Blame It on Bath Page 0,29
contact you, I would have suggested such a course earlier, so you could prepare.”
“You explained it with perfect logic last night,” Katherine replied. “I should have thought of it myself.”
He wore that faint, irritating, little smile again. “But you couldn’t know which way my decision would go. How awkward it would have been had you arrived with luggage, and I declined.”
“You’ve got the right of that,” said Birdie under her breath. Katherine could tell it wasn’t anger but anxiety making Birdie so testy. He wasn’t helping with his air of general good humor and witty comments. Katherine had never been good at that sort of thing; it made her feel sluggish and stupid, and instinctively she tried to cut him off.
“If you want me to fall at your feet in gratitude, Captain, you shall wait in vain,” she told him with frosty calm. “I don’t think this arrangement serves you very ill.”
“No, it benefits me greatly.”
“It benefits us both,” she said sharply. He met her eyes for a moment, then smiled again. He had a way of looking at her that made her think of Birdie’s words the other night, that he would work out all her secrets. Katherine felt like the most appalling dunce when he looked at her that way. She was an oddity, a curiosity to him, and she hated it. Unfortunately she had no idea how to change it. She turned to look out the window just as the carriage slowed and halted.
“We’ve already arrived?” she exclaimed. “Why, we could have walked so short a distance!”
“My aunt would blister my ears if I made my bride walk to the church on her wedding day,” her soon-to-be-husband replied. He opened the door and got out before helping down Birdie, then her. When she stood beside him, he kept hold of her hand until she looked up at him. “Last chance, love,” he murmured. “Are you ready? ’Til death do us part, after this.”
The future loomed before her, blindingly, frighteningly, blank. It could be lovely, or horrible, but at least it was her own choice. She pulled her hand from his. “Yes.” Holding her cloak around her, she started up the steps of the small church, the captain following. The vicar was waiting for them, smiling broadly, and they all went into the church, Katherine feeling anxious and somehow excited, Birdie looking grim, and the captain far too calm and relaxed.
The ceremony was over quickly, with but two surprises. The first came at the beginning, when the vicar’s wife came out to serve as witness and handed Katherine a lovely bouquet of pink rosebuds, barely open and still so fresh, they had a few drops of dew clinging to the petals. When Katherine stammered an astonished thanks, the woman pressed her hand and leaned forward to whisper that of course it was her bridegroom who sent them early that morning. Katherine looked at him from beneath her eyelashes, wondering what he meant by it, but he paid her no mind as he conversed quietly with the vicar.
The second surprise came near the end of the ceremony. When the vicar asked the captain to put the ring on her finger, Katherine expected a plain narrow band, or even none at all. Instead he placed a beautifully shaped gold ring on her finger. She barely had time to look at it before the vicar was pronouncing them man and wife. Her new husband looked down at her with his wicked grin, and for a moment she thought he was going to kiss her again as he had last night, right there in front of Birdie and the vicar and his wife. She braced herself, but he had already turned away to shake the vicar’s hand. Katherine let out her breath slowly, both disappointed and relieved.
Birdie bustled up and kissed her on the cheek. “I wish you great joy,” she said in a trembling voice. “Truly I do, my dear.”
“Thank you, Birdie.” Katherine squeezed her hand. “I owe you a great debt for helping me do this.”
Her abigail cast a speculative glance at the captain. “I hope it brings you the peace and contentment you desire, and not . . .” She stopped and shook her head. “At least he brought a proper ring.”
“And flowers.” Katherine held them up. “I didn’t expect that.” She turned her hand from side to side, studying the ring. It was delicately curved in the shape of a curling vine, etched with flowers and leaves. She