was puffing by the time they reached Milsom Street.
“I see why they have chairmen,” she said between gasps.
Katherine smiled. “We’ll become used to it. I see no need to be carried about.”
“Wait until you must walk down that hill,” Birdie grumbled.
Without any fixed destination, they walked slowly, stopping to look in the shop windows at bonnets, prints, bolts of silk, leather-bound books, and every other sort of thing a person could buy. Katherine was amazed and delighted. Bragg was right; there were plenty of shops, including two dressmakers. She was about to enter one, a lovely little shop with the most beautiful fashion dolls in the window, when Birdie made a sharp, shocked sound behind her.
“What is it?” Katherine turned, worried the hills might have been too much for her abigail.
Birdie had her mouth pursed in disapproval. “Nothing at all, madam. Let’s go in.”
But she saw him. Her husband had just come out of a shop across the street, and was now strolling along with a woman on his arm. They had their heads close together in conversation. They were near enough for Katherine to see that the lady was very beautiful, with dark curls pinned up beneath her fashionable straw hat and a generous bosom under her stylish pelisse. Whatever they were discussing engrossed them; neither looked away from the other until Gerard opened the door of a coffee shop and ushered his companion inside.
“Shall you order a blue dress or a green one?” asked Birdie. “I vow, that color in the window would look very well on you.”
Katherine said nothing. She waited until a few carriages passed, then crossed the street. Gerard and the woman had come from a jeweler’s shop. For a moment she stood looking at the bracelets tastefully displayed in the window. Howe had had mistresses. Discovering the first one shocked her; she’d gone to her mother in tears when she realized her husband was visiting, and lavishing jewelry on, a handsome widow in the next town barely three months after wedding her. Her mother chided her for being silly about it. Men like Howe were supposed to have mistresses, she explained. It was the way of their class. Katherine had better not kick up a fuss or Howe might punish her by withholding her pin money. After that Katherine didn’t say a word. To her knowledge, Howe had visited at least three other women during their marriage, and after the first shock wore off, she realized she hadn’t minded very much.
But Gerard said he wouldn’t take a mistress unless they didn’t suit each other in bed. Perhaps he had lied that morning when he said he was pleased. Perhaps she had been so disappointing last night, he couldn’t wait to find another woman. Perhaps the woman had been waiting for him, and she was the reason they had come to Bath. And he rushed right out to see her and buy her jewels.
Katherine heaved a silent sigh. Perhaps it was none of that. Perhaps it was just that her husband preferred livelier company, or more fashionable women, or felt compelled to offer his arm to an unescorted lady. She didn’t know him well enough to guess why he was strolling leisurely about town with another woman after telling his wife he would be consumed with business every day, and she must amuse herself. She had tried to tell herself their marriage would be like this, but she didn’t realize until now just how much she’d hoped it would not.
“Madam.” Birdie broke into her thoughts. “Let’s order some dresses, my lady,” she said gently. “It’s time to shed these drab clothes.”
All her anticipation of that had faded, but she refused to be put off. She had endured it before, and she could endure it now. “Yes,” she said, turning her back on the jewelry shop. “Let’s order a dozen dresses.”
Chapter 13
Gerard returned home with much on his mind. Visiting the post office had yielded more questions than answers, it seemed. He had a description of the man who mailed the letters but nothing else of real value. He didn’t know what to make of the idea that all the letters were written at one time, and the first thing he did on reaching Queen Square was retrieve the other two letters, posted from London and an unknown town, and compare the writing under a strong light with a lens. Only on one letter had the town been spelled correctly the first time, and the correction