Page 43 of Whiskers and Wiles

Waldorf’s immediate reaction of impatience and aggravation disappeared as soon as he saw the wary expression Kat wore. Something had upset her, and given the nature of the party they’d just stumbled into, it could be a great many things.

“Are you quite well?” he asked, frowning in concern.

Kat did not look at all settled, but before she could tell him why, Walsingham turned back to see what had waylaid Waldorf.

“Ah, Lady Katherine,” he said, smiling as he recognized Kat. “Welcome to Oxwick Park.”

Kat was forced to snap her mouth shut rather than telling Waldorf what had caused her upset. She immediately put on a smile and slipped her arm more intimately into Waldorf’s. The game had truly begun.

“Lord Walsingham,” she said in a voice filled with false cheer. “I cannot thank you enough for inviting dear Waldorf and I to your estate for such a magnificent party.”

Walsingham huffed a laugh. “It is entirely my wife’s doing, I can assure you,” he said. He glanced significantly at Waldorf and repeated, “I can assure you,” with importance.

Kat did an admirable job of concealing what Waldorf was reasonably certain she actually felt as she laughed lightly, then hugged Waldorf’s arm, bringing the two of them into almost obscene proximity. “Waldorf and I are so newly engaged that Ibelieve we will benefit greatly from your wife’s beneficence. Love is a wonderful thing, but wisdom is an even greater one.”

She gazed adoringly at Waldorf, acting so convincingly that Waldorf almost believed her, then smiled at Walsingham.

“Indeed,” Waldorf said, grinning soppily at Kat and resting his free hand over the one of hers that gripped his arm. “While we’ve known each other for years, it is only just recently that the veils have been lifted from our eyes, showing us both what our true feelings for each other have been this entire time.”

He was acting. That was what they had been charged to do. But his words felt like they had a tiny seed of truth to them. He did not dislike Kat clinging to him or smiling affectionately at her as much as he’d thought he might.

The moment was broken by the sound of a throat clearing and footsteps walking across the grass. Waldorf glanced away from Kat, spotting the newcomer, and everything within him turned to cold, unforgiving stone.

“Lord Waldorf, what a surprise to see you here,” the bastard, Lord Headland, said. The man wore a smile as false as half the jewels worn by the ladies of thetonand had his eyes narrowed at Waldorf, giving him even more of a snakelike appearance than usual.

“Headland,” Waldorf said. The single word slipped out as a growl. Kat’s upset was suddenly understandable. The way she clung to him as if they really were deeply in love made perfect sense. It would be an easy thing to convince a bunch of strangers that the two of them were madly in love and engaged, but Headland knew the truth.

Before Waldorf could ask it, Walsingham answered the question burning within him as he said, “It seems you know my wife’s brother, Lord Anthony Headland.”

“Her brother,” Kat said, not so much as a question, but as if she’d had the information stored away somewhere in her mind and had only just recalled it.

“Yes,” Headland said. “I am quite familiar with Lord Waldorf and Lady Katherine. I’d no idea whatsoever that the two of them had entered into such an intimate understanding. In fact, I had always believed that the two of them despised each other after an argument between the two of them many years ago. They were arguing at the Thistlewhites’ supper party just last week.”

Waldorf drew in a slow breath and stood straighter, raising his chin so that he could give the appearance of looking down on Headland. “I would wager there are a great many things you do not know, Lord Headland.”

The presence and interest of Walsingham in their greeting was the only thing that prevented Waldorf from telling Headland off right then and there. If the bastard was Lady Walsingham’s brother, he and Kat would be forced to tread carefully around the man for the duration of their stay.

“Waldorf and I recently had a reconciliation,” Kat explained, speaking to Walsingham, not Headland, though she eyed Headland warily as she did. “Circumstances threw us together again after twenty years, and we were able to clear the misunderstandings of the past and renew our affection for each other.”

Not one to be outdone or to miss an opportunity to spin the perfect web of lies, Waldorf did not hesitate for a moment before continuing the story with, “Both the misunderstandings and the affection were great, but thankfully, love outweighs mistakes. Katherine and I are blissfully happy now.”

He smiled adoringly at Kat, who smiled back at him, perfectly on cue.

She then did the last thing Waldorf would have expected and leaned in, lifting a bit so that she could touch her lips to his. Waldorf reacted without thinking, kissing her in return.

For the tiniest of moments, everything else fell away. The mission, the madness around them, and Headland all ceased to exist, and all that remained was the warmth of Kat with him and the pounding of his heart against his ribs.

That moment was shattered almost as soon as it began by Lady Walsingham’s light, trilling, “Oh, delightful! You found them, James.”

Kat pulled away from Waldorf and turned quickly to Lady Walsingham. “We simply could not wait to join the others in your party’s activities, my lady.”

“How convenient,” Lady Walsingham said, slipping up to her husband’s side and clinging to his arm as if he were her savior. “I was just coming to fetch you so that you might come and partake of the Initiation of Trust.”

She lifted to her toes and kissed Walsingham with so much passion that Waldorf had to look away, and he would have cringed as well, if he hadn’t thought it would be rude. Then again, it seemed as though normal rules of propriety had been thrown in a bag and drowned in the river.

“Anthony, you’re here as well,” Lady Walsingham said, breaking away from her husband and approaching Headland.

Waldorf sucked in a bracing breath and prepared to cringe in horror, but Lady Walsingham only kissed her brother’s cheek, thank God.

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