𝐃𝐄𝐒𝐈𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐘𝐎𝐔 - 𝐊𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝐒𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐀

The Pandora's Box

Kate was not naïve.

She knew about what happened at night between husband and wife.

But she was unfamiliar with how it would work on the night with Anthony. Surely it would be less complicated than what she had seen with the farm animals. And less painful.

Surely.

Hopefully.

She was outside the Danbury Residence, walking alongside Edwina, chatting about their home back in India. The bright, hot sun and the sweet ripe mangoes they ate during summer and danced during festivals and worshipped their deities. Edwina had taken the news of their engagement quite well.

Too well, to be honest.

'Edwina,' she had stated a day before, sitting at the edge of her bed after dinner. 'Lord Bridgerton and I are . . . Engaged.'

She nodded. 'Congratulations. Now will you go to sleep?'

She blinked. Had she perhaps misheard?

'Edwina, I am not jesting. Lord Bridgerton and I are to be married in less than a week. In six days.'

'I heard the first time. I am happy for you, Kate. He always had his eye on you.' She smiled. 'I was just there for him to make you envious.'

'Envious? He courted you to spite me,' she scoffed. 'He used you only to end up being stuck with me. Thankfully, he has promised to pay you and Ma each month to take care of you. And even offered to send money over to India for the maintenance of our old house. And also, a Hindu wedding.'

'Oh how lovely,' Edwina gushed. 'I can finally wear that lovely pink lehenga choli (long skirt and blouse) and the jewellery we bought from the Jammu and Kashmir kingdom.' She gasped as she suddenly thought of something. 'You can also wear your mother's sapphire ring.'

Kate didn't have many memories of her biological mother. But she remembered the times she would stare at her hands and admired the ocean blue ring their father had given her for their marriage. When she passed, he offered it to Mary. She declined, saying that it belonged to Kate. Her father kept it in his office and left it in his will to be hers when she had married.

'But . . . It's in India. Who will travel such distance to retrieve it?'

Edwina looked deep in thought. 'Ah, well. You can retrieve it after you visit India.'

Kate had gotten up and said goodnight to her sister, wondering if she was being too hard on Anthony. Then she remembered the time he had whispered such wicked things into her ear while tantalisingly touching her hips, and then she believed she should have killed him while she was alone with him.

'Oh, ye angrezi mausam kitni kharab hai (Oh this English weather is terrible),' Edwina complained as they rushed back inside soaked due to the heavy shower. The unexpected rain had dampened the cheery mood they were in. Kate was feeling feverish. Perhaps she had caught a cold.

'We'll get changed. I'll meet you during dinner.' Kate ran off to her room, signalling lady-in-waiting to help her. She was changed into a loose garment as she insisted she wished to sleep for the afternoon. She fell onto her bed and drifted off, listening to the peaceful tittering of the raindrops.

There was a knock on her door. She groaned as she ignored it.

The knock came again. She groaned louder. 'Who the hell is it?'

'Not very happy today, I see?'

She jumped up and immediately rushed to open the door. 'My Lord, forgive my language.'