“You have to help me. Lizzy’s getting married, and my father is forcing me to go to the Beaufort ball, and if I don’t find a husband, he’s going to find one for me, and I just know it will be to some horrible brute he finds on the street and pays to take me off his hands.”
“Whatever are you talking about?” Maddie said, easing Catherine onto a bench. “Take a deep breath. Calm down.”
Normally this was a comforting place for Catherine. She loved horses and loved to ride, though she rarely had the chance. But just now, she wanted to be alone with Maddie, away from the eyes and ears of the stable lads and the grooms, moving in and out of the building. “Maddie, can we go inside? Please? I need to talk to you in private.”
“Very well, but only if you promise to calm down. You’re scaring me.”
Catherine made a show of taking a deep breath and forced a smile. “All better. Can we go now?”
“Fine.” Rising, Maddie untied her apron, and Catherine helped her pull it off, then the two linked arms and walked up the path and into the morning room of the Castleigh town house.
Though she’d been in the house a thousand times or more, it never failed to impress Catherine. The gleaming marble staircases; the polished wood floors that clacked under her old, worn boots; the sunlight streaming through the huge windows and dappling the richly painted walls with light. She loved to run her fingertips over the velvet and brocade furnishings. The heavy, sumptuous fabrics cushioned her hands and made her feel like a princess, if only for a little while.
A servant appeared with tea almost as soon as Maddie and Catherine took their places on their favorite window seat, and Catherine took a moment to savor the feeling of being waited on. Maddie, used to the little luxuries around her, folded her legs underneath her and leaned back against the casement. She wore a pale blue morning dress and a sheer fichu tucked inside her bodice with a collar that floated over her dainty shoulders and collarbone. The morning sun glinted off her chestnut hair, highlighting the strands of auburn and gold woven throughout.
Her blue eyes were the color of a robin’s egg, her peach skin flawless, and her figure petite but voluptuous. Catherine was well aware that though she and Maddie had been virtual twins as children, they no longer resembled one another. As Maddie had grown, she’d taken their shared features and chiseled and refined them. Catherine had just grown taller and heavier. Her figure was curvy without any trace of daintiness. Her skin was olive, almost tan. Her hair did not curl like Maddie’s. It was dark brown, almost black, without any other shades threading through it. Her eyes were still the color of mud.
When Catherine looked in the mirror, which was but rarely, the only things she liked about herself were her eyebrows and her mouth. Her eyebrows arched nicely, contouring her face and eyes. Her mouth was wide and perpetually rosy. She had a nice smile and all her teeth. It could have been worse.
“Now start over,” Maddie said after the tea had been poured. “Lizzy is engaged?”
“Yes, and I’ve been ordered to find a husband, too. Tonight, if possible.”
“Goodness!” Maddie put her arm on Catherine’s. “What’s the hurry?”
“The old threat. My father swears he won’t marry Elizabeth until he’s got me out of his house. Those were his exact words, by the way. Maddie, I’m worried that my father might do something rash,” Catherine said, lowering her voice.
Maddie leaned closer so that her cup of tea steamed between them. “Like what?”
“Gamble me away the next time he plays faro all night or kidnap some brute off the street and force me to marry him.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Maddie laughed and sat back. “He won’t do anything of the sort. My father wouldn’t put up with it, and if Uncle Edmund so much as tries, you’ll be welcome here any day.”
Catherine smiled to reassure Maddie. How could her kind cousin, with her idyllic house and her ideal parents, understand what it was to live under Edmund Fullbright’s roof? Sweet, naïve Maddie was incapable of understanding that escaping Catherine’s father was near impossible. He would be rid of his daughters on his own terms or none at all.
“I hope you’re right about my father, Maddie, but just in case he turns out to be a wee bit more nefarious than you believe, I want to stop the marriage between Valentine and Elizabeth. I need your help.”
Maddie shook her head. “That would not be very nice. I don’t like Lizzy very much, but that doesn’t mean I want to ruin her match.”
Catherine tried very hard not to roll her eyes. Maddie was too good. “Maddie, I’m not trying to stop it forever. I just need to buy myself time.”
“Time for what?”
“To think of a way to escape.”
“Escape! Catie, be reasonable.”
Catherine put her arm on Maddie’s. “Maddie, I just need your advice. That’s all. Please.” Madeleine gave a resigned sigh.
Catherine decided to push her advantage. “I know you don’t approve, but help me this once. You move in Society far more than I do.” This was a gross understatement, but Maddie had the grace not to say so. “How can I halt the engagement?”
“It will be difficult.”
Catherine clasped her cousin’s hand. “Maddie, please!”
“Oh, very well. Perhaps if you could keep them apart . . .”
“That’s better.” She squeezed Maddie’s hand. “When will they next meet?”
