Page 39 of Whiskers and Wiles

“As you wish, Your Majesty,” he said all the same, trying not to sigh.

Kat was not as quick to accept her punishment. “You wish me to travel to East Anglia to attend a party intended for couples under the guise of being engaged to Lord Waldorf?” she asked.

“I do,” Queen Matilda said.

“And you wish me to participate in whatever activities Lady Walsingham has designed for couples? With Lord Waldorf?”

“Do you have a better idea of how you could make amends for the monumental damage you have caused this evening?” the queen asked her, eyes narrowed.

Kat drew in a breath, lowered her head, then murmured, “No, Your Majesty.”

“Then it is decided,” the queen said, smiling. “The two of you will depart at first light tomorrow morning. I will send my own personal carriage to collect you and take you on your way.”

That was likely so that neither of them backed out of their punishment, Waldorf thought.

“Once you have arrived at the Walsinghams’ estate, you will be perfect guests while also extoling the virtues of the Mercian Plan and ensuring that Lord Walsingham is influenced to introduce debate on the bill once Joint Parliament opens.”

Waldorf cleared his throat. “And if we fail, Your Majesty?”

The queen’s face grew stony. “Then, Lord Waldorf, the Curse of Godwin Castle will become the least of your worries.”

Waldorf drew in a shuddering breath and nodded. “Understood, Your Majesty.”

“And you, Lady Katherine?” the queen asked.

“Understood,” Kat said in a quiet, hoarse voice.

Waldorf peeked to the side, catching Kat’s covert gaze. She narrowed her eyes at him. Waldorf scowled right back at her. He had no idea how they would maintain their subterfuge, let alone accomplish their mission.

Twelve

Humiliation was toogentle a word for the emotions that coursed through Kat as she and Waldorf made their way to Oxwick Park, the Walsinghams’ estate in East Anglia over the next two days. Queen Matilda had made certain the two of them departed before first light the morning after the ball. She also had them both escorted directly back to their homes by guards who were just as intimidating as the man in black who had shown them up to the private room. The room where Kat felt as though her soul had been lashed out of her by the queen’s tongue.

There had been no time for Kat to return to the ball so that she might inform Minnie and Bernadette of what had transpired. She’d barely had time to apprise Regina of the situation once she was home and to give the intrepid woman instructions to contact Minnie and Bernadette so that they did not think she had kidnapped from the ball by brigands and sold to some Algerian harem.

“I will make certain your friends are alerted to your change of plans,” Regina had said as she’d helped Kat pack a small casein the early hours of the morning. “Would you like me to care for Napoleon while you are gone?” she’d also asked.

Kat had taken one look at Napoleon as he glared at her from the bureau after being ousted from his usual sleeping spot on her bed during the packing and said, “I could not possibly leave my darling alone for so long.”

She’d gone to the bureau and scooped Napoleon in her arms, cuddling the irritated creature and rubbing her face in his fur in an attempt to soothe herself. Napoleon had tolerated the action for all of three seconds before squirming out of Kat’s arms and dashing under the bed.

He was there with her now, however, curled resentfully in his basket on the seat beside Kat as the carriage jolted and rocked toward their destination. He let out yet another, blood-curdling yowl when Kat glanced in his direction, as if to remind her yet again that he did not appreciate being yanked from his comfortable home for a jaunt into another kingdom for what might be his mistress’s last opportunity to prove her worth to her queen. And perhaps to save her life.

“Can you silence that infernal creature?” Waldorf demanded from where he was hunched in the corner of the carriage, hugging himself tightly and rubbing his now smooth cheeks as he winced. “I have been trying to sleep for the last hour, but that incarnation of evil seems to know precisely when I have nearly managed to nod off. If he wakes me one more time?—”

“There is no use in sleeping when we have almost reached Oxwick Park,” Kat snapped, causing Waldorf to glower at her and Napoleon to yowl again.

“There is every need to sleep when I barely managed it last night, and the night before, and when I must be at the top of my form once we reach our destination,” Waldorf growled in return.

Oxwick Park was just beyond a day’s drive from London, so on the queen’s orders, they had spent the night at an inn beforetraveling on. Of course, there had only been one suitable, private room available in the inn, and since Kat and Waldorf were pretending to be engaged at any rate, they had been forced to share it.

Waldorf had announced that he would leave the room to Kat and spend the night sleeping in the carriage, but the guard-cum-coachman whom the queen had arranged to take them on their mission would not hear of it.

The result was a night spent attempting not to speak to or look at each other while sharing a single, too-small bed. Sharing with Napoleon as well. To say Napoleon did not like Waldorf was an understatement.

“You can rest this afternoon,” Kat told Waldorf. “Or even for the rest of the morning, since the innkeeper told me it was only another two hours’ drive to Oxwick Park. I sincerely doubt that most of Lady Walsingham’s guests will be awake as of yet.”

“They are the lucky ones,” Waldorf grumbled, crossing his arms tighter and staring out the carriage window.

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