Page 45 of Return to Satterthwaite Court

He wasn’t going to discourage her interest in him. Not any longer.

Quite the reverse.

Her mouth tipped into a smile. “I shall,” she vowed. “You may depend upon it.”

Chapter Fourteen

The clock at the end of the hall echoed faintly, chiming ten o’clock. It was still early for an evening in the country. In the normal course of events, Charles would have remained downstairs with his family for another hour or more. Instead, he’d retired early.

His bedroom was cloaked in a flickering pattern of shadows cast by the candles that blazed on the fireplace mantel, the bedside table, and on the small walnut writing desk where Charles sat, composing a letter to Mr. Inch, the family’s solicitor in Taunton.

It would be up to Inch to verify the legality of Mr. Catmull’s ownership of Satterthwaite Court. Once he’d done so, Charles had instructed the solicitor to make an offer on the property. A generous one. Charles had no intention of losing his chance to reclaim his family’s ancestral estate.

As for the identity of the mysterious letter writer…

Whoever they were, it appeared they’d written with good intentions rather than bad ones. They had, after all, alerted him to the sale of Satterthwaite Court. For that, Charles supposed he must be grateful.

But he couldn’t be easy on the subject.

For one thing, there was the ‘grievous wrong’ done to his mother. The loss of her childhood home, he presumed. But if that was indeed the wrong that the anonymous letter had referenced, it wasn’t a legal one. On Sir Charles’s death, Satterthwaite Court had passed to Edgar Townsend according to law.

Hadn’t it?

And what about the rifle shot that had nearly taken Charles’s head off today?

He’d told Kate it was poachers or possibly even the gamekeeper. A careless shot, merely. That hadn’t stopped Charles’s blood from surging with the same keen sense of battle-tested awareness he’d felt when enemy fire had come too close during a hostile encounter at sea.

Good God. Had someone purposefully shot at him?

It was outrageous to even contemplate such a thing. And yet…

Charles couldn’t shake the feeling. It was why he’d cut short their tour of the estate. Why he’d shepherded Kate back into the carriage and ordered the driver to return them to Tiverton. It was one thing for Charles to find himself in danger, but to contemplate Kate being hurt was another matter entirely.

Not that Kate wanted—or needed—his protection.

She was wild and willful, with a spirit as formidable as any man. Indeed, on the three occasions they’d met, they had quarreled as much as they’d conversed. The only time she’d shown him anything other than the sharp side of her tongue had been when she’d smoothed the hair from his brow as he’d loomed over her beneath the old oak tree at Satterthwaite Court.

Her touch had been as soft as butterfly wings dancing over his skin. It had soothed the anger that had rushed through his veins after he’d hauled her to the ground. The fury he’d felt at the thought of anything—or anyone—causing her injury.

But she hadn’t been injured. She’d been unhurt.

Unchastened.

“A wife’s privilege,” she’d said as she’d smoothed his hair.

The cheek of her!

More than seven hours later, he was still thinking about it. About her. The feel of her fingertips. The teasing tilt of her mouth. The lush curve of her body beneath his.

But it was Satterthwaite Court that deserved his attention at present, not the antics of a vexatious girl.

Frowning, he dipped his quill pen into the inkpot and, tapping it once to remove the excess, signed his name to the bottom of the letter. There was little else to be done at present aside from writing to Inch. Until Charles heard back from the solicitor, his options regarding the estate were limited.

“Am I interrupting you?” His mother’s voice sounded from the doorway of his room.

Charles hastily blotted his signature before folding the letter and tucking it into an envelope. He’d post it to Inch first thing in the morning. “Not at all,” he said. “Come in.”

Philly entered, with Flurry, Twig, and Ignatius following close behind her. “You’ve been busy today,” she said. “Did your absence have anything to do with Lady Katherine?”