Blame It on Bath Page 0,48
in the twilight. Bath was beautiful, she thought, and said a quick prayer it would be happy as well.
“Is it a fine view?” The captain had come up behind her. She started at his voice, so close to her shoulder, but managed not to flinch away.
“Yes.” She pulled back the drape so he could see.
Her husband leaned forward, over her shoulder. His face was right next to hers. She could see the dust of the road settled in the folds of his cravat and smell his shaving soap mixed with the odors of sweat and horse. “I hope you find the house satisfactory,” he said, still peering through the window.
“Very much so.” It was hard not to stare at his profile.
He tilted his head and glanced at her. “I trust you’ll be at home in Bath. It’s a fine place—or was, the last time I was here. Unfortunately business may keep me occupied a great deal.”
She longed to know what it was. He’d said he had to find someone here; who? Someone who could help disprove the scandalous rumors about his father? Someone else? But if he wanted her to know, he would tell her. “Of course,” she murmured. “I shall manage.”
“Good girl.” He gave her a quick smile, then turned away and strode across the room. “Bragg, where’s my dinner?” he called into the hallway, laughing a moment later at the muffled reply. “I’ll leave you to your toilette,” he said to Katherine, who still stood at the window. “I did promise you a nice, hot bath, did I not?”
“Yes. How kind of you to remember,” she said, but he had already left the room. Katherine sighed as Birdie bustled in.
It didn’t take Birdie long to unpack her few things. She thought of all her belongings in London. Now that they had arrived and the captain made clear he expected her to amuse herself in Bath, she felt a bit annoyed that he hadn’t allowed her time to pack more. Surely an extra day wouldn’t have made so very great a difference. She had left behind almost everything she valued, and now she was to be alone in a strange town.
After two long days of jolting about in the coach, the hot bath felt delicious. Birdie had kept the bottle of orange water, and put a few drops in the steaming tub. Katherine soaked for a scandalously long time, feeling at leisure to do so for the first time in months. She gathered from something Birdie muttered that her husband had left not just her room but the whole house, which meant she could do as she pleased. Hadn’t he told her to be at home here? She felt at home lolling in the water, and only got out when it cooled enough to make her shiver as Birdie poured buckets of water over her head.
She sent Birdie off to her own bath and bed soon after that, when the captain’s man, Bragg, brought a tray with dinner. Warm, clean, fed, and tired, Katherine curled up in a comfortable chair near the window. Would the captain be home soon? Would he expect her to be waiting for him? Howe never had, but Lucien made a habit of knocking at her door every night. At first she had thought it merely oversolicitous, but later decided it was more watchful.
She wished she knew more about her husband. He seemed nothing like Lucien—although it must be noted the captain now possessed what Lucien had wanted, her fortune. Perhaps Lucien, too, would have left her alone after he got the money. Katherine repressed a shudder; it still made her skin crawl to think of marrying Lucien, even now that she was safe from that fate.
Gerard de Lacey, though . . . Gerard did not make her skin crawl. He made her nerves jangle and her stomach tighten, but not in a bad way. Everything she thought about him might turn out to be wrong, but somewhere deep inside him, she was sure, he was still, in some small way, that kind and gallant young man who had helped her once.
Out in the night, a bell chimed the hour. It wasn’t very late, but Katherine felt as though she hadn’t really slept in weeks, ever since Lucien told her he expected them to marry. Even last night, removed from Lucien’s reach, she’d been too aware of the man sleeping beside her to get much rest. Tonight she felt truly exhausted, wrung out in mind