Page 10 of Bad Luck Bride

“You?” The younger woman blinked. “You’re getting married?”

Kay raised an eyebrow. “You seem surprised, Lady Pamela,” she purred sweetly.

Pamela’s skepticism was immediately concealed. “It’s only that I don’t recall seeing a wedding announcement in the papers.”

“My fiancé has been in New York, and we wanted to wait until his return before we made the announcement. You’ll see it within the next few days, I imagine.”

“Well, this news is just too, too wonderful,” Pamela said, turning to the man beside her. “Isn’t it wonderful, Devlin?”

“Yes, wonderful,” he said, his voice indifferent, his face impossible to read. “Who is he?”

“Oh, no one you know, I’m sure,” Kay replied. “His name is Wilson Rycroft.”

For some reason, that seemed to take him aback. “Rycroft?” he said, blinking. “You don’t mean the American millionaire?”

A slight frown drew his brows together, indicating that he wasn’t as indifferent to the news of her own engagement as he pretended to be, a fact that gave Kay immense satisfaction. She was so glad now that a show of amiability had been required of her. Until this moment, she’d never truly appreciated just how rewarding it could be to take the high road.

“The very same,” she said, her pretense of a smile widening into a genuine one. “It sounds as if you know him?”

“We’ve met.”

With that unmistakably terse reply, Kay decided this was the perfect time to make her exit.

“Indeed? How lovely,” she said with wicked, heartfelt sincerity. “And now, Josephine and I really must be going. If we don’t, we’ll be late meeting our mother for lunch. And then we’re off to the modiste. Wedding gowns need so many fittings to be just right, don’t they?”

Pamela expressed wholehearted agreement with that sentiment, then farewells were said all around. At last, with profound relief, Kay turned and ushered Josephine out the door.

As they crossed the lobby, all the chaotic emotions that had been swirling around within Kay from the moment she’d laid eyeson him began fading into a vague sense of unreality, as if the whole ghastly episode had been nothing but a dream.

“Goodness, that was awkward,” Josephine pronounced. “Of all the unexpected encounters. Too bad you couldn’t have ducked out of the shop before they saw you.”

“I would have done, believe me,” Kay assured her, “but there was no time. I came around a trellis and there he was. A moment later, he was introducing me to his fiancée.” As she spoke, her sense of unreality about the whole thing grew stronger, enveloping her in a strange numbness.

“How awful. What did you do?”

Kay shrugged. “In cases such as these, there’s only one thing one can do, really.”

“Which is?”

Kay waited until they had passed through the plate-glass door held open for them by a Savoy doorman before she replied. “Be civil, of course.”

“Bor-ing,” Jo said with obvious disappointment, falling in step beside her as they walked to the cab waiting for them in the courtyard. “Was it terribly hard?”

The question planted Kay’s smile back in place. “Why should it have been?”

“Well,” Jo began, but Kay forestalled her.

“Naturally, it was a bit of a shock, seeing him again after so many years. And meeting her, too, of course.” Kay paused as the driver opened the door. “But I got over all of that almost at once.”

“So you’re all right, then?”

All right? The question caught her off guard, and she nearlystumbled as she stepped into the carriage, but when she answered, her voice was firm. “I’m quite all right.”

Jo didn’t seem convinced. “Are you sure?” she asked as she followed Kay into the cab. “The fact that he’s engaged to be married doesn’t bother you? Not even a little?” she added as Kay shook her head.

“After fourteen years? Don’t be silly.” Kay bent down, hiding her face from her sister’s disbelieving stare, buying time as she settled her skirts around her feet. “Why should it bother me after all this time?”

“I can think of heaps of reasons,” Jo muttered. “Abandoning you so abominably, for one thing. Telling people about your elopement nearly three years after it happened, spreading malicious rumors from thousands of miles away. And why? Out of spite and jealousy, that’s why. He heard you were going to marry Giles, and he wanted to pay you out.”

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