Page 115 of In Search of a Husband
“Hmm…”
Kate winked, pressing her mouth against his in a chaste kiss before rolling away. Or attempting to.
“Oh, don’t you dare…”
He pinched her thigh, and she reached back to swat him away only to find herself underneath him and his lips on her throat.
“Good morning, Kate.” His voice was rough from sleep. The words felt like the morning sun finally peeking in through the window, forcing out the dark.
“The girls,” she protested, certain they would burst through the door any moment.
“It’s locked.”
“Oscar—”
“Will survive a few more minutes if he waits for his breakfast.”
“You’ve an answer for everything.”
“Enterprising fellow, yer soon-to-be-husband.”
She thought to protest, certain they should both be out of bed and up and about the castle. But those thoughts died away as Gabriel moved that wicked mouth of his first on her lips, then her breasts, before reaching between her legs. She closed her eyes and sighed, melting back against the bed.
“And very convincing.”
“Verra.”
An hour later,after they washed up and dressed, and Kate had discovered not one but two love bites on her body, and Gabriel helped manage her wild mess of curls, she set off to set her past firmly behind her.
But she wouldn’t do it alone.
Gabriel walked behind her, even as Oscar raced up the stairwell and his large paws slid over the wood floor. And the chorus of the girls laughing and singing floated through the hallway of the castle.
“Finn Wallace!” Gabriel called out. “Are ye alive?”
“No’ for tryin’,” Elsie yelled, shuffling out of the sickroom into the hallway with a pitcher of water.
“Let me help you to bed,” Kate said, rushing up to her and grabbing the fine china piece before it shattered onto the floor in a hundred tiny pieces.
“She willna let me rest!” Finn’s rough voice echoed out into the hallway. “Fussin’ over me. I was stabbed, no’...” He began to cough, then his voice faded.
Elsie’s face paled, then her fists tightened. “Die then, ye stubborn numpty.” She turned her back to Finn in bed.
Gabriel glanced at Kate. She shrugged, steering Elsie to her room to help her settle before seeing her to bed and assuring her that Finn would be looked after.
“Nae matter to me,” she grumbled, pulling the covers over her head. “He left once, willna matter again.”
Kate had thought so, too. But she had been terribly wrong.
Once Elsie was resting and Gabriel sent for the surgeon to return and check Finn, she dared enter the morning room.
Her parents sat at the table, and Hugh was at the pianoforte, his focus outside on the cold day marked by large stretches of dark clouds between bursts of sun.
Wild weather, the kind that signaled a cold, stiff breeze and the promise of rain.
Kate pulled her shawl tighter around her and stopped short of the table. “Good morning,” she announced.
Her mother continued stirring her tea as if Kate didn’t stand a few feet away. Her father slowly peeled the newsprint away from the front of his face and assessed her.
