He stepped towards her hiding place, holding out a hand.
She took it, the warmth of his fingers cutting through the fabric of her gloves to her icy hands beneath. She stumbled forward and somehow her arms wrapped around his waist, sliding beneath his jacket against the shirt below. His arms came around her shoulders, pulling her close.
‘I have got you,’ his deep voice rumbled into her hair. ‘You are safe with me.’ She breathed him in, the scent of his cologne over the faint trace of salt from his sweat. His body was warm and solid beneath the soft skin of her cheek. She had spent many days and nights imagining being held by him, but in those daydreams he was brushing the hair from her face and lowering his mouth to hers, claiming her for his own, sometimes sweetly and sometimes with a burning passion. This was not like that; this was comfortable, the warmth of a friend at a time of need. His hand stroked the length of her back, comforting her like she were a child waking from a nightmare. He was her sanctuary and she knew that as long as she was with him, she would be protected.
The steady thud of his heartbeat beneath her ear helped to gradually reduce her fear. It slowly seeped out of her, leavingher with a bone-weariness. She did not think she could stand by herself if she tried.
‘He was bold to come after your brother,’ he said after a while.
‘It is easy for members of the Ton to treat those of us who were not born to such lofty heights with contempt. They can get away with it because they have the money and the connections to get people to look the other way.’
He grunted and she could not tell whether it was disapproval or agreement.
‘I do not think you need worry he will drag your family’s name through the mud,’ she said to him after a while. ‘He will like the idea of having power over me and he will believe he will lose it if he reveals our connection too soon.’
‘Do not worry about him.’ Edward’s words were final and dark, the sound of the lid snapping closed on a coffin. Edward’s jaw was tight, his lips set in a grim line. The hand stroking her may have been soothing, but he was rigid with rage, she realised.
‘I did not tell you my story to cause problems but to explain…’
‘You have not caused problems.’ His hand was still soft and gentle, but his tone was anything but. Icy fear crept into her stomach, worse than when she had seen Chorley standing on the edge of the dance floor.
‘You must not do anything silly.’ He could not get hurt, not because of her.
‘Silly?’ He raised an eyebrow. ‘What would constitute silly?’
‘Getting into a fight with him or something similar.’
Edward’s lips twisted in something approximating a smile. ‘I would love to punch him, but I will not hurt him physically, do not worry.’ He paused, head tilted to the side. ‘I will end him, however.’
She pushed away from him, her hands on his chest. His grip on her loosened, but he did not let go. ‘What do you mean?’
‘I have not decided yet, but I can promise you whatever I do, it will not besilly.’
‘Edward, I…’ But before she could get any further, she heard a noise from outside the room they were in.
‘Christopher said she ran off in this direction,’ Emily said, her voice as clear as a bell.
‘We cannot look in every room,’ Freddie argued back. ‘I say we go back to the ballroom and see if she has returned. Perhaps she only went to the retiring room.’
‘It was the first place I checked; she was not there.’
There was much Kate wanted to say to Edward. Chorley was not his problem to sort out. If anyone dealt with him, it should be her, not him. Nor was it anything to do with the Dashworths. She did not want Emily and Freddie to hear the story she had just revealed. She wanted to go back to forgetting the man existed, to focus on her future and what would come next after she left Glanmore House. She needed to make Edward understand this. But she also didn’t want Freddie and Emily to search the house for her when she could tell them now that she was safe and well.
The decision was taken out of her hands when Emily said, ‘Let us try in the conservatory. If she is not there, we will go back to the ballroom and wait.’
‘There is no light on.’
‘That makes it the perfect place to hide.’
Steps headed their way. Edward dropped his arms, stepping back from her quickly and putting a respectable space between them. Ice rushed along her skin, goose bumps running along her flesh.
‘I am here,’ she called out to Emily, wanting to announce her presence rather than be found.
Emily came forward, her arms outstretched ready for a hug. She stopped when she rounded a pot and caught sight of Edward standing opposite her. The countess’ eyes flickered from one to the other. If it had been another member of the Ton, Kate realised her reputation would have been destroyed instantly, but Kate was only a governess and their reputations counted for nought. Even so, she thought Emily might question what they were doing alone in the dark or Freddie might make some joke at his brother’s expense, but there was only silence, a pause which seemed to stretch on and on.
Eventually, Emily said, ‘Would you like to go home now?’
It was only slightly later, when they were bundled in the carriage that bore the ducal crest that she realised she still had not established whatsillymight mean.
