His words sucked all the air out of the room. She gripped the bedpost as her knees threatened to buckle beneath her, and her breaths came in shallow gasps. She couldn’t picture who her father was, so why did she feel like she’d lost something—someone very important to her?
But the feelings she had for her father—whoever he was—lived in her heart, and hearing he was gone, broke it.
“Tabetha.” He lowered her to sit on the mattress. “Hell, I’m sorry. I didn’t think.”
“When?” It mattered. She had no actual memories of the man, but it mattered. She loved her father.
“Three years ago.” Rock sat beside her.
“Did you know him?”
“I did. He was a good man. Your brother’s a lot like him.”
She nodded. It all made sense even if she couldn’t picture either of the two men in her mind.
“Do I like my family?”
“You love your family, Tabetha. And your family loves you. So much, I’d say, that they’ve spoiled you perhaps a tad too much.” His voice sounded gentle beside her. Not quite teasing but affectionate and reassuring.
How many times would she need reassurance? It seemed more than a little pathetic of her.
“If my father is dead…” What did a person do with grief that they couldn’t even comprehend? Nothing. She could do nothing. She paused to catch her breath. “Then who are we hiding from?”
She turned where she sat on the bed so she could watch his expressions, doing so in time to see him wince, as though waging some sort of battle with himself. With his conscience perhaps?
“Please...” she persisted, “tell me the truth. I’m not a child and contrary to that bumbling physician, I’m not going to break. I’m not going to fall apart.”
“There is a man,” he finally answered. “A... duke.” He watched her closely, as though this information might mean something to her.
“You are running from a duke?”
“You, Tabetha, are running from a duke. I suppose now, the two of us are.”
“But why? What can I possibly have done to provoke a duke to come after me?” Was it possible that this duke had wanted to marry her and she’d spurned him when she’d chosen to marry Rock? Powerful awe washed over her at the mere idea that her love for Rock was so potent that she’d chosen a mere mister over a duke. She shivered.
“You stole his cat.”
“Archie?” This was ridiculous. She was stunned into silence, and as though he knew they were discussing him, the little creature, who’d managed to work his hairless body out of the pink gown, crossed the room and hopped up beside her.
“I opposed the idea, but you insisted. And, as you know by now, I’m utterly incapable of denying you anything so...” How could she resist him when he looked at her like that?
Another knock. “Mrs. Chester? Should I have Cook put your food on the stove again?”
“We’ll be right there, Wilma!” Tabetha answered, needing out of this chamber more than anything. In less than a quarter of an hour, she’d learned that her father had died, that she was a married virgin, and also that she was apparently a person who kidnapped cats.
But Rock wasn’t quite ready to leave matters there. Cradling her cheek with his giant hand, he forced her to meet his gaze. “The cat was afraid of the duke. You did it for Archie. You saved him.”
“It would be rather cruel to steal a person’s pet, wouldn’t it?” She’d already had doubts about her character and her intelligence. The idea that she would do something so despicable as that had shaken her.
“Archie isn’t a pet to Culpepper. He was a possession and treated as such. He is not a good man.”
Culpepper.
Culpepper. The name was familiar, but like everything else, her memory took her no further than vague awareness.
She wanted to ask Rock if she was a good person. But he’d married her; what would she expect him to tell her?
That was something she was going to have to discover for herself.
Chapter 14
Killing Time
Stone didn’t know what the hell he was doing.
She’d nearly fainted when he’d blurted out that her father was dead. How had he failed to consider that such news would be brand new to her?
And then he’d gone and told her about Culpepper—who Stone had discovered was taking his leave of Gretna Green early the next morning. And if Culpepper was gone, there was no reason for him and Tabetha to stay hidden in this chamber. In