Intolerable Civility

Chapter Thirty-Two: Malicious Ends

Cate shook her head. "You're a darling and you're not wrong, but I need to speak with them first. We left our argument unfinished last night. By now, they might have decided they want to leave immediately."

"And what do you want, Cate?"

She hesitated; she had invited them down here to offer them an olive branch after all, and before their argument yesterday her father had been obnoxious but not unamenable. "I don't want to throw them out. Not if they want to stay."

"And what if they make life painful for you?"

"They will." She squeezed his hand. "That's what they do. But if they respect my wishes and don't ask about Luke's parentage, then I can tolerate the little hurts."

"For my sake or yours?"

"For theirs, David."

"Kind woman." He kissed her, deeper and more lingeringly this time. "I will do what I can to help."

"I know." She kissed him back.

A pleasant interlude followed, broken only by the sound of Luke's disgusted yell.

"Papa! Papa! Wook! Wook!"

He had crawled out from under the bed carrying a dusty rattle and wanted David's attention.

"Oh dear." Cate sighed. "I've neglected him, last night and this morning. Even just now."

"I didn't even know he was in the room." David picked Luke up and tossed him lightly up and down. "Hello, young man. Yes, hello. I am looking at you. I can see you."

Luke, appeased by the attention, allowed himself to be tucked against one arm and banged his rattle against David's chest. David looked at Cate's bed, then turned back to Cate.

"Do you usually get up in the night for him?" he asked.

"Sometimes, not always, now. But I felt very far away from him this morning."

"Hmm." David pinched Luke's nose. "The door, of course, works both ways."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that as well as you coming into my room, I might come into yours. Then neither me nor the boy would be far away from you."

The shyness of his voice was at odds with the acquisitive gleam in his eyes. Heat rose over Cate's body and radiated from her cheeks. "Tonight?"

"And tomorrow. And the night after that. And after that. We have many lost hours to make up for, my dear."

Cate's cheeks were on fire now. "I'd like that."

With Luke in one arm, he couldn't properly embrace her, but he pulled her closer and gave her a promising sort of kiss. "Good. Then I'll go and deal with Sarah now."

He passed Luke back into her arms, squeezed her shoulder one more time, and left the room. Smiling to herself, Cate finished doing her hair and getting dressed. In the middle of this, the tea and boiled egg she had ordered came, so she fed Luke and drank her tea. Then she left Luke with the maid and went to see her parents. They had never been late risers, and were already up and dressed in their room with a tray of tea and toast when she came in.

"To what do we owe this pleasure?" her mother said acidly.

"Good morning, Mother," Cate said. "I thought we needed to talk after what happened last night."

Her father looked at her from over the rim of his tea cup. "Indeed."

His tone was cool, but not hostile. Despite that, Cate felt the old, familiar frisson of fear down her spine. She steeled herself against it; he could not hurt her in her own house.