of being further pitied by Simon’s parents and admit the truth and pray they’d accept her.
But today wasn’t that day.
For as much as she’d tried to bury their words and convince herself that Simon’s love for her had nothing to do with Giles, she still hadn’t yet believed it.
Cooking and sewing, though not the most chatty of companions, had kept her occupied well enough the past week. The clock in the hall chimed the hour and she pulled her apron over her head and then dropped it on the table. She had exactly thirty minutes to change and be ready for when Simon came home.
Humming, she rounded the top of the thin staircase that led to the kitchen and halted, her heart slamming in her chest.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Someone was pounding so hard on the front door it was a wonder the wood didn’t split.
Rae padded over to the door and peeked out the little window in the middle of the door. “Mrs. Appleton?”
“Katherine,” the older woman corrected.
Forcing a wobbly smile, Rae pulled the door open. “Is something wrong?”
“Not with me, but I was beginning to think there was something wrong in here.”
Rae waved her mother-in-law inside. “I was cooking.”
“I see.”
Flushing, Rae brushed the flour off her skirt. “I was just about to go change.”
“Before you do, I need to talk to you.”
Unease knotted in Rae’s gut. “Of course. The drawing room is just over there.”
Katherine wasted no time getting into the drawing room. “It looks stunning.”
“Thank you.” Other than cooking and sewing, Rae had to do something with her day.
“I don’t know what I love more,” Katherine mused, letting her eyes linger from the royal blue settee to the cream lounge chair. “The colors of the furniture match the dark wood of the floor perfectly.”
“Thank you,” Rae said again. She gestured toward the settee. “Please make yourself comfortable.”
“That might be one of those things that’s easier to suggest than to do,” Katherine mused, lowering herself to sit on the settee with all the grace of a queen. She patted the cushion beside her.
Rae dutifully sat beside her mother-in-law.
“We have a few things in common, wouldn’t you know,” Katherine started a moment later. “When I was a debutante, all the ladies who married spoke about how they gained another mother on their wedding day. That was not my fate. Lord Norcourt’s mother died before I was out of leading strings. When I married Walter, I’d hoped that the late Mrs. Appleton and I would be close. She wouldn’t allow it. She was so aghast that I’d so willingly brought scandal to my name by marrying her son so quickly that she had little to do with me or Walter after we married.”
Rae’s stomach roiled. “I-I see.”
“No, you don’t.” Katherine reached for her hands. “I don’t want to be that mother-in-law.”
Nor did Rae want her to be. She just didn’t know how to bridge the chasm between them.
“As I mentioned, we have a few things in common,” Katherine repeated. “One is that my husband always tells everyone I had him under my spell from the first moment we met.”
An uncontrollable giggle lodged itself in Rae’s throat. “Well, I certainly stole his attention.”
“I do believe this is a story I should like to hear.”
“I don’t think you do,” Rae said, choking on her laughter.
“Your laughter tells me otherwise. But, if you’d rather not, I understand.”
Rae looked at her mother-in-law. She was trying. Genuinely trying to form a connection. “Simon happened upon me while I was swimming—” she coughed— “wearing only my chemise.”
Katherine chuckled. “Yes, I’d say that might have grabbed his attention.” She squeezed Rae’s hands. “And kept it.”
Rae murmured an agreement, her mind flooding with memories of Simon’s heated looks from across the room and how just him walking in her direction would send her fleeing to safety in the lady’s retiring room. “He was relentless.”
“Because he loves you.”
Rae locked eyes with Katherine. How had she come to that conclusion? Why only a week ago, she’d openly accused her son of marrying Rae to assuage his pain.
“That’s another thing we have in common,” Katherine said quietly. She pulled her hands from Rae’s and reached into her reticule. “Today, while on my knees trying to chase a mouse out from under one of the bookshelves, I overheard a conversation.” She opened her hand to reveal the comb that Rae had lost in her home.
“I didn’t realize until today when I overheard that conversation that you might have overheard a conversation Walter