Page 28 of Whiskers and Wiles

“I believe the feeling is mutual,” Waldorf said in a low growl, stepping forward and tucking Kat’s arm into the crook of his elbow so that he could lead her on, past Lord Headland, and back into the ballroom, where couples had lined up for the first dance.

Kat did not want to dance with Waldorf. She did not want to be seen anywhere near the man, not knowing how he sought to undermine her. She wanted to return to her mission of steering the wives of prominent ministers toward Lady Ryman and the others who were in favor of the Mercian Plan so that Queen Matilda’s ultimate goal might be accomplished.

As the music began and she moved toward Waldorf in the first steps of the dance, she began to feel the hopelessness of her situation. Not so much because the dance prevented her from speaking to other women attending the ball, but because she was assailed by the memories of how expert a dancer Waldorf was and how much they had enjoyed flirting with each other in such a manner in the past.

“What has turned you so vicious after you were so pleasant the other night?” Waldorf asked as they joined hands and turned around each other in a tight circle.

Kat frowned and clenched her jaw, but had to wait until they’d spun on their own, then joined hands to turn a circle in the other direction to answer with, “I would think you already know the answer to that, you conniving snake.”

The dance moved them apart, and for a moment, Kat found herself standing next to Lady Gwendolyn, the wife of one of Wessex’s ministers, Lord Devon Hailstork. She smiled tightly at the woman, who grinned back at her, as if she were actually enjoying the evening.

Moments later, it was her turn to step forward and take Waldorf’s hand for another turn.

“As is usual, I have no idea of which you speak,” Waldorf said, frowning as well now. He lowered his voice further, then said, “I thought we had begun some new understanding.” The dance took them away from each other for a moment, and when they came back to each other, face to face, he added, “I should very much like to repair what is broken between us.”

The sharp retort that Kat had intended to give withered on her lips. Was that contrition in Waldorf’s eyes? Was he sorry, at last, for his lack of faith in her in the past?

The dance separated them once again, leaving Kat standing next to Lady Gwendolyn once more. “He’s very handsome,” Lady Gwendolyn whispered to her.

Kat snapped her face forward to avoid Lady Gwendolyn’s smile. Unfortunately, that caused her to meet Waldorf’s eyes, since he was staring at her as he stood across from her, while the couple beside them took their turn in the dance.

He was studying her with confusion and regret, and a great deal of other emotions Kat could not decipher.

“He is not what he seems,” she said, half to Lady Gwendolyn and half to herself.

He most certainly was not. Because in that moment, he seemed like her deepest hopes reborn. He seemed like her champion and protector. He seemed like the family she had lost and never quite regained.

The dance brought them together again for a longer sequence of steps that had them advancing together, hand in hand, down the line of dancers. Waldorf’s grip on her hand felt so sure and so warm. Perhaps there was a way to put the past to rest and to move forward together. Perhaps they could sit down somewhere and clear away the detritus of misunderstanding until they reached the clear, raw truths of who they were and what they wanted.

“Why are you so intent on ruining me and everything I want?” she asked in a tremulous voice as they reached the end of the line of dancers.

“I am not,” Waldorf said, surprise in his eyes. “I only want for you to be happy.”

The dance parted them once again, and since there was an odd number of couples, they were left hanging at the very end of the line, unable to participate in the set of steps the others were dancing through. They were also too far apart for conversation. All Kat could do was stare across at Waldorf, meeting and holding his eyes, wondering if he was playing false with her yet again so that he might accomplish whatever devilry King Swithin had asked of him.

It burned her that she could not discover the truth, that she couldn’t outwit him and force him to reveal all. It burned her with a different sort of fire to think that everything that had almost happened the other night had been yet another move in a game where only one of them could win.

It had felt so good and so right to be in his arms again, to kiss him and to give everything she had, and to take everything he had in return. Knowing it might be an illusion had her caught between wanting to scream and wanting to weep. The frustration of not knowing what to do or what to believe, about doubting what she saw in the present because of the deep, deep wounds of her past had her feeling jumpy and reckless. She had to dosomethingor she would go mad.

She had just about made up her mind to step forward, take Waldorf’s hand, and lead him off to one of the small parlors so that they might speak about it all at length when another man sporting thick whiskers stepped up behind Waldorf and tapped him on the shoulder.

Waldorf turned, and the man whispered something in his ear. Waldorf’s eyes went wide, and as soon as the other whiskered man turned to walk away, Waldorf let out a breath, his shoulders dropping. He extended a hand to Kat, exactly as she had been imagining offering an olive branch to her, and when she took it, he led her out of the lines of dancers.

But instead of imploring her to go with him somewhere they might work through all their misunderstandings, Waldorf said, “I am terribly sorry, but my presence is required for a matter of great importance just now.”

Kat’s hopes shattered, which only made her angry. She was such a fool to have raised her hopes in the first place. How many times would Waldorf wound her before she’d had enough?

“You would abandon me in such a way, yet again, because a man I do not know, but who shares your laughable taste in facial hair, has called you away?” she demanded.

Waldorf looked stunned and alarmed by her question. His mouth fell open, and for a moment, he stood there, working to form words, and likely to know what to say.

At last, he managed to push out, “It is a matter of great importance, Kat. You know I would never abandon you if it were not.”

“I know no such thing,” Kat said. “You abandoned me before.”

She was so dangerously close to tears of disappointment that the only thing she could think to do just then was to turn and march away from him. It was a childish action and one she would not have done, had her heart not been tenderized by him so much as of late. And by tenderized, she envisioned that rebellious piece of meat being slammed by a mallet over and over.

She went straight to Minnie and Bernadette, who seemed to be having a grand time watching the proceedings of the ball from the side of the room. They both noticed her approaching them, however, and welcomed her with sympathetic faces.

---