She used to be in charge of her life. Not at the mercy of others. Not at the mercy of people judging her—Jason, her mother—and they were only the start. The whole of society would soon be judging her, she had been told again and again. And she was not sure she could stand up to the scrutiny—already she was beginning to buckle under her mother’s judgments. Jason’s judgments. Beginning to question her own worth.
Katalin would have to talk to her father tonight. There had to be another way to ensure her safety—something other than this elaborate scheme to win her a title. Her father had resisted her pleas thus far. But she was not giving up on getting out of here.
Then a sliver of salvation walked through the door of the drawing room.
Reanna, in a smart royal blue riding habit, moved to the table Katalin was seated at, looking down at the paper in front of Katalin. She chuckled. “That is a tricky one. But it looks perfect. No noses to be bent out of shape.” She looked over at her aunt. “Aunt Maureen, you would not believe what the dressmaker has done now. The latest set of gowns has been delivered—you must see them. The details of the lace—dreadful. I do not think you will be pleased.”
“Where are they?” Katalin’s mother asked, a deep frown already set on her face.
“In the main drawing room. I think this may take you hours to correct. I would have done so myself, but you are the expert. Perhaps I should gather the duchess and we will take Katalin for a while? Do not fret, we will make sure we are productive with Katalin’s time.”
Already walking to the door, ready for battle, Katalin’s mother nodded. “Yes. Please do so. She would do well to learn some common French phrases, since I cannot expect her to learn the entire language in days.”
“Of course, Aunt.” Reanna smiled, waiting until her aunt left the room. She turned to Katalin. “You look dreadful.”
“I do?”
“Yes. You look like a lost puppy that just got kicked. You have for days.” With a wicked smile on her lips, she grabbed Katalin’s wrist and pulled her to standing, dragging her out of the room. “So Aggie and I have some fun planned.”
“You do?”
“Yes, but we need to escape quickly. I do not want my aunt to interrupt our plans.” Reanna didn’t let go of Katalin’s wrist, instead, leading her through the maze of hallways and out a side door that led into the east gardens.
She dropped Katalin’s wrist, pointing to the woods in sight. “We just have to take the trail a bit of a way into the woods.” Looking down at Katalin’s feet, she frowned. “Do you have delicate feet? I do not know that the slippers will do in the forest.”
“I will be fine,” Katalin said, just grateful she was escaping. “Where are we going?”
“That is a surprise. Come, let us get to the woods before Aunt Maureen spies us out a window.”
Reanna took off, skirting through the low maze of the raised flower beds that lined this side of the main hall. Within minutes, they were deep into the woods on a winding trail.
When Reanna veered, leading them into a wide grass clearing, Katalin saw Aggie across the open ground, fiddling with something on top of a stump.
At the sound of their footsteps crunching on dried twigs, Aggie stood, turning around. “Excellent. You are here.”
She walked toward Katalin and Reanna, leaving several champagne flutes balanced on top of the flat-topped tree stump.
“We are.” Katalin looked from one to the other. “So what is the surprise?”
Aggie pointed to a thick tree near the trail. “That is why we are here.”
Katalin looked and chortled. “That? That is why we are here? Swords? Bows and arrows? Are those pistols?”
“Yes, yes, and yes,” Aggie said, glee on her face. “I thought it would be the perfect distraction for you, as you have appeared so down these past days. I know the whole situation must be stressful for you, so I thought a little bit of destroying things might do you good.”
“Aggie does not believe in letting angst fester in one’s chest.” Reanna tucked her hand under Katalin’s elbow, bringing her over to the weaponry. “I thought her silly when she first mentioned it to me, but then she began teaching me how to use a bow and arrow, and I have learned that it does wonders for my disposition. Although Killian still refuses to let Aggie teach me how to shoot a pistol—he said he would teach me, if anyone would. Though he has been curiously lax on doing so, the bugger.”
The three of them stopped at the tree, looking down at the pile of arms.
“Forgive me, I did not know which one you liked using the most, so I brought them all,” Aggie said. “I imagined with your past, you would be familiar with all of them?”
Mouth slightly agape in disbelief, Katalin eyed the two ladies. Women like this actually existed?
Reanna picked up a bow. “I may change my mind once I actually learn to fire a pistol, but I think I will always prefer the bow—I find it stealthy. Even if Aggie can out-aim me by far.” She leaned toward Katalin, her voice in a loud smirking whisper. “But I can squash her at chess, so we get along grandly.”
Aggie laughed. “It is true.”
Katalin watched Reanna rummage through the pile of arrows. “I must admit, I have never used a bow. But the sword, the pistol…” Katalin’s fingernails curled, itching her own palms. “It has been far too long. Too long, but exactly what I need.”
Aggie jumped, laughing with unbound enthusiasm. “Excellent. I can already see a smile creeping onto your face. What first? Swords? Pistols?”
Katalin eyed the open wooden pistol case on the ground. The silver of the matching dueling pistols gleamed. “Pistols. I am accustomed to shooting at objects in close range, so if we are to be aiming at the champagne glasses,” she pointed at the stump, “then this should be a delightful challenge.”
“Good choice, I will ready them.” Aggie picked up the pistol case, bringing it over to another stump several steps away. She set right to work, pulling out of the case the powder flask and lead bullets and setting them on the stump.
As Aggie readied the pistols, Katalin picked up the longsword with the thinner blade, checking the heft of it in her hand. Stepping a distance away from Reanna, Katalin cut figure eights with the blade, loosening her wrist. Nostalgia panged her—how she missed the security of a strong blade strapped to her waist.
The sword was longer than the cutlasses she was accustomed to, but once she could gauge the weight in her hand, she spun, sword high, swinging the blade deep into the bark of the next tree over. It felt good.
“Beautiful—you have light feet, Katalin,” Reanna said over the now-squawking birds above. “That was elegant in its ferocity. Brutal—almost like you wished someone’s neck was in the line of your sword, instead of that poor tree.”
Katalin shrugged, yanking the blade from the tree. She avoided looking at Reanna.
“My aunt?” Reanna asked.
“I wish her no ill will,” Katalin said, choosing her words carefully. She recognized she was still the new one and didn’t wish to seem the cad. “I am grateful that she offered to help me, offered a way to keep my head attached to my body.”
“But?”
Katalin caught Reanna’s gaze and saw only genuine concern in her eyes. Katalin sighed. “I am wondering if my lifelong imaginations of what I dreamed a mother—my mother—would be, are better than the reality before me.”
“What did you imagine?”
“I imagined her to be warm. Loving. Smiling—at least on occasion.” Katalin thrust downward with the sword, burying the tip into the dirt. “I always pictured her, if she lived with us on the island—as running on the beach, laughing, splashing her feet in the water with me. It was an image I created long ago as a little girl, and I guess I never lost it. It was how I always saw her.”
“So you are disappointed?” Reanna asked. “I was hoping the past few days would ease her stern demeanor.”
Katalin traced the curved golden hilt of the sword with her forefinger, ponder
ing the question. “I do not know what I am. Yes. Partly. But I have a mother. A living, breathing mother. It was always a hole in me. A hole that is now filled. But this was not what I imagined. She is not what I imagined.”
“Maybe with patience? I do believe the emotion is in her—she is more than what she is currently showing.”
“Maybe, but she looks at me like a project, a task. Not as a human being with feelings. I had hoped after we met, after she got to know me, she would warm. But she has not. And I cannot make her like me.”
Aggie stepped next to Reanna, pistol in hand. “You may be making the assumption that she does not like you. I do think Lady Pentworth likes many more things than she would ever let on. It is true that she is currently very driven to get you ready. That may be overshadowing what her true feelings are.” Aggie waved her free hand. “But regardless of what she thinks, there is the fact that you have two people right here in front of you that like you very much.”
Aggie stepped to her, holding the butt end of the pistol to her. “And I cannot wait to see your shot.”
“First one to break three glasses wins?” Katalin smirked, checking the line on the elegant silver pistol.
Aggie laughed. “Yes. Yes I do like you extremely well, Katalin.”
~~~
Breaking in new horses on the estate, they were far into the south woods when the shot echoed through the forest. At the sound, the duke pulled up hard on his horse, blocking Southfork and Jason.
“Did you hear that?”
“Yes.” Killian gripped his reins, already turning his stallion into the direction of the main hall. “But I only heard one.”
Another shot rang out.
“Bloody hell,” the duke yelled at Southfork’s back, deadly fury firing his words. “Where are they?”
“The hall, last I knew.”
Jason turned his horse, following the two in a breakneck race down the twisted path.
More shots echoed in the trees.
If Jason ever had any doubts about his brother-in-law and his unfailing devotion to his sister, they were instantly dismissed. The man could not get to his wife fast enough. The same was obvious for Southfork and his wife.
The continued blasts offered the men a trail to follow, and within ten minutes, the three thundered into a small clearing in the east woods.
The duke was the first off his horse.
“Bloody hell, Aggie—what do you think you are doing?” He stalked over to his wife, glowering down at her. “You bloody well know you should not be doing this. You scared me to my grave.”
Jason watched as his sister gave a flip of her wrist, pistol in hand, sweet smile on her face. Jason knew that smile. He had grown up watching it. She was in trouble and she knew it, and she was going to try to get out of it. “There is no danger, Devin. Miss Dewitt has just had a few difficult days, so we thought some fun might be in order.”
“Fun is shooting pistols?” The duke grabbed her wrist, ripping the pistol from her hand. He stepped away from her, fully cocking it, and fired it at the ground by a nearby oak. The shot echoed through the forest as the duke set the pistol on a nearby stump. His movements jerking in rage, Jason wondered for a second if he was going to throttle something. The stump. A tree. His sister.
Lady Southfork stepped up next to Aggie. “Truly, there is no reason to be angry at Aggie. It was my idea. We were talking about marksmanship and how Aggie is teaching me to shoot with a bow and arrow. And then that naturally led into talk about pistols, which led into talk about swords.”
Southfork grabbed his wife’s arm, pulling her from Aggie. “Which what, led into you three coming out here to play war? Dammit, Reanna, you said you would not touch a pistol until I showed you.”
“I did not touch a pistol, Killian. I know what I promised.”
“And the sword?” Killian pointed to the set of swords leaning against the trunk of a nearby tree.
Still on his horse, Jason almost laughed out loud when he saw Lady Southfork’s face go to sweet innocence, mimicking his sister’s face. She shrugged at her husband, not admitting to anything.
Jason tried to resist, but then allowed himself a quick glance at Katalin. She was a step back from the other two, eyes wide as she watched the scene.
Not judging, not laughing, just fascinated.
Jason surveyed the weaponry behind the skirts of the three females. Several pistols, gun powder, and bows and arrows, were scattered around the three swords. Champagne flutes were set on a far off stump, shattered glass lining the ground around it.
Damn Katalin. Jason knew immediately this was her fault.
“Truly, Devin, we only came out here to ease Katalin’s stress,” Aggie said. “I would think you would be more gracious in letting me help a friend through a tumultuous time. This was only to provide a fun diversion for the mind.”
“Diversion? Do not even try to pin this on anything other than your own insatiable need for excitement,” the duke seethed. “Dammit, Aggie, we talked about this. Andrew is not even five months old.”
“Correction.” Aggie’s voice turned irksome. “You talked about it. You lectured me on it. But you most definitely did not listen to what I had to say about it.”
Jason could see exactly where his sister’s temper was going to lead her discussion with Devin. And the way Southfork was looking at his wife, he guessed they were not far behind.
He coughed.
No response from any of the four, each insistently glaring at their spouse.
He coughed louder.
Aggie’s head popped past Devin’s shoulder to look at him. “What, Jason? Now you have something to say?”
He hid his smirk, shrugging. “No. The slightest bit of discretion may be in order, that is all.”
She groaned a sigh. “Fine.”
Aggie started walking away from the group, aimed at the trail that led off deeper into the woods.
With his own groan, Devin had no choice but to grab the reins of his horse and stomp after her. Southfork was already walking off with his own wife in the opposite direction.
Loud voices trailed behind both couples.
Jason waited a moment before looking down at Katalin. She had already gathered the swords, bundling them in her arms, and started walking toward the main hall.
Jason waited until the other two couples were both out of sight, deep into their respective arguments. He nudged his horse forward, quickly catching up to Katalin on the wide path to the hall.
She refused to acknowledge the horse at her side and continued an even pace with head high and eyes forward.
“Kat.”
She kept walking.
Jason jumped from the horse. “Katalin, stop.”
“No, thank you.”
He growled, tossing the reins of the horse onto the nearest branch. A few long strides and he reached her, grabbing her arm and spinning her toward him. The swords clattered to the ground.
“What did you tell them, Kat? What do they know?”
Her eyes went to the heavens, her head shaking with an exaggerated sigh. “What did I tell them? That is what is foremost in your mind?”
“That is what is in front of me, yes. You were out shooting and playing with damn swords with them. So, yes—hell, yes, that is what is foremost on my mind. What did you tell my sister and your cousin about who you are?”
Slowly, she reached up and pulled back his fingers on her bare arm, removing his hand. “They know I have captained a privateering ship.”
Hell. Jason shook his head. “You did not. You could not be that stupid.”
She spun, walking away from him again, leaving the swords and not hiding her muttered blasphemies.
He fell in line beside her, and he could see that only irked her more.
She gave him a quick glance, not hiding the venom in her eyes. “Stupid, Jason? Pray tell me that you did not just call me stupid. And yes, they know. They know who I am. Who my mother is. Who my father is. What I used to
do. That I can be condemned for piracy. That I have only known a life on the seas. That I can shoot. That I have been in battles. They know it all. Why do you think they have been helping me?”
A harsh laugh stopped her, and she turned to him. “But that is not what you are talking about, is it?” She started moving again, her walk turning into a stomp as she waved him off. “Do not worry, Jase. The one thing they do not know about is us. That I have kept hidden. Hidden well.”
Jason stood, rooted, running through her flying words once more. And then he hit upon the thing that was most alarming. So alarming it sent his gut dropping.
He ran after her, grabbing her forearm.
“Wait, Kat. Condemned for piracy? What are you talking about?”
“No. You do not need to know.”
She tried to jerk her arm free, but he wasn’t about to let her go. “You will not take another step until you tell me.”
She glared at him, her cheek throbbing.
“Tell me, Katalin.”
She tried one last time to twist her arm out of his grasp. He didn’t let her succeed. Not until he saw her start to shake. Anger? Fear? Sadness? He didn’t recognize what he was seeing in her.
Had he forgotten her so completely? Or had she changed so completely? Whatever it was he was seeing, it stopped him. Made him drop her arm, slowly. Gentle.
How had he forgotten she needed calm? She needed to not feel trapped.
Her eyes narrowed at him, startled by his release, but she didn’t move away.
“Tell me, Kat.” He forced his voice soft. “Tell me.”
She took a deep breath, and it eased the shake in her chest. Her head went down, not looking at him. “I do not know the details. What I know is that there was an ultimatum given to my father by a man named Daunte—he was the one that had provided the targets and letters of marque to my father. My father refused the request, and the man has rescinded his support. Destroyed all evidence that the last English letter of marque I sailed under ever existed. He has effectively made my actions when we took the Rosewater piracy. And he has threatened my father with witnesses that will testify to my piracy.”
Hold Your Breath 03 - My Captain, My Earl Page 14