Passions of a Gentleman (Gentlemen of Honor #3) - Rose Gordon Page 0,82
and I had with Simon the night the two of you returned to London.” She ran her fingers over the metal points of the comb. “My words were not only unkind, they were unfair to both of you, and I’m sorry. Simon loves you more than anything and for the right reasons.” She extended the comb toward Rae, uncertainty in her eyes. “I’d love nothing more than to have your forgiveness and be able to claim you as a daughter.”
Rae took the comb from Katherine’s unsteady hand, relief washing over her in waves. She hadn’t been wrong. Simon’s mother didn’t despise or pity her. “I’d like the same.”
“Good. Now that that’s settled, I have one more thing to discuss with you.” She smiled warmly. “My son has a pet name for you, no?”
“Rae.”
“Is that for his use exclusively?”
Rae hadn’t considered that. Though he’d openly called her Rae in front of her family, they’d all continued to call her Henrietta or Henny. “No. I should think anyone who can love me as much as he does can use it.”
“Well then, Rae, I shall see you tomorrow.”
“Wait.” Rae worried the lace on her cuff. “I need to make a confession to you now.”
Katherine heaved an overdone sigh much like Simon did before he made a sarcastic remark. “Does my library have a repugnant odor again?”
Rae grinned. “If it does, I didn’t notice it.”
“Oh, good. I was worried that’s why you didn’t want to come back.”
Rae recognized Katherine’s lame attempt at a jest for what it was. She smoothed her skirts and took a deep breath. In for a penny, in for a pound. “Katherine, if we’re going to be completely honest and have a fresh start I need to tell you something. Your favorite pastime is my Achilles heel.”
“Oh,” Katherine’s soft answer wasn’t what Rae had expected. “Would you care to know one of my secrets?”
“Only one?”
Katherine playfully wagged a finger at her. “I shan’t divulge everything, lest you decide it be prudent to blackmail me for being a less-than-welcoming mother-in-law when we first met.”
“I wouldn’t—”
“I know.” She licked her lips. “As it would happen, the reason I run a lending library and Lady Duckworth doesn’t owe a pence for the book she’s had since 1809 is because I didn’t know how to do sums until I married Walter.” She shrugged. “My mother insisted my father hire a tutor to teach me to read so Lord Norcourt wouldn’t terminate our contract, but sums weren’t considered important. They felt my husband’s brain could be taxed.”
“Simon offered to help,” she admitted. Yet another thing she and Katherine shared.
“He’d be an excellent teacher.” Katherine patted her knee then stood. “Now that you’ve forgiven me, perhaps you need to let him know.”
“Let me know what?” Simon asked for the doorway.
Katherine, clearly as taken unawares as Rae, tried to talk but nothing came out.
“That I love you.” Rae jumped off the settee and made her way to Simon as fast as she could. She threw her arms around him with a vigor she hadn’t felt since their first night in London. “I’m sorry, Simon,” she whispered in his ear. “I haven’t been myself this past week and—” she pulled back, found his hands with hers— “I’m sorry.”
Simon looked over her shoulder to his mother. “What have you done?”
“Righted my wrong,” she said cryptically then excused herself.
“Did my mother do something to you?”
Rae turned her head to the side. “She returned my comb.”
“Oh. Wherever did she find it? I searched that room high and low.”
“I suspect she found it near the potted plant by the drawing room,” Rae said unevenly. “That’s where I was standing when I heard you tell your parents about me.”
Simon’s gut twisted. If Rae had stood there, then she’d overheard… “I’m sorry, Rae,” he rasped. So much made sense now. Why she’d been so eager to go downstairs that night and why she’d been so intimidated by Mother. Even why she’d gone to such great lengths to keep herself occupied during the day. She was trying to prove she had value. “I didn’t know.”
“If you had would it have changed anything?” Her carefree tone was the equivalent to a punch in his already uneasy stomach.
“Yes. Had I known you were listening, I’d have refuted their charge.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“I thought the more I denied it, the more they’d think they were correct. I believed given enough time, they’d come to see that my feelings for you are genuine.” Simon’s mouth went dry. “If I’d known