All You Could Ask For

by Angeline Fortin

  “Of course, I was,” he agreed dryly, with a slight curl of his lip. Evelyn would say that.

  “Alas, but it never would have worked out between us anyway,” Kitty continued with a tragic sigh, raising the back of her hand to her brow.

  “Really, why is that?” he asked, enjoying her moment of theatrics. “Are you not an heiress then?”

  “Oh, I am an heiress all right,” she corrected, enjoying the leap of pleasure that expressed itself on his face.

  “What is the problem then?”

  “Unfortunately, I am already married,” she said sadly, before grinning up at him. “So you see, you will have to continue your pursuit somewhere else.”

  “That is too bad.”

  Merrill was surprised to feel disappointed beyond the mere loss of an heiress to court. Indeed, he was. The lass before him was vastly intriguing. This Katherine Hayes had all the physical appeal of her sister, but the execution was completely different. Radiant. That’s what this lass was. Pure fire! It flashed from her eyes and shone in her dark blond hair. A true Yank. Impudent but playful. He found her brazen and humorous and it may have been, just maybe, that he actually found that appealing. Strange that he could never remember simply enjoying the repartee of any woman, besides those of his family, close friends like Moira, or Francis’ sister Fiona who, while very young, was a fair imp.

  “If you are going to consider finding a wife,” she continued with a note of seriousness in her voice as she waggled a finger in his direction, “it might behoove you to stop rudely looking over your prospects like meat at the market. If this is how you approach all the heiresses you have met, I am not surprised you haven’t found one to wed you yet.”

  “Oh, it’s not so simple,” he countered, finding honesty falling easily from his tongue where with anyone else he might have found witty sarcasm a better retort. “In truth, I could have probably made a match already, but these young lasses are so silly and featherheaded that even my most dire straits cannot compel me to offer.”

  “Bigger pill to swallow than you originally thought, hmm?”

  “Indeed, it is,” he confessed, finding this candid banter refreshing. “I am finding that marrying just anybody simply will not do, especially if I must have an heir from her at some point. I could not imagine bedding…er, well, I’m sure you get the point.”

  Kitty twisted her lips, responding wryly. “Yes, I have a very clear picture in my mind.”

  He could not repress the urge to laugh aloud. “You’re an impertinent lass, aren’t you? I cannot imagine that you and Evelyn are sisters, though your looks proclaim the truth.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Well, lass, in case you weren’t aware, you look enough alike to be twins.”

  She laughed brightly at his sardonic jest. “No, not that. The other. Oh, you know what I meant!”

  Haddington joined her in laughter before answering her true question. “The countess is always so very reserved and haughty in company,” he told her, remembering how she had always responded to him when he was pursuing her.

  Eve, haughty? Kitty nearly laughed. Obviously, this man did not know the real Eve well after all, or at least the sister of her youth. “I might surprise you to know then, that as children, Eve was always the one getting us into trouble.” She leaned in, confidentially lowering her voice, “I am the quiet one.”

  The man rolled his eyes in doubt as she laughed. “I find that hard to believe.”

  “Did you ever consider that maybe, just maybe, Eve simply didn’t like you?” she asked with forthright honesty.

  Of course, she knew it was true. Eve had written several letters referring to Haddington and how he ‘courted’ her. Of course, if he hadn’t bollixed up their initial meetings, who knew what might have happened. He did seem more likable to her than Eve had let on.

  “Why should she not like me?” the nobleman asked without diffidence. “I am an earl, personable, humorous and handsome.”

  “And apparently just a bit conceited,” she added with a snort and more laughter, a sound Haddington was discovering he liked very much, for she didn’t titter like most women but laughed fully from the core. Her rich, warm laugh flowed over him.

  “Well,” he said straight-faced, with a shrug of immodesty, “my history and success with women in the past suggests it is all true.”

  “Good God, Haddington!” She held her sides as she doubled up. “You will have me in stitches! Remind me not to recommend any of my friends to further your cause. There is simply no room in any house for a respectable woman and an ego such as yours.”

  “Do you have other wealthy friends?” he asked deadpan, pleased when she hooted merrily once more, and he joined her.

  “Oh, Haddington!” She wiped her eyes as she continued to chuckle.

  “Please call me Jack,” he offered, surprising himself. “I feel we will become great friends, Katherine Hayes.” He bowed and held out a hand to her, though she didn’t take it but only eyed it suspiciously. “May I have permission to call on you?

  “Why not?” She shook off the shadow that had crept over her. She had conversed with this man for almost ten minutes. She hadn’t felt threatened by him at all and he had made her laugh more than she had in years. It was a nice feeling. Perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to befriend him. “If I am to call you Jack, then please call me Kitty.”

  “Very well, Kitty. I must be going then. I have heiresses to hunt.” He winked roguishly. “I bid you good day then.” With that, he turned and rode away from her, leaving her staring after him.

  What a wonderfully humorous man. Certainly, he had far too much sense of self. Still, she could see now why Abby adored him so, but was at a loss to understand why Eve had so immediately disliked him. Why, a man like that, with his looks and witty humor, might easily have what might be lacking in his pocketbook overlooked by any woman with eyes in her head and an appreciation for his ability to make a girl feel like the fairest on earth. The fire in his eyes was enough to make her feel giddy and beautiful. She was still inwardly contemplating her amusement at the developing situation when Eve broke through the trees and rejoined them on the path.

  “Where did you go?” Kitty asked as she met up with her on the path.

  “I went to get you something. A surprise.”

  “What is it?” Eve held out the small burlap sack to her sister. “Oh, Evie! Coffee!”

  “I thought you might be missing it.”

  * * *

  They arrived back at the mews of the Glenrothes townhouse and dismounted near the waiting grooms. Evelyn led the way inside and offered a smile to Hobbes. “Can you see this prepared and have it brought to my sitting room, please?” she handed him the burlap sack of coffee beans.

  “Of course, my lady.”

  Arm in arm, they climbed the stairs with their heads together, up to Evelyn’s private room where they relaxed against the sofa as they waited for the coffee to be brewed.

  “Can I ask you a question, Evie?”

  “You know you can.”

  Kitty toyed with the lace cover over the arm of the settee, frowning. “Have you ever regretted remarrying so quickly? After knowing William, I am surprised you succumbed again.”

  “No,” Eve responded in a moderate tone. “I do not regret it. Francis is nothing like William.”

  Eve’s first husband had been a horrible one. Shaftesbury had crushed her under his exacting demands regarding her appearance, behavior, deportment. “I knew very quickly Francis is nothing like William. He loves me just as I am. He doesn’t want to change me and he would never dream of harming me.”

  “But to remarry so quickly…”

  “Yes.” Her sister’s eyes twinkled. “It wasn’t at all proper.”

  Kitty laughed, thinking that Eve had to be joking. “Do you always do what is proper now? That is not at all how I remember you.”

  “Always.” Evelyn nodded genuinely. “Mama always said reputation is everything and, frankly,
William insisted on it. I am trying to branch out a bit, however, and Francis encourages it. He says my reputation was too good before I married him. Of course, I’ve told him an excellent reputation will bring his young sister Fiona out into society more successfully than a tarnished one.”

  A knock at the door announced the arrival of Hobbes who had come personally with the coffee tray. Kitty watched as Eve poured out the coffee and added the cream and sugar Kitty preferred.

  “Well, here’s to reputation,” Kitty toasted her with her cup.

  “To sisterhood,” Evelyn countered, eying her sister gravely.

  “To sisterhood.” Kitty sipped and eased back with a contented hum.

  Evelyn sipped more cautiously and found herself, too, relaxing a bit. “My goodness, I’d nearly forgotten.”

  “It is the answer to life’s greatest questions,” Kitty confirmed. “Everything seems brighter.”

  Eve decided to tentatively approach the question. “Would you like to answer my greatest question?”

  “Like why I am here?” Kitty’s voice sounded guarded and tense, as if she were unsure of Evelyn’s reaction.

  “Well, yes.”

  This isn’t going to be easy, is it? Kitty thought. To reveal her most personal humiliation even to her sister? But perhaps if she trusted, Eve would help her in turn. She looked again at her companion and realized that their lives had been very much alike and somehow Eve would understand. “Freddie was always so charming when we were growing up. Do you remember?”

  “Yes, I remember,” Evelyn told her, recalling him from her memory. “He idolized you, Kat. I thought that someday I would marry a man who adored me as openly as that.”

  “Yes,” Kitty sighed. “Be very glad you did not, Evie. Be very glad you did not. Freddie has not turned out to be the kindest of husbands, Eve.”

  “Meaning?”

  Here it was. The moment of truth, when she would admit out loud how bad it had all been. “He hurt me, Evie…often,” she whispered. Her voice was hoarse with the stain of the confession.

  “He never! Oh, Kat,” Eve cried out with dismay. “I’m so sorry. I did not know.”

  “There was no way you could have,” Kitty quickly reassured her. Oh, it felt good to say it aloud! It was good to have someone to talk to. Especially Eve, for they had spent so many years as friends as well as sisters. “He would love me one day and hate me the next. I hate to burden you with my troubles, especially now that you are finally happy.”

  “I would be happy to listen,” Eve replied, and Kitty knew she meant it.

  Kitty sighed in reflection. “Remember when we were little girls? Freddie Hayes, a gallant knight in shining armor! A brave warrior! Protector of the realm. He was so handsome and charming. All the young girls loved him. I miss what he was when we first married. As reluctant as I was, I allowed him to steal affections that first year of our marriage. I still expect to turn around and see him standing there with that devil-may-care grin. But he changed, Eve. He had always been jealous. When I would even talk to other men, he would become angry. At first, I thought it was because he just loved me so much. He always said so. But he was beyond jealous, he was possessive. And then he became so bitter when business went bad that he was not as successful…No…” She stopped herself. “I cannot try to justify what he did.”

  Kitty told her sister about his moods and reactions, and how she had tried to protect Hannah. “I had tried to leave him before, but every time…” her voice quivered to a halt. Drawing a deep breath, she continued. “Each time I tried to leave, he found me and dragged me home…and beat me.”

  It appalled Eve to see her strong-willed sister reduced to this fearful shadow. “In the past when you would come to Newport, there were times when you would have bruises on your wrists and arms…”

  “Freddie made every effort to hurt me where the bruises would never show, but sometimes it just wouldn’t happen that way. In the beginning, I tried to defend myself, to fight back, but I wasn’t strong enough. Sung Li has been trying to teach me how to do so if…” Kitty massaged her wrist unconsciously as she remembered a particular fight. “Anyway, Freddie always insisted he loved me. He was always so sorry!”

  “Why did you never go to Da?”

  “And tell him what?”

  “The truth, Kat. He is our father.”

  “He wanted me to marry Frederick, though,” Kitty argued in disbelief.

  “Just as he made me marry William, Kit,” Eve took a deep breath and confessed, “but in the end, when I needed Da to support me in petitioning for a divorce, he did.”

  “A divorce?” Kitty echoed in astonishment. “You were going to get a divorce? When?”

  “My marriage was not nearly as bad as yours. William did not strike me, his punishments for improper behavior and defiance had been more mental than physical, but he…controlled me, Kat,” Eve confessed with a shudder of remembrance. “He managed my every move, word. He chose my clothes, for goodness’ sake! Every dress, every day! If I didn’t do what he wanted, he would ‘punish’ me, by withholding meals, freedoms or threatening Laurie.”

  “I get the feeling it was worse than your letters ever let on!”

  “Perhaps,” Eve allowed. “I finally went to Da just before William died and asked him to help me fight the courts for a divorce. We did some research. American divorce law is a truly horrible process to fight. Frankly, I was hoping Da could grease some palms to help get the petition through.”

  “So, Da could help me as well?”

  “I know he will, if you ask him. I think he regrets now rushing our marriages along. I will wire him this very day and see what he can do to get the process started.” Eve reached over and squeezed her sister’s hand. “He loves us, Kat. In the end, all he ever really wanted was our security. It took me a long time to understand that. He’s always felt that he was getting too old to watch over us and wanted us to be settled. What he really wants is our happiness. If your happiness will be found away from Freddie, then I know Da will make it happen.”

  Kitty’s mind spun with the possibilities. It might work. It might spare her a lifetime of running and hiding. Give her true freedom. She stared at Eve in silence. Their married lives had been so similar, yet that knowledge only drew them closer together. The idea of obtaining a divorce would appall her mother, but perhaps Eve was right, and it was the best way to move forward. It would be worth it, she decided. Despite the scandal and label of divorcée that would follow, it would be worth it in the end. If there was any person that could make it happen, it was her father. Lelan Preston knew so many connected people through his business interests in New York. Surely, he could ‘grease’ the right palms, as her sister had suggested.

  “And it’s not your fault, of course. I would have left him, too,” Eve assured her, misunderstanding her sister’s silence for uncertainty. She sipped her coffee and pondered the underlying tension that seemed to surround her sister. That edginess she had noted earlier still worried her. Then it came to her. “You think Freddie will come after you, don’t you?”

  “I am hoping he will not know where to find me,” Kitty admitted honestly, with just enough fear lacing her voice for Eve to reach out and clench her sister’s hand in her own. “He shouldn’t know you live here in Scotland. If he goes to your home in Dorset, perhaps your staff will not reveal where you are. We are.”

  “We will make sure he does not. I shall certainly wire my staff there, but to be on the safe side, perhaps we should have a disguise for you, or some such way of keeping your identity and presence hidden,” Eve thought aloud.

  “Actually, I have an idea.” Kitty thought about the way Jack Merrill had assumed she was Eve when he first saw her in the park. “I just met Jack Merrill in the park while you were getting the coffee.”

  “Oh, dearest,” Eve patted her hand benevolently, “I’m sorry.”

  Kitty grinned at the genuine sympathy in her sister’s voice. “No, no, it’s all right, I assure you!”
She thought about her idea again. “But, Eve, he thought I was you! Don’t you see? If no one knows I am here…I am assuming that your staff is discreet, yes?”

  Eve nodded, wondering where Kitty was going.

  “Then I can just be you!”

  “You cannot stay locked up here in the house indefinitely,” Eve protested with a frown. “You will need to go out.”

  “I don’t plan on attending any social functions for the time being, but if I go riding or such, most would assume I am you just as Jack did this morning!” Kitty clapped her hands, pleased with her plan, while Eve frowned at her casual use of the earl’s name. “I can just hide here in plain sight until I figure out what to do!”

  “It might work,” Eve agreed, considering the idea. The few riders they had seen in the park that morning were not acquaintances of Eve’s so there should be no repercussions from their dual appearance. Her staff was indeed discreet and their friends’ only interest would be in guarding Kitty from harm. She knew it would certainly solve the problem of discovery if no one were even aware of her sister’s presence in Edinburgh. “If no one outside this house knew about it, as Haddington does.”

  “I am sure he can be convinced not to say anything,” Kitty argued, sure Haddington was in possession of a protective streak as his sister had always claimed.

  “Without knowing the truth?”

  Kitty thought about telling the earl about her marriage and shuddered. It would never do to see that man’s jovial countenance darkened with pity. Potential friend or not, truth certainly was not an option there. “I’ll think of something to tell him.”

  “And Moira and Abby? I am sure they can be trusted with the truth.”

  “Of course, they can. They are our dearest friends.”

  Chapter 9

  But there was about her the mysterious authority of beauty, a sureness in the carriage of the head, the movement of the eyes, which, without being in the least theatrical, struck him as highly trained and full of a conscious power.