A Stranger at Castonbury by Amanda McCabe

Author:Amanda McCabe
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2012-02-06T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

The lane leading to the Buxton Assembly Rooms was crowded with carriages, moving so slowly, inching forward, so that surely everyone for miles around was just waiting there on the road. And Catalina was sure that at least half the equipages belonged to Castonbury.

She drew her shawl closer around her shoulders and peered out of the window at the buildings creeping past. Ahead of her was the great landau bearing Lily and Giles, along with the duke and Mrs Landes-Fraser. And behind was Jamie in a dashing little new curricle. Not that she had paid any attention—except to be all too acutely aware of where he was at every minute.

A soft giggle made her turn away from the window. Lydia sat with two of the other young lady guests, whispering and laughing with them. She looked as if she was having a wonderful time, and Catalina smiled to see it. That was surely what weddings were for—to bring people together and make them happy.

Not upend their lives, as knowledge of a certain secret wedding years ago would surely do in this little world.

At last their carriage shuddered to a halt, and a footman rushed around to open the door. As Catalina stepped down to follow the girls up the front steps, she heard a soft tapping sound on the pavement behind her. She turned to see Jamie just as the light from one of the high windows fell over him.

He wore fashionable, if stark, black and white evening clothes, the only spark of colour a ruby pin at his cravat. His hair was brushed smoothly back from his face, revealing the arc of the scar on his cheek. And he was using the walking stick again.

As he moved beside her, Catalina couldn’t help but wonder again what had happened to him. She ached to think he had been in pain, and she wanted more than she had ever wanted anything to reach out to him. To hold him close and take away anything he had suffered. To somehow make it right again.

Yet she seemed to be a cause of some of that pain to him, and it made her wonder again what had happened to him after they had parted in Spain. He gave her a grim smile as they moved up the shallow stone steps together, and he didn’t quite meet her eyes. They were so near to each other, so close she could just reach out and brush his sleeve with her hand, but he was as far from her as he had ever been.

Still silent, they moved into the building behind the others. They left their wraps with the servants in the corridor and climbed the steps to the grand second-floor ballroom. It was a lovely space, a long room surmounted by crystal chandeliers and lined with marble columns.

But the ballroom was so crowded there didn’t seem even an inch to move about, and Catalina wondered how anyone could possibly dance. Conversation rose in a roar all around her, words indistinct as friends greeted one another and jests were made and enjoyed.

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