Page 14 of Five Ways to Bed a Duke

“Thank you, Your Grace. Emmy,” Catherine said as a footman helped her out of the carriage. “I had a lovely afternoon.”

“I should be thanking you, Cathy.” Emmy beamed. “Because of you, I have a whole new wardrobe. Dresses, nightgowns, undergarments…”

“I didn’t need to hear that,” Richard groaned.

“I am glad I am able to be of assistance in some way.” Catherine smiled, accepting the praise. “Do have a beautiful day.”

She waited until the carriage rounded the corner before turning around and stepping into the foyer. However, she frowned when the sound of shouting reached her ears.

“What is this about now?” she asked no one in particular.

Their butler, Mr. Stevens, answered with a sigh, “Her Ladyship mentioned her clothes were getting tighter, and His Lordship suggested she had been overindulging in sweets.”

Resisting the urge to groan at their childishness, Catherine went to find her parents in the drawing room. Their shouting became louder the closer she got to the room, and that only strengthened her resolve to marry a man who wanted nothing to do with her outside of probably conceiving his heirs.

She surely didn’t want to deal with any more volatile emotions the way she’d had to in her parents’ home. She was content to barely speak except when they had to keep up appearances.

Hugh and Lily were huddled in a corner as their parents shouted at each other, oblivious to how scared their children were.

Hugh, fifteen, had his arms around Lily, who was given to panic attacks when their parents started one of their fights. Catherine’s anger flared, and she was sorely tempted to give their parents a verbal lashing they would never forget, but her siblings’ well-being came first.

“Hugh, Lily,” she called, stepping into the room.

Her siblings rushed to her with a cry, wrapping their arms around her.

Hugh was already a head taller than her but still sought to hold her for comfort, and she smiled at how even though heput up a tough facade when his friends or recent crush, Miss Merriwether, were in the vicinity, he was still a baby at heart. Lily, on the other hand, had inherited her small frame and comfortably fit under her arm.

Their parents stopped their squabbling and turned to face her with guilty expressions, to which she replied with a dirty glare as she led her siblings out of the room.

That was not very ladylike of her, but she didn’t care, considering how highly improper they were too.

“Cathy, we?—”

“Don’t,” Catherine hissed. “I don’t want to hear it.”

“But we truly are sorry,” her mother insisted. “We just get so…”

“Angry with each other that it’s hard to keep our voices down,” her father finished. “But that doesn’t mean we don’t love each other.”

“You promised us last time that you wouldn’t do this again. You promised.”

“We know. We really tried to, but…”

Catherine crossed her arms over her chest, waiting to see what excuse they’d give her this time. She loved her parents, she really did, but she loved her peace and quiet way more.

“You don’t love us enough to change,” Hugh sneered.

“Don’t say that, Hugh,” their mother scolded, sounding hurt.

“Why shouldn’t I?” he spat angrily. “You always apologize, yet you go on yelling at each other, not caring how it affects us. You are supposed to protect us and care for us, but more than half the time, you two are too distracted by your fighting to even notice we need anything.”

Catherine instantly felt guilty for not defusing the situation quickly. If she had, then perhaps she could have saved her parents Hugh’s scathing words.

If only things were simpler, she’d be enjoying her first successful tutoring session with Emmy.

“Don’t talk to us like that,” their father snapped. “We are your parents, and we have done our best to provide you with everything you need. This is how you repay us? You are so ungrateful, all of you!”

“We never asked for?—”

---