan came to help her dress for dinner she donned the black woollen gown belonging to Mrs Rhydd without complaint. It was both warmer and cleaner than her own, though too loose and so short that rather more than a glimpse of her ankles was visible.

James was waiting in the hall when she descended the stairs, and she was astounded when he gave her the briefest hint of a smile.

'His lordship is in the library, Miss,' he said, and conducted her along a wide passageway with tall windows looking out over the courtyard at the back of the house, to a panelled room in one of the newer wings.

Adam smiled and came to greet her as James threw open the door.

'Good evening, my love,' he murmured, and Kate cast a hunted look at the footman, almost wishing he was not departing. She caught the ghost of a grin on his face before he softly closed the door.

'James approves,' Adam said, taking her hand and drawing her across to where two deep leather armchairs were placed either side of a roaring fire. Kate registered at the back of her mind that the room was warm, while her main attention was given to trying to make sure that Adam didn't detect the sudden trembling of her hand.

'I'm not your love,' she said crossly, and almost flounced as she sat in one of the chairs.

'Not yet, perhaps. We have a long way to go. But as well as the finer points of keeping house in such an establishment as this, you have to learn how to deal with admiring compliments. Let me see. How would you respond if an admirer complimented you on your very slender ankles?'

Kate tugged at her skirts. Her less than elegant movement when she sat down had caused the already short skirts to ride up even more. 'A gentleman wouldn't mention them.'

'But you will meet rakes, dandies, jumped-up Cits, all sorts of men who are not gentlemen. How would you deal with such impertinence?'

'Ignore it,' Kate said.

'If you should happen to be seated next to such a person at dinner, and your other neighbour was occupied, would you remain silent? That would be considered not only impolite, but gauche.'

'In such a case I would probably mention that his hair was a little too much disarrayed, and his cravat crooked,' Kate retorted, looking pointedly at Adam's neckwear.

He laughed. 'The penalties of not having my valet with me, and hurrying so as not to commit the sin of keeping you waiting, my dear.'

Suddenly he caught her hands and pulled her to her feet. 'Try your hand at straightening my cravat,' he invited, and pulled her close to him so that her hands, still clasped in his, were pressed against his chest.

Kate resisted the urge to tear the offending cravat from round his neck, and tried to break free of his hold.

'Tell me, what would you do if some gallant, too persistent in his attentions, wanted to kiss you?' he asked.

'I'd scream,' she said furiously, and took a deep breath.

His mouth covered hers and his arms slid round her back, imprisoning her own arms between their bodies as he drew her against him. She felt again the frisson of excitement which had assailed her that morning when he'd lifted her down from the gig, and touched her so intimately. As she struggled to overcome her own weakness and break free of him, she heard the door open, and a discreet cough.

'My lord,' Jenkins said, 'dinner is served.'

Chapter Eighteen

Adam seemed pleased by Kate's knowledge of housewifery, and by the end of dinner she was astonished herself at how much she had absorbed from her perusal earlier of the books he'd forced on her. Her irritation returned when, Jenkins having placed a decanter of port in front of Adam and departed, Adam raised a questioning eyebrow at her.

'You should have left the room by now,' he pointed out.

Kate thrust back her chair and rose. 'I'm going to bed!' she snapped. 'I'm tired of all this useless instruction for a position I'm never going to fill.'

He laughed and walked round the table. 'What position, my love? In bed? It's too early. Sit down,' he added as she flushed at the implications.

He put both hands on her shoulders, and to escape them Kate hurriedly resumed her seat.

'I thought you wanted me to leave you alone?' she asked tiredly, but thankful he'd returned to his own seat.

'You must do it properly. It is a large dinner party, and as hostess you have to collect the ladies and take them to the drawing room. Show me.'

Kate frowned impatiently but complied. 'I just get up and say something like "shall we leave?", don’t I?'

'And if they are all gossiping and either don't hear you or pay no attention? Do you shout, or bang on the table?'

'Probably,' she muttered, 'or I scream and throw myself on the floor in a tantrum of frustration.'

'No, you must never give way to your feelings in that manner,' he said solemnly. 'Not in public, at least. If you should do it in private, in our bedchamber for example, I might join you on the floor and attempt to relieve your frustration.'

She glared at him, but unbidden she saw a mental picture of herself and Adam sprawled together on a rug in front of a fire in a large, as yet unknown bedroom. As she realized her imagination had conjured up both herself and Adam in a deplorable state of nakedness, she shivered.

He misinterpreted it. 'You are cold, so let's return to the library. I'll be one of the more important lady guests, seated therefore on my right. What you do, my love, is catch the eye of a lady near me, preferably someone large and imposing, and by the time they are so important they will be large and imposing,' he added with a grin. Kate cringed. That way he had of narrowing his eyes, and the curling of his lips, and the glimpse of even white teeth, made her insides quiver like one of the blancmangers she had just been eating.

'What do I do with it? Her eye, I mean?' she asked hurriedly.

'You draw it, and her with it, out of the room. When she is looking at you, and if necessary I will help by directing her attention towards you, you raise your eyebrow slightly. Show me.'

Kate hadn't known there were so many ways of raising one or both eyebrows, but at last she achieved a contortion that satisfied Adam.

'That will do. You will get better with practice. When you have caught her attention, and it must be soon after she has stopped eating but not so long after that she is tempted to start again, you rise, and she will follow suit. That will alert everyone else and the ladies will all follow you. Try just once more. I will sit here, as your target, then for tonight I'll forego the port and come with you to the library.'

Kate came to the conclusion it was harmless. She would humour him if he wished to playact. If she pretended to learn the lessons swiftly, she might escape sooner to the privacy of her bed.  She obligingly practised the different expressions appropriate for depressing social pretension, for indicating disapproval to a clumsy servant, and for deterring gentlemen who were too forward in showing their admiration. The latter, she discovered, was by far the easiest to master. Then when the tea tray was brought in she had to learn the correct way of pouring the tea, of handing the cups to gentlemen who offered to help take them round, and memorize suitable topics of conversation which were to be carried on without pause during the entire process.

'Enough,' Adam said at last, and Kate breathed a sigh of relief. 'If you frown much more you will develop creases between those pretty eyes, and that won't do. Now, I think, some lessons on how to please.'

'To please? You mean that instead of being odiously haughty to everyone I have to be pleasant too?' she asked mockingly.

'Of course. You have to please your husband. Are you tired? Do you wish to retire?'

Kate, anxious only to escape from this perpetual lesson, nodded. 'I will bid you goodnight,' she said gratefully, and rose to her feet.

Adam stood up. 'I'm gratified to find you such an eager pupil,' he murmured, and somehow Kate found his arm around her waist and his other hand tilting her chin towards him as he steered her towards the door. 'We'll continue the lesson upstairs.'

She broke away and backed across the room, a horrified look in her eyes. 'No! I didn't mean that!'

He smiled at her, and once more her stomach performed involuntary somersaults.

'Perhaps we had better postpone that pleasure until we are married,' he said softly.

Kate gulped. She'd protested until even she was tired of saying it. She still had no intention of changing her mind, but somehow she had to escape from him. He was strong, he could carry her to wherever he chose, or he could force her where they were. It was his house, and his servants. None of them would help her. And her treacherous body, which had shrunk away from the embraces of Martin and Darcy, seemed to have no will of its own when he came too near. She didn't understand it, she knew only that it was dangerous to remain here, alone and vulnerable.

Without knowing how it had happened she found herself out in the corridor, her hand in Adam's, and he was leading her towards the stairs. She was so confused that a sort of heavy fatalism had invaded her limbs, and she was helpless to resist whatever might come.

When he paused as she mounted the first step, raised her hand and brushed his lips over it she shivered uncontrollably. When he released her hand and pushed her gently she staggered up the next step and almost fell. Her short skirts saved her, and gathering them up in her hands she found the strength to move. Forgetting all the solemn decorum he had been forcing into her she fled, and as she ran along the passageway towards her room she heard his soft laughter pursuing her.

On the following day he was brisk and impersonal, while Kate struggled to stop yawning. She hadn't fallen asleep until dawn, and by then it was almost time to get up. How soon, she was asking herself, could she reasonably expect protection in the form of her aunt to arrive?

'I'll show you the house today,' he announced when, accepting that she could not skulk all day in her room, she had ventured downstairs.

To her profound relief the housekeeper, Mrs Price, accompanied them to explain the difficulties and problems she had experienced during the last few years, when the old Earl had taken no interest in domestic matters other than to forbid any expenditure on repairs or replacing worn linen and curtains.

Kate's head was whirling by the time they had inspected what seemed like hundreds of rooms, from the attics where old furniture and trunks full of outmoded clothes were stored, to the wine cellars with rack upon rack of dusty bottles.

Adam inspected the bottles with interest. 'We'll have a couple of bottles of these tonight,' he told Jenkins, who had joined them for this part of the inspection. 'His lordship kept a good cellar.'

'He didn't drink much himself, or entertain a great deal the last few years,' Jenkins said.

He and Adam were soon deep into a discussion of which wines were suitable for the delectation of the house guests. When Mrs Price asked if Kate wished to see the still rooms and larders, she thankfully escaped.

The day had almost gone, and it was time to dress for dinner by the time she left the kitchens. As she descended into the hall she saw Jenkins ushering a man in riding dress into the small room beside the front door which Adam used as an office to interview his steward and other business callers. Kate wondered briefly who it was, and whether the man would be staying for dinner, but Adam was alone when he came to the library.

He was remote and preoccupied. His mood of alternating teasing and instruction had vanished. As Jenkins followed on his heels to announce dinner she had no opportunity to ask questions, and he said nothing. Instead of quizzing her on domestic or protocol matters he asked her to describe her former life, and for long spaces seemed to drift off into his own thoughts. They were clearly unpleasant ones. He would notice after a while that she had lapsed into silence, and ask another question, but it was perfectly plain he had not been listening to her.

Kate was impatient for the servants to leave, and the moment they did she broke off from her description of the long sermons she had to endure from the Vicar to demand what was troubling him.

He stood up. 'Let us go to the library. Troubling me? Nothing, my dear.'

'Who was that man who came to see you?'

She wilted slightly at the cold look he gave her. 'Really, Kate, I have a good many men come to see me on a variety of estate and other business. Even when you are my wife I do not expect to have to explain all my dealings to you.'

'Then why are you looking so worried?' she cried.

She could not explain why she cared. It was nothing to her how he felt. She wanted to leave this cold, unwelcoming house and never see him again, so why should his concerns affect her in any way at all?