Page 98 of In Search of a Husband
“No, you are complacent, and that might be equally as bad. I am not a prize to be bartered around London. I have thoughts and desiresof my own. I am a person, and I am begging you to understand that. But I see you no longer wish for it to be your concern.”
“I never agreed for it to be my concern to begin with. That was your first mistake.”
Kate sighed, her anger ebbing into pity. “I wish you the best, honestly. Living as I had in London after the scandal was miserable, and it made me feel small and worthless. But I don’t need you or my parents to save me. I have done well by myself. And I am proud of what I have accomplished. I don’t care if you understand that.”
Oscar waited for her by the stairs. She tapped her hand against her thigh, urging him forward, and he quickly trotted along and pressed his face into her palm. A gentle reassurance that her world was not crumbling, even if it felt that way at the moment.
CHAPTER 26
Gabriel stared at his desk,watching as Marcel crawled in circles over his ledger book. The girls had forgotten the small bee and its box in his office again. Then he glanced up at the clock on the mantel and checked it against his timepiece.
He couldn’t tell which was correct.
“Damn it,” he muttered.
How long did a one-winged bumblebee live without its hive?
He pushed his hair back from his face, wincing as he brushed against the cut against his brow, then reached for the pile of ledgers. Numbers were what he needed to sort out his mind. Numbers were logical.
What was not logical was how yesterday he was about to ask for Kate’s hand in marriage, and now the man who ruined her reputation was speaking with her in his castle.
But this always had to be the ending, didn’t it?
Kate arrived from London seeking employment to weather out a scandal. He had supplied her with a position and paid her accordingly. It was as simple as that. She was the family’s governess.
But she was a horrible governess, and he had recognized that. Shehad a mind for business and had made excellent progress sorting out the disaster Tavish left behind. And the attraction he felt for her was nothing, fleeting.
It could never have amounted to anything when she wished only for a position. She needed him and succeeded in finding what she needed, and now she would leave.
As it should be.
What else did he have to offer her?
“We have guests, Brother. Are ye goin’ to hide away in here?”
He shook his head, avoiding his sister’s glare. It was no use. He felt it rake over his body, searing as coals, nevertheless. It was equally as damning as if he lifted his head and looked her in the eyes. “I dinna intend to. Business here first.”
“That the same business that ended with the Campbell brothers laid out last evening?”
He rolled his shoulders, his body stiff, then found the nerve to meet his sister’s disgusted stare. “What do ye want?”
Elsie crossed her arms and leaned against the doorway. “It’s been some time since we’ve been together, but I still ken ye and that dead, empty stare ye get in yer eyes when ye’re feelin’ a wee bit sorry for yerself. Ye’re about to make a mistake ye willna be able to fix, ye stubborn arse.”
He hadn’t made one mistake. There had been several large mistakes since he arrived in Scotland. And it all rested on him because he was normally much more careful.
“I dinna ken what ye mean.”
“Considering yer face, I dinna agree. Be kind to her. It’s no’ as if Kate wished them to come.”
But they had.
Her family had arrived, requesting she return to England, and given the marquess’s presence, he had one guess as to why.
He had been foolish to think Kate would remain in Scotland when accepting the governess position had only been an escape from her old life. And now that they wished for her back, what was Gabriel supposed to do?
He gave a curt nod before digging through his desk for another cigar, not paying attention to Elsie cursing his name and spinning out of view or Oscar trotting in a few minutes later.
Gabriel could feel her before she even stood before him, like a skipping stone sending ripples out against a mirror-smooth loch.
