Page 91 of In Search of a Husband
“Even if he boasts about his win.”
“I’m with ye, so what did he really win?” He leaned down. “Archie has been watching him all day. Dinna worry, Kate. Dance with me.”
Suddenly, the door swung open revealing two figures in the dim candlelight of the tavern. At first, she thought it was only more patrons visiting from the festival.
But as the first figure stepped inside, she froze, instantly recognizing the cold disappointment of her mother’s glare.
Kate dropped Gabriel’s hands and jumped away, placing Maisie down on the ground, brushing back her hair that had slipped from its pins, trying to right herself, trying to appear as if she was in a London ballroom and not in a crowded inn full of drunken Scottish men and women, about to be proposed to.
“Mother?”
Kate glanced back at Gabriel, a nervous twist in her stomach, then pushed through the crowd to greet her parents, who surveyed the room with horrified looks.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, holding her hand out to shake her mother’s. Meanwhile, her father stood behind her mother as if he had a rod up his back, straight and awkward, with disgust brewing in his eyes.
“This is what you came to Scotland for?” her mother asked, horrified. “Katherine Bancroft, you are coming home with us. There’s no need for you to pretend to be a governess when we both know children are not a strength of yours.”
Kate darted a glance around the crowded room nervously, sick to her stomach and furious. And more than a little embarrassed to have this play out in front of everyone, both friends and strangers alike.
“The inn is full, Mother. I apologize there are no rooms for you. The next coach won’t be here for another day.”
“We arrived in our own carriage. No need to wait.”
“Hello, Sir Martin and Lady Bancroft,” Gabriel said, reaching around Kate to shake her father’s hand. Her father remained stone still, refusing to shake Gabriel’s hand. “You can stay with us this evening at Dunsmuir Castle.”
Her father’s lip curled, disgust resting on his thick, bushy black brows. “Who are you?”
“Miss Bancroft’s employer, sir.”
Kate’s heart broke a little. “Come in, please.”
“That won’t be necessary.”
“Please,” Kate pleaded. “I have somewhere quiet we can talk until Mr. MacInnes can hitch the horses. We will escort you to the castle and make sure a room is prepared for you. In the morning, we can speak further.”
“Listen to your mother,” her father warned. “We don’t wish to mix with…”
Kate fought the urge to roll her eyes. “Very well.” She felt the heat of Gabriel’s body behind hers, but it was little reassurance when she was certain her world had just tipped upside down.
“Then I will?—”
“Hello, Miss Bancroft.”
That voice, that siren call spiked with honey and smugness. She would recognize that voice anywhere.
Kate reached back for Gabriel, but he had stepped away, leaving her there, alone to face down London’s most notorious rake.
Hugh Nethercott, the Marquess of Brookhouse, stepped aroundher father and removed his top hat, wearing a sheepish grin on that ridiculously handsome face of his. He at least had the decency not to flash her his dimple.
Enveloped in a sudden cloak of coldness, Kate’s voice shook as she answered back. “Hello, my lord.”
CHAPTER 24
Gabriel fought back a growl,clenching his hands instead. Fine, everything would be fine and could be sorted.
This wasn’t necessarily the end.
Yet he heard the hitch in Kate’s voice as she stared down upon the man who ruined her, and he wasn’t convinced she hated him all that much.
