He reached out, taking her by the waist and drawing her to him. Catherine stiffened, intent on continuing her argument, but finally she went.
“Sweetling, you are good to worry, but there’s no need. I was short with you earlier. I’m sorry.”
He brushed a loose tendril of hair away from her face and then pulled her into a small alcove in the wall, away from the eyes of the servants.
“You are doing a wonderful job with the preparations. I should have told you so before. I should have been here to help you. But you know that everything I do is for both of us. This Cabinet position is not just for me, it’s for you as well.”
Catherine raised a brow. “It’s for me as well?”
“Yes, it will mean more prestige for you, more money for us, you’ll be admired and copied, and your invitations will be sought after.”
Catherine shook her head and took Valentine’s face in her hands. It was rough with stubble that he had not had time to shave in a day or so. She ran the pads of her fingers over it. “But I don’t want any of that, Quint. I don’t want to be copied or admired. I just want to be with you.”
His eyes widened in surprise, and a slow smile spread over his features. “So you do care for me?” he whispered. “I wondered. I-I hoped.”
She frowned. Had she said too much? Shown too much of her heart? He hadn’t said he cared for her, but she, too, had hoped.
She cleared her throat and went on, trusting that she said the right words. “Of course, I care for you.” She tried to keep her tone light. “But all this Cabinet position has done so far has taken you away from me. Can’t we forget all this and go back to the country? We were happy there.”
He took her by the shoulders. “We’ll be happy here. I’ll make you happy. In a few days, I’ll have the position, and I won’t have so many functions to attend. And after the session, we’ll have all the time in the world to spend together. Believe me, one day you will thank me for this.”
Catherine did not believe him, not at all, so she let her hands drop. He caught them, leaned forward, and kissed her gently on the mouth. She realized that she missed his kisses. Those gentle ministrations she had been so afraid of at first had come to mean more to her than she would have ever believed. Why couldn’t he forget all the politics and balls and just love her?
He stepped away as another servant barreled toward them, arms piled to his chin with linens.
“I’m going to my room to get some work done,” he said. “I’ll come down later to check on you.”
She nodded, dejected at yet another of his escapes. “What about the stationers?” she asked.
“Right.”
She tried not to frown. He’d already forgotten. “I’ll have Meeps take care of it,” he said as he walked away. “He can be quite helpful.”
She sighed. Perhaps she should have married Meeps. Quint gave his assistant so many of his personal duties that Catherine figured eventually she’d go to bed and find the little man there, too.
She trudged back to the dining room to find her three cousins still fighting over vellum. Now even Ashley had an opinion. Catherine, fed up with the whole thing, strode to that end of the table, picked up a random sheet—ivory with a gold border—and handed it to a Meeps. “This is the one. Take it to the stationer.”
Meeps took the paper and looked at it, then her. “But, madam, I do not know—”
Catherine narrowed her eyes.
“Yes, madam.” Meeps hurried to do her bidding.
Catherine turned back to her cousins and saw Maddie and Ashley gaping at her.
“But we’d decided that one was all wrong,” Maddie said.
“Actually, I rather liked it,” Josie chimed in. She was the only one of the girls smiling.
“Did you even look at it?” Ashley crossed her arms, full of indignation.
“What does it matter?” Catherine said. “No one will remember the invitation. After the ball, everyone will be talking about what a fool I am.”
Maddie, always her supporter, put an arm around her waist. “We’ve already talked about this. You’ll be fine. One of us will be beside you at all times. You’ll take deep breaths and get lots of air, and if it gets too overwhelming, we’ll say you have an important matter to attend to and sweep you away for a few moments.”
“You have to have confidence in yourself,” Josie said, taking her other side. “There’s nothing to be afraid of. The assembly rooms are huge. You won’t feel trapped.”
“I suppose Valentine won the battle of the guest list,” Ashley said, as usual seeing right through to Catherine’s real dilemma.
