Page 87 of A Very Bellamy Christmas

Chapter 17

Kathryn

“Miss Martin does not feel well and did not want to risk passing her cold to any of us,” Katie said when Phoebe asked why their mother’s companion was not in the drawing room before dinner. “And mother is not here because she still suffers from her migraine,” she added.

Phoebe frowned. “I will go and check on them both.”

“No, you needn’t,” Katie said hurriedly, before her sister could heave herself to her feet. “Mama’s maid said she does not want to be disturbed. And Miss Martin looked so ill that I sent Dora to sit with her.”

“That was very thoughtful of you,” Phoebe said, smiling at her.

Katie returned her smile with one that was rather forced. If only her sister knew…

“Do you think I should send for Doctor Murray?” Phoebe asked.

“I already offered. Miss Martin was most emphatic that we do not.”

“Very well. So, we are down three for dinner, then.”

“Who is the third?” Katie asked, although she knew that, too.

“Shelton left a note saying he was going to see a horse and would probably be away a few days,” the Duke of Chatham said, a perplexed frown on his face. “He mentioned nothing about going to see a horse this morning. It is most unusual for him to leave without saying anything.”

“He left my aunt’s house with my sister and never said anything,” Hy observed with a faint twist of her lips.

The duke smiled, but it looked a bit strained.

Before he could speak, Hy said in a low voice, “I’m sorry, Chatham. I should not have said that. It was…insensitive.”

Katie’s eyebrows shot up. She loved her sister, but Hy was not exactly known for her sensitivity.

The duke said something to his wife that was too quiet for Katie to hear, and her sister chuckled. “I will remind you of that later…Your Grace.”

That was another new thing about Hy—her laughter. Katie could count on one hand the number of times she’d heard her older sister laugh before she married the duke.

Of course, there hadn’t been much for Hy to laugh about growing up. Their mother wasn’t warm toward any of her children, but she loathed Hy and never bothered to hide it.

After what had occurred at Aunt Agnes’s house this past summer, Katie suspected that she had taken Hy’s place as her mother’s most loathed child.

Regardless of how much the countess disliked her, she was still insistent that Katie accompany her to Bath after Christmas rather than go to London.

“You will not continue to live in the same house as that—that cad Shelton. You will just have to wait for your Season until next year, when I can offer you proper chaperonage. After what occurred at my sister’s house it is clear nobody else can manage you. So, I will be forced to do so.”

The argument that followed had not been pleasant. Neither had it resolved anything. But Katie was not done fighting for her future, and she had several other weapons remaining in her arsenal. By hook or by crook she would not be going to Bath.

Her mother just didn’t know that yet.

Without the countess to dampen the atmosphere at the dinner table the meal seemed to fly by and conversation was lively.

Afterward they retired to the drawing room, as usual. Katie had no heart for games—at least not the sorts that were played with rules—but she could not absent herself without drawing notice.

No, it would be unwise to attract attention after what she had done to Shelton and Miss Martin…

Katie’s lips curled into a smile as she imagined the scene in the priest hole right about now. It was too bad she could not be a fly on the wall.

She had not yet decided whether to release the pair from their prison tomorrow while everyone else was out gathering greenery—which would mean that nobody would find out that Shelton and Miss Martin had gone missing—or if she should keep them sequestered for so long that Shelton’s hand would be forced, and he would have to propose.

But that, she decided, was too cruel, even for Shelton.