Lady Catherine's Secret: A Secrets and Seduction book (37 page)

“Yes, m’lady. I would like to get a sense of your tastes with regard to color and decor so that when I return, I can offer some alternatives for you to consider. Perhaps some sketches would help.”

Mr. Newcomb pulled an end-cap off the long tube and extracted the architectural drawings of the proposed changes to the house outside London. Or rather, the huge mansion outside London, Catherine mentally corrected herself upon seeing the drawings. Mother stood at her shoulder as they listened to Mr. Newcomb describe all of the changes planned.

Catherine quickly grasped the details Newcomb recounted. She could easily envision the final product based on his drawings and descriptions. Newcomb recommended altering the main entrance, replacing the current façade with a rounded two-story addition full of windows and light. His exterior drawing made it look like something from a fairy tale. “This is beautiful, Mr. Newcomb. I can see why Lord Huntley chose you.”

“Thank you, my lady.” He blushed and fumbled as he re-rolled the drawings, stuffing them back into the tube. “Unfortunately, I need to be going. Thank you for sharing your preferences. May I return tomorrow to show you my changes? I hope you’ll be pleased with them.”

“Of course. I look forward to your call.” Catherine watched as the slim man hurried from the room. He seemed to already be focused on his next appointment and barely acknowledged her as he left.

“That seems like quite a lot for Huntley to be doing all at once,” Mother said. “Between running a business, renovating two large homes, and adjusting to marriage, he won’t have much stability in his life. And just imagine all the cost.” She shot Catherine a worried glance.

“I’m sure everything will be fine.”

Mother gave her a chastising look. “Really, Catherine. You should know better. People will talk. Especially with an unexpected engagement. Just be careful not to say or do anything to add fuel to the fire.”

44 - A Promise

The next evening, Charles and Catherine made their weekly trek to Bernini’s. With the excursion to Oxford upsetting her plans last week, she hadn’t been able to make her trip to the academy, so she was anticipating the evening even more keenly than usual. Rain had passed through town a short time earlier, and now the streets were washed clear of dirt and debris. Spring was coming, and Catherine was convinced she could see small buds developing on the trees in the park near the academy. And those were daffodils popping up from the soil, surely. She was having trouble focusing on what Charles was saying as he told her about some conversation he’d had at the Ambridge Club last night.

“And of course, someone had to mention their concerns about Huntley being a fortune hunter,” he said.

That certainly grabbed her attention. “You’ve heard the rumors, too?” Catherine asked.

“Of course.” He glanced around and lowered his voice. “You’re
marrying
the man, after all. You didn’t think someone would mention it to me? But there’s no need to worry. Your fiancé is financially secure. I had someone investigate both Huntley and Stansbury immediately following the ball.”

“You what?” Catherine could only stare at her brother in disbelief.

Charles gave her a cocky half smile. “You thought I was just a pretty face? All looks and no substance?”

Catherine reached out to try to poke him in the ribs, but he leaned away in his saddle, which caused his horse to veer away, and he easily avoided her jab.

“When I did a little investigating, I discovered that whereas Huntley is financially sound, Stansbury’s situation is abysmal.”

“Really? Stansbury is doing that badly?” She thought a moment and then nodded. “I shouldn’t be surprised. He
did
try to resort to blackmail. He must have been desperate.” A sprinkling of rain began to fall, and Catherine pulled her hat more firmly over her brow.

“Another interesting thing. The only people who mentioned Huntley’s insolvency were ones who never had any business dealings with him.” Charles’s hat had a narrow brim, and his cheek gleamed in the streetlights from the droplets of rain. “Unfortunately, that tends to be the majority of the
ton
. Everyone who ever dealt with him in business spoke of him in the most glowing of terms. They scoffed at the rumors that he was low on cash. He’s amassed quite a bit of wealth over the past few years.” He glanced at Catherine, brushing some of the moisture from his face. “I checked, and I have yet to come across a single one of his investments that failed to turn a profit. He is either extremely lucky or extremely talented, and you know I’m not much of a believer in luck. Most good luck comes from hard work and a positive attitude.”

“Then why do you think this rumor is circulating?”

For a moment, all she heard were the soft sounds of rain and the clattering of horse hooves hitting the cobblestones. “I’ve been thinking about that. At first I thought it might be a business rival, but the rumor is so obviously false that anyone with any acumen would never have concocted it. It must either be someone who is jealous of his success or someone who sees him as a rival and wants to diminish him in the eyes of society.”

Catherine rolled the possibilities around in her head. Lord Larchmont seemed the obvious choice. She immediately dismissed Stansbury. He’d been much too intimidated by Daniel’s threats at the Norfolk Ball. Charles made a good point that it might be someone who saw him as a rival. Unfortunately, she didn’t know enough about his business to hazard a guess as to whom it might be.

As they entered the main fencing salon a few minutes later, Catherine took a deep breath. She hardly noticed the musty odor of the building after so many years, but she’d know she was in Bernini’s even if she were blindfolded.

As Catherine took her place opposite Charles to practice, she glanced around the room, surreptitiously searching for Daniel.

He was nowhere in sight.

She was disappointed, but she shook off the feeling as she slipped her fencing mask into place.

“En garde,” Charles reminded her.

She smiled to herself. He took his role as older brother so seriously. “Drills?” she asked.

He nodded.

“Lunge, counterattack?”

“Actually, I’d like to try something different,” he said. Catherine thought she saw a crafty smile flicker across his face, but she couldn’t be sure. “The last time I came here without you, we were working on ‘disruption beats,’” he explained. “The idea is to establish a pattern of defense in order to lull your opponent into assuming that you will continue to use that same defense in that same pattern. Then you alter the force of the beats, thereby disrupting your opponent’s defense. Understand?”

“I’m not sure, but I like the sound of it,” Catherine said, intrigued. “Step me through it.”

“For this drill, one partner needs to perform an advance-attack,” he said, specifying a move in which a fencer would move forward, advancing toward his opponent, while initiating the attack. The move quickly closed the distance between the opponents.

“The defender then beats back the attack,” Charles continued, referring to a move in which he would hit the side of the opponent’s foil, causing the tip of the foil to be pushed to one side. It could be used in many different situations in fencing, but here, it would cause the tip of the opponent’s thrust to miss the target. “You take the role of the attacker, and perform an advance-attack repeatedly for this drill, and I’ll beat your foil to one side each time.”

At her nod, he said, “Then, I’ll execute the move we practiced here at Bernini’s last week to score a point against you.” He gave her a wicked grin.

She cocked her eyebrow at him, and bending her knees, she dropped into the
en garde
position. Charles followed suit, and Catherine immediately launched into an advance-attack, rapidly closing the distance between them. Charles immediately hit the side of her foil hard, in a beat, throwing the tip of her foil away and causing her to miss her mark as he retreated to keep distance between them. She immediately moved forward in another advance-attack, and Charles repeated the hard beat against her foil, knocking it aside as he retreated. They repeated the same set of moves a third time, with the same result.

As Catherine moved in for a fourth advance-attack, she tensed her arm, preparing for the hard beat against her foil. Since Charles had explained the technique, she half-anticipated him to use it at any moment, but she was still surprised when, rather than hitting her foil with a hard beat to the side, Charles instead feinted high to the inside. She parried with an overly strong move, since her arm was tensed in preparation for the expected hard beat, and Charles slipped inside, scoring a point.

They both stepped back, and Charles pulled off his face mask, grinning. “Like it?”

“That was splendid. You lulled me into a rhythm and then changed it, using my own reactions against me.” She grinned back at him through her mask. “I’ll have to remember that.”

Charles slid his face mask back on. “Let’s run through it a couple more times, and then we can switch roles.”

They faced off again, repeating the same drill. This time, as Catherine braced her arm for the anticipated beat against her foil, Charles paused. “There. That’s how I knew to try the feint. Your arm is tensed because you thought I would respond to your attack the same way I did before.”

She relaxed her arm. “You’re observant.”

“I knew what to look for.”

They switched roles so that Charles performed the advance-attack, and Catherine saw that she could easily see when Charles tensed his muscles. She had been reading every opponent’s body language this way for years, so she quickly scored a point against her brother.

Just as she had the last time she was at Bernini’s, Catherine kept checking the entrance as other fencers arrived, but Daniel didn’t make an appearance. Tonight felt like a counterpoint to the time when she’d come here alone. On that night, although she’d wanted to see Daniel, she’d hoped he wouldn’t come, but tonight the thought of seeing him sent a thrill through her.

As the evening progressed, Catherine ran more drills with other partners. Despite the fact that Daniel wasn’t there, she thoroughly enjoyed herself. But even so, she couldn’t stop looking for him. After an hour or so, she noticed Charles was standing alone and made a point to walk past him. She paused next to him long enough to ask, “Are you certain you sent him a message?”

“Of course,” he replied, knowing exactly what she meant. “I already told you.”

Finally, her final sparring match of the evening was upon her, and she turned all of her attention toward defeating her opponent. She moved through the match expertly, sliding her foil inside her partner’s defenses with deceptive ease.

At the end of the match, Bernini slapped her on the back. “
Eccellente, il mio ragazzo
,” he declared proudly. “You’ll be primed and ready for the tournament. It’s just a little over a week away.”

And her wedding was just days away. Those two critical events were hurtling toward her. With a murmur of thanks, she turned to leave. She pulled off her fencing mask and slipped it under her arm as she looked around the room for Charles. She caught sight of him at the entrance, deep in conversation.

She lingered toward the back of the room while she waited for him to finish, being careful not to eavesdrop. As much as she had looked forward to being here this evening, she was exhausted. She hadn’t been sleeping well, and the combination of excitement and physical activity had used up the last of her reserves.

Distractedly, she watched some of the other fencers as they gathered their belongings. A few other devotees still lingered on the practice floor, talking and practicing moves. Most of the others had slipped outside into the night. As a pair left through the front entrance of the academy, another man swept inside.

It was Daniel.

Catherine immediately became fully alert. Daniel looked rushed, and he immediately scanned the room. She was certain that he was looking for her. As their eyes locked, she felt an invisible tether tighten between them, drawing them together.

She was vaguely aware that Charles was watching her, too. As his friend left, Charles hurried over to stand in front of her, breaking her eye contact with Daniel.

Charles pierced her with an accusing glare. “Gray, you need to show more self-control,” he murmured.

“I... I’m sorry,” she stuttered softly. “He took me by surprise. I’d given up on seeing him tonight.”

As Daniel moved toward them, Bernini caught sight of him and hurried across the room on an intercepting course.

“
Buonasera
, Lord Huntley.” The maestro smiled. “It’s good to see you, but I’m afraid we’ve already finished for the evening.” He furrowed his brow. “I don’t want you to have to leave right away after coming so far. If you like, you’re welcome to stay until I close. That should be in about fifteen minutes.”

“Thank you, Maestro Bernini,” he said. “I appreciate the offer. Yes, I’d like to stay.”

Bernini gave a nod of approval. “Then if you’ll excuse me, I need to speak to Mr. Winston.”

As he walked away, Daniel glanced at Charles. “Would you and Gray be willing to stay? There’s something I promised to teach him.”