someone who was very special to me.”
“Was this the same person who passed away so closely after your parents died?” he questioned. “The reason why your heart has yet to recover?”
She looked over at him in surprise. “You remembered that?”
A smug smile came to his lips. “I find I remember most of what you say, no matter how infuriating it is.”
Katherine grew silent for a moment, unsure of what to think about Lord Berkshire’s odd admission. Knowing that he was still waiting for her response, she replied, “To answer your question, yes. It was the same person.”
“I assume this person was your betrothed, then?”
Her lips parted in disbelief. “How could you tell?”
“I can hear the love in your voice for him.”
“His name was Noah,” she revealed, clasping her hands together. “He was the second son of the Duke of Noxley.”
“I was not acquainted with Lord Noah,” he commented.
“That doesn’t surprise me,” she shared. “He spent most of his time at his parent’s country estate, which bordered our lands.”
“You grew up together.”
“We did,” she replied. “I can’t remember a time that I wasn’t in love with Noah, and I knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him.” She glanced down at her hands. “But it wasn’t meant to be.”
“May I ask how he died?”
Katherine drew her brows together. “He was racing his friends on a road near his land and a child stepped directly into his path.” Tears came into her eyes, but she blinked them back, silently cursing herself for her display of emotions. “Noah reined in his horse, causing him to be upended, and he broke his leg so intently that a bone protruded through his skin. It wasn’t long before infection set in and he died.”
“That is awful,” Lord Berkshire murmured.
“We had just buried my parents, and then I had to attend the funeral of my betrothed,” she said. “It became too much for me, and my heart has yet to recover.”
Lord Berkshire grew silent for a moment, then said, “I hope one day that someone will love me as much as you loved Lord Noah.”
“Someone will,” she asserted.
“Why do you say that?”
“Because I am the best matchmaker in London,” she replied with mirth in her voice.
He chuckled. “My apologies for doubting you,” he said. “I forgot that your humility has no bounds.”
“You are forgiven.”
He chuckled again, and her heart fluttered in her chest. What had just happened? Not wanting to dwell on what or why she felt so strangely, she said, “That’s why I encourage all my clients to marry for love. I want them to feel the same joy that I felt when Noah was by my side.”
“Your obsession with love is starting to make sense now,” he remarked.
She smiled. “Once you have been in love, no matter how fleeting it is, you won’t be content living without it.”
“You aren’t at least willing to try again?”
Her smile faded. “What Noah and I had was special, a once-in-a-lifetime kind of love,” she said. “I doubt I will ever find it again.”
“But aren’t you the best matchmaker in Town?” he teased.
“I assure you that it is much easier to secure a match for another than it is for yourself.”
“Why is that?”
“Partially because my demands are quite lofty,” she joked.
“Regardless, you are beautiful, clever, and have an income,” he began. “I have no doubt that you would have your pick of gentlemen, assuming you ever decided to wed.”
“You think I am beautiful?” she inquired coquettishly, succumbing to the desire to tease him.
“I do,” he said, clasping his hands behind his back. “You are a remarkably handsome woman.”
“You flatter me.”
He shook his head. “That was not my intention.”
“It was not?”
“No, it was merely the truth.”
She glanced over at him. “What a kind thing to say, Lord Berkshire.”
“As I have said before, you will find that I can be quite charming when I want to be,” he said, smiling.
Kitty’s voice interrupted their conversation. “There you two are!” she exclaimed as she came to stop in front of them. “We have been looking everywhere for you.”
Lord Berkshire’s brows scrunched together. “You have?”
Mr. Caney nodded. “We went ahead and secured a table,” he informed them. “However, when we turned around to inform you, we had lost you in the crowd.”
“We better hurry before they give our table away,” Kitty said, spinning on her heel; Mr. Caney following closely behind.
As they hurried to keep up with Kitty, Katherine joked, “What horrible chaperones we turned out to be.”
Lord Berkshire chuckled.