Married to the Marquess (2 page)

The problem was that Katherine despised him as much as he loathed her. She disapproved of everything he did and made no secret about it. While he was being insulting and demeaning of her here, she would be doing the exact same thing with her friends in London.

If she had any friends.

He couldn’t have said if she did.

He doubted it.

A resounding knock came at the door, and both men craned their necks ever so slightly to try to get a glimpse of the arrival. Rosemont, Nathan’s rather smart butler, soon came into the room. “My lord Whitlock, there is a rider here with an urgent missive for you.”

Derek groaned and rubbed at his eyes with one hand. “Bring him in here, then, Rosemont.”

“Very good, sir,” he said with a quick bow.

In short order, the rider, who was rather windswept and breathless at the moment, came before Derek and handed over the letter.

“How far have you come?” Derek asked as he looked up at the young man.

“From London, sir.”

Derek made a noise of discontent as he saw the seal on the back of the letter. It was his own. A letter from Katherine, then. That was odd, as her letters always came very promptly on the fifth of each month. Today was the seventeenth. “Cursed old bat,” he muttered as he broke the seal.

“Oh, is it from your wife?” Colin asked, grinning from his lounging position.

Derek threw a vicious glare his way. He opened the letter and quickly perused the remarkably short note in Katherine’s very neat hand.

To the Marquess of Whitlock:

Dear Sir,

A situation has arisen that requires your attention and attendance for the sake of propriety and appearance. It is a matter of some urgency. I therefore must insist upon your immediate presence in London. I shall expect you to arrive by the twenty-second day of this month.

                             May this letter find you well,

                                         Lady Whitlock

Derek snorted, rolled the letter into a ball, and tossed it rather accurately into the fire. He was most certainly not going to come all the way out to London just because she told him to, and was most especially not going to do so without knowing exactly why he was going. If she didn’t think to put the reason into a letter, it couldn’t have been so imperative as to actually require his immediate attention.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake, Derek, why do you even read them if you’re just going to toss them into the fire?” Colin asked, watching him with interest and amusement.

“Because the witch would know if I didn’t read them,” Derek said defensively. He settled back into his seat, and looked up at the rider, who looked more than slightly shocked at his actions. “Tell Katherine that I will come down when I want to, and not when she demands it.”

“If you please, my lord,” the rider said with the barest hint of a stammer. “I know she probably didn’t mention it in the letter, but I happen to know that her mother, Lady Dartwell, passed away just last night.”

Derek’s feet skidded off of the ottoman he was resting them on. “She what?”

The rider nodded. “Lady Penelope, sir. She had been quite ill for some time and she finally passed last night.”

“How do you know this?”

The man’s cheeks colored ever so slightly. “I happen to be acquainted with a maid in that house, sir, and she told me herself.”

He swore under his breath. Now he had to go. “But why didn’t Katherine say so?” Of all the cursed things that could have happened, it had to be a death in the family. Not that he was remorseful, for he was really looking forward to a world without his mother-in-law in it, but there was no way he could avoid going to London to support his wife.

“From what I can tell, sir, she knew how you felt about her mother and she didn’t want you to come. But she knew she could not refuse to send for you, as is proper.”

He groaned and pushed off of the chair. “Yes, yes, all right, I’ll come.”

“But Derek, if she doesn’t want you there and you don’t want to be there and you didn’t like her mother anyway…” Colin began, scrambling from the sofa.

“Shut it, Colin,” he growled as he removed himself from the room. “She’s my wife, whether anybody likes it or not, and her mother has just died. What sort of lout would I look like if I didn’t show up?”

“The sort of lout every man of sense is!”

“Begging your pardon, milord,” the rider interrupted as he followed them. “Should I tell her ladyship you are coming?”

Derek thought for a moment. “No. Let us leave it for a surprise, shall we?” He grinned and jogged lightly up the stairs. “Pay the man, Colin, and Rosemont, if you would see he gets some food, and then see if one of the carriages can be prepared and sent out front?”

“Of course, my lord.”                                                          

Colin rolled his eyes and paid the man from his pocket. The rider looked confused, but took the coins. “The marquess never carries coin,” Colin explained. “He has a bizarre aversion to his pockets jingling.” He clapped the rider on the back, and indicated he follow Rosemont down the hall to the kitchens. Then Colin dashed up the stairs after Derek.

“Derek! Why are you going to surprise her? I thought you said Katherine hates surprises!”

“She does,” he heard from the bedroom Derek had been using. Then Derek’s head appeared with a wild grin. “That’s the whole idea!”

Out of the library nearby came Duncan, who looked perplexed as to the commotion. “What’s the fuss, Colin?”

“Someone needs to stop him!” Colin cried, flinging out a desperate hand. “Derek is going to London to be with Katherine!”

Duncan came out of the room entirely and stared at Derek in disbelief. “What? Why?”

“What’s going on?” Geoff’s voice asked as he came up the stairs behind them.

“Derek is going to see Katherine,” Duncan said, still looking dazed.

Geoff’s face became a mixture of horror and revulsion as he looked to Derek. “What? Why?”

Derek glowered at the lot of them, then waved at a passing servant. “Grab some more of the staff and have my things packed as soon as possible, would you? I need to depart quickly.”

The footman nodded instantly. “Of course, my lord.” He moved off in search of more servants, leaving the men alone again.

“You’re really going to the viper’s lair?” Duncan asked, looking worried and unconvinced.

“Yes, I am. And don’t worry, I have appropriate medicines,” he retorted as he brushed passed them for the stairs.

“They don’t make Katherine medicine,” Colin insisted as he followed. “I know, I checked.”

Geoff sniggered into his hand behind them and Duncan grinned, but Derek only shook his head. “I should probably punch you, but since I know the truth, I won’t.”

“What if this is all a trick on Katherine’s part, knowing how you despise London?” Duncan asked.

Derek stopped suddenly and all three men behind him came to an abrupt halt as they crashed into each other. “I never considered that,” he muttered, his brow furrowing. “She is the devil incarnate. It wouldn’t be surprising if she were to be conniving as a fox.”

“But if her mother died…” Colin trailed off, confused that for once he was sounding like the voice of reason.

“Yes, you’re right,” Derek said with a nod, moving once more. “Even Katherine wouldn’t kill her own mother just to swindle me. I think she rather liked that biddy.”

“What if she is using all of this just as an excuse to get you to come to her?” Geoff brought up as he followed Derek and the others outside.

Derek turned with a sardonically quirked brow. “You really think my wife is that desperate for my company, Geoff?”

Colin and Duncan snickered as Geoff flushed a little.

“Well, I don’t know, maybe she’s secretly in love with you, and…”

Derek crossed himself and spat upon the ground, effectively cutting him off. “God forbid, Geoff. Keep your curses to yourself, will you? I’ve already got a pox, I don’t need anything else.”

Colin was laughing so hard tears were streaming from his eyes. Duncan, who was less prone to laughter, only grinned broadly with mirth. Geoff looked ready to burst into rampant laughter that was only held in check by the hand covering his mouth. Only Derek looked un-amused, and that was only because their joke was his reality. It wasn’t that humorous to him.

“Rather sporting of you lads to be so understanding,” he began, but he was cut off by an approaching coach nearing the house. They all stood back as it pulled up, the proud Beverton crest on the side. In a moment, Nathan stepped out, looking bright and eager and sickeningly happy.

“What a welcoming party to greet us,” he said with a grin as he stepped forward and shook hands with all of them.

“Yes, it’s quite a relief to find the house so intact,” came a tart, but rather amused voice from within the carriage. Moira stuck her head out and prepared to disembark, but Nathan quickly moved to help her down. She glanced up at him in irritation, but he only smiled and took her hand. Once she was settled, she smiled up at the lot. “My, you are a sight for sore eyes, and you all look much more attractive now than you were when I left you. I have had no one to look at but Nathan for a whole month, and let me tell you…”

“That will do, Moira,” Nathan overrode, giving her a look, to which she responded with a bright smile, which made him smile, which made her kiss him.

“See?” Derek said, turning back to Colin, who looked a little green at the lovesick couple. “Not all wives are bad.”

“No, just yours,” came the quick retort. “That seems quite enough.”

“What’s that?” Nathan asked, looking back and forth between them, having disengaged his lips from his wife’s.

“Derek is going to London to be with Katherine,” Geoff said, grimacing a bit.

Nathan’s eyes shot to Derek’s, his mouth gaping a touch with abhorrence. “What? Why?”

“Nathan,” Moira scolded, flicking a quick, but rather painful slap of her hand across his chest.

“Another reason to avoid getting wives,” Colin muttered to Duncan, who bit the inside of his cheek and nodded.

Moira glared at them both. “I don’t see anyone asking you to turn her into one,” she snapped. Then she looked back to Derek. “I think it is good of you to go see Katherine, Derek.”

“Oh, it’s not for pleasure, Moira. I have been summoned.”

“Summoned why?” Nathan asked, rubbing his now tender chest a bit.

“Her mother died.” He shrugged. “She seems to think it requires my attention, and as I am not a complete waste of a husband, I have seen fit to agree.”

Moira stiffened ever so slightly, then turned to the servants now unloading their luggage from the coach. “Put those things back,” she ordered kindly. “We are going to be off again in a moment.”

Nathan seized her arm as she went to get back in the carriage. “What are you doing, Moira?”

She gave her husband an impatient look. “I am going to London.”

“Why?”

She rolled her eyes. “I fancied a visit with the king, Nathan. Honestly, I am going to help Katherine.”

“You don’t even know her,” Nathan protested.

Moira shook her copper hair slowly. “No, but I do know what losing a mother feels like and no one should have to face that alone.”

“She is a witch, Moira, I swear,” Derek said, stepping forward, sensing the equally horrorstruck expressions of his friends behind him.

“That’s enough, Derek. Even witches need friends sometimes. Besides, I am no angel myself. Perhaps we can learn from each other.” She quirked her brows then got back into the carriage.

Nathan turned to Derek and gripped his shirt in a fist. “So help me, Derek, if my wife starts resembling Katherine in any way, I will shoot you between the eyes.”

“I will shoot myself for you,” Derek vowed.

Nathan nodded once and released his friend. “Good luck.”

“Don’t tell me you are going to hide yourself in your house the entire time,” Derek protested as Nathan entered the carriage. “What am I going to do without sentient company?”

“We’ll come, don’t worry,” Nathan assured him with a grin. “I wouldn’t leave you to the harpy alone. Ow!” he cried as Moira punched him again.

“The list grows ever longer,” Colin muttered to whoever would listen, which happened to be everyone.

“Oh, Colin,” Moira called, leaning over to look at him through the window.

“Yes?” he asked, almost wincing.

She grinned at him. “You do know that you are my favorite, yes?”

He returned her smile with a flirtatious one of his own. “Yes, Lady Beverton. It never ceases to delight me.”

She winked and nodded, sitting back. Nathan looked at her in a sort of enraged puzzlement, then signaled to the coachman to drive on, and the remaining men could hear Moira’s delighted laughter over the sound of the wheels.

“Blast,” Colin sighed, watching them leave.