Reckless Wager by Christy Carlyle

Author:Christy Carlyle
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Entice Publishing and Windtree Press
Published: 2014-12-29T08:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

Solomon Thrumble stood with his back to Kate as she entered the sitting room. Ada and Will were nowhere in sight. So this was it—her moment alone with Mr. Thrumble. He would ask. She would give her answer. He would be pleased. And they would move on with their lives.

But where was the answer she’d almost decided upon, been wrestling with for weeks? It wasn’t there when she searched her heart. Or rather it was there swimming around in a quagmire of doubt, accompanied by the no she’d given years ago.

Standing before the fire, he lifted a small framed painting from the mantle—a watercolor portrait of her father. Mother had painted one of all of them, but Father’s always took pride of place in the family’s sitting room.

“Your father was a fine man. A good doctor. Do you know he tended to my grandfather when he was sick?”

The Selbys and Thrumbles had been connected for years, and Kate had long been friends with Solomon’s sister, Nerissa.

“No, I didn’t know.”

Kate watched as Mr. Thrumble replaced the portrait, but he still stared at it rather than turning to face her.

“I wager your husband was not a good man.”

Taking two small steps to the left, Kate sank down on the settee when she felt the solid form of it pressing at the back of her knees. Knees that had gone loose and boneless. She hadn’t expected the conversation to turn to Andrew. Yet it somehow made sense that where she and marriage were concerned, there he would be too.

Kate felt him, like a presence in the room, inhabiting every shadowed corner of the familiar space.

She swiped at the perspiration on her forehead and realized her hand was shaking.

“What makes you say such a thing?” She sat up straight and swallowed deep breaths, hissing them out as far as her corset would allow. The rhythm soothed her and she forced a calm expression when Mr. Thrumble finally turned her way.

He laughed, a quick, mirthless chuckle. “Mrs. Guthrie, you have refused every offer of marriage that has been put to you in nearly ten years. One can only conclude you are either not overly fond of matrimony or your husband was a brute.”

He seemed unaware of her distress. Kate breathed a deep sigh of relief. No one knew what she’d experienced at Andrew’s hands, and she didn’t wish to sift those memories here, now, with Mr. Thrumble. Attempting to match the lightness of his tone, she offered him a grin before responding.

“I have great respect for the institution of marriage. You mention my father. My parents had the happiest of unions.”

“Then he was unkind, your husband. And I’m sorry for it, Katherine. You need never fear such treatment at my hands.” His cheeks pinked when he spoke her given name. He’d used it only once before and had secured her permission before doing so.

Was there another man in England as concerned with propriety as Solomon Thrumble? If such a man existed, Kate had certainly never met him.

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