She moved from her cluster of friends straight to him.

“I had hoped you would not seek me out in public,” she said quietly as soon as she stood before him. “I thought you had given up and I was glad of it.” Her full lips were a line.

His mouth was dry. The orchestra lilted, a waltz, by God. Only one out of ten households allowed the dance, and of all the houses in London this should be one of them. Fate tormented at every turn.

“Dance with me.”

“No.” Her eyelids flickered. “I mean to say, thank you, my lord, but I do not care to dance.”

“Allow me to hold you, Kitty, in the only manner in which I am permitted now.” It was wrong. He knew it and she did.

But she allowed it. On the floor he took her into his arms, and her touch, even so slight, bore into him the fire beneath her cool exterior. Her gaze fixed over his shoulder.

“Perhaps if you simply say to me what you wish to say we shall be able to get it out of the way,” she murmured. “As long as it is not an apology I will hear it. I do not believe I could bear an apology.”

For what could he apologize? For falling in love with her? For not having wed her instantly when he realized he was in love? Then their situation might have been entirely public now.

No. “No apology.”

“Well, that is a small relief.” For a moment she said nothing. “Will you tell me about Mr. Cox?”

She did not allow him the clasp of her fingers, only her gloved palm, her other hand holding the train of her gown. But through his palm upon her back he could feel the rush of her heat and beat of her heart. He would remember her shape and texture and the sweet thrum of life within her forever.

“Cox believes I possess something that belongs to him. I must assume he followed me to Shropshire in order to retrieve it, and he threatened you to ensure that I would return to London and give it to him. But as yet he has not come forward and I have not been able to find him.”

A muscle in his jaw contracted and Kitty knew this had been a mistake. She wanted to drink in his face, to touch his skin and feel again his heartbeat next to hers. She was not made for such teasing.

She would go to the country, at least as long as he lived in London. She could not continually meet him in society. But Serena would soon have her baby. She must remain for that. Then she would escape.

“I understand you were instrumental in freeing Lord Chamberlayne from all suspicion,” she said, casting her gaze away from the hollow planes and hardness of his face, the dark, feeling eyes she loved. “Thank you for that.”

He looked at her in the manner he had beneath the trees at Willows Hall, and her breath thinned.

“In any case,” she made herself say, “they are to be wed shortly, and everybody in my family is quite gay about the prospect. Unfortunately his son is not able to attend, although it is probably for the best that he does not come to London at this time, all things considered. Not knowing the whole story, my mother is somewhat disappointed. It seems that on the request of his father, he sent down from Scotland a beautiful silver necklace that Lord Chamberlayne then gave my mother as a gift at Christmas—” Her voice fumbled. She found her tongue, but Leam’s jaw had gone hard. “My mother is determined to thank him for his thoughtfulness in person, and hopes this summer to travel—”

“Kitty, I must ask you to cease this.” His voice was rough.

“Don’t, Leam. I must talk about inanities. Otherwise I will be obliged to leave you in the middle of the set. I would rather not make a scene, and as everyone is gossiping about you already I prefer not to draw attention to myself. But you asked and—” She dropped her gaze to the ground. “This was a remarkably bad idea.”

“Kitty—”

“Lord Chamberlayne gave that necklace to my mother out of affection. My father gave his mistress an amethyst necklace and earrings. She still wears those amethysts. Apparently she keeps them as a token.” She spoke swiftly to block the tears rising in her throat. “Because that is what we do.

We carry tokens of affection close to us, like your brother carrying your portrait onto the battlefield.

Even Mr. Cox said he always kept a cameo of his—”

“Kitty, stop.”

“I do not wish to carry around tokens of your affection, Leam. I do not wish anything from you any longer.” Except everything. “If you have sought me out in the hope that I might—”

“No. I would never ask that of you.”

“I am now going to make a scene.” She blinked rapidly, pulling out of his hold, and pushed her way through the other dancers, then the clusters of people beside the dance floor. She made it to the foyer before the first tears fell, but they would persist in coming against her will, and she hadn’t time to wait for her cloak. Into the cold she went, alone, seeking her carriage in the crush of vehicles along the block, the target of stares and muted whispers. But she didn’t mind those; they had been her closest companions for years.

Kitty slept, weary in every crevice of her body. But before dawn she awoke, her mind abruptly whirling.

Mr. Cox believed Leam possessed something of his so precious that he was willing to hurt her to retrieve it, but now he was playing hide and seek and refusing to come out into the open. Speaking of him with Leam had jogged her memory of Mr. Cox demanding that Mr. Milch help him find a valuable lost object. It seemed outrageously far-fetched, but Kitty believed she had seen that object.

She had complimented young Ned on it.

She lit a candle, went to her escritoire and pulled out two sheets of paper, one blank foolscap, the other her monogrammed stationery. When she had finished both missives, she sealed them and gave them to John with precise instructions.

Emily’s reply arrived before Kitty finished breakfast.

Dear Kitty, To your request—of course! Clarice is honored you asked. She will be ready promptly Thursday at one o’clock. I do wish I could go as well, but Papa is making a terrible stink about a visit I made last week to the London docks without a footman or maid. Mama will not leave my side now, and since she does not much like Clarice, this is perhaps the perfect moment for your journey.

You must tell me all the details on your return. Until then, of course, I shan’t breathe a word of it, even were the entire Roman army to insist.

Fondly, Boadicea Apparently Emily had chosen her new name. A Celtic princess who rebelled against the Roman Empire was at least as scandalously impressive as a guillotined French queen. Kitty smiled, but the sensation felt alien on her lips.

On the following day, the wedding day, Lord Chamberlayne arrived during lunch and met with her mother in private. When they emerged the dowager’s face was paler, but her hand rested snug in his elbow.

“Kitty,” he said, his light eyes softly relieved. “I have told your mother all.”

A breath of relief escaped her. “Mama, I am so sorry I kept this from you.”

The dowager came to her and set her fingertips to Kitty’s cheek.

“My dear, I am grateful you had the courage to see it through.”

She accepted her mother’s embrace.

Later she donned a gown of modest blue and attended her mother at her wedding. It was a small affair, only family and closest friends. Kitty put on smiles, wished her mother and stepfather happy, and fell into bed exhausted from her pretense.

In the morning she saw her mother and stepfather off in Lord Chamberlayne’s carriage to Brighton, where the newlyweds were to spend a sennight’s wedding holiday while Kitty finally moved into her brother’s house down the street.

She returned to her bedchamber to pack, then wrote a note and instructed John to deliver it to her brother and Serena once she had departed. John frowned in obvious disapproval. But Mrs. Hopkins seemed content with the subterfuge, and Monsieur Claude packed a cold supper to be eaten on the road.

In front of the Vales’ Berkeley Square house, Madame Roche climbed into the carriage and fell back onto the facing seat with a grand sigh.

“L’aventure! Lady Katrine, I commend you.”

“Thank you for coming with me, Madame. You are very kind to do so.” She was quite abandoned in terms of body and heart, but at least the Frenchwoman’s company would lend some propriety to her journey.

The carriage pulled away from the curb and Madame Roche arranged her filmy garments about her. “As there is no snow, we shall return within the fortnight, non?”

“Depending on the state of the roads.” She wished she were never returning. She wished, like the last time she had taken to the road, she were running away toward an adventure she had never imagined.

Throat tight, she turned to the window.

“Mon Dieu, but you are thin as a straw. You must eat, belle Katrine, to support the strength.”

“I haven’t the stomach for it lately, I’m afraid.”

“It is very sad, this news of the wife.” The Frenchwoman made a sort of spitting sound, then her red lips pursed, black eyes assessing. “But what does he do about le bébé?”

Kitty shook her head, an aching in the pit of her belly now. “What baby?” Was Lady Blackwood increasing? Was it another man’s? Was that why she had returned? Or…? No. Kitty could not think the other possibility. He could not have pretended his shock at seeing his wife for the first time in the park that day, and otherwise it was too soon for such a thing.

Her stomach churned. Oh, God, she must not dwell on him and his wife together.