Page 26 of The Scandalous Love of a Duke
It was different than yesterday. It was gentle, reassuring, and without conscious thought her hands rose to his shoulders.
When his lips opened and his tongue slid across the seam of her mouth, she could not help but part her lips and kiss him back.
Their tongues weaved an intricate dance and she felt her body press against his, as the shelves dug into her back.
His hand slipped to the first curve of her lower back as his other arm came about her shoulders, then his kiss became more ardent and his tongue pressed deep into her mouth.
‘Katherine!’ Reverend Barker called.
They flew apart and she knew she must be crimson.
Reverend Barker’s confident footsteps could be heard as he walked briskly up the aisle. The back of her hand pressed to her mouth, then her palms touched to her hot cheeks before her fingers tried to tuck wisps of her hair back beneath her bonnet. She felt dishevelled but it was not an outward turmoil, it was an inward one. Her hands ran quickly over her gown, smoothing out creases which were not there.
She looked at John. He did not look contrite at all.
Oh, John, what are you doing to me?
She turned her back on him, presuming he would leave by the side door, and walked into the aisle, her hands clasping together to stop them from shaking.
The abruptness of their separation had left John feeling bereft. All his senses were smarting at her loss as his gaze followed her departure.
* * *
John saw the reverend through the ornate screen separating off the little chapel. John’s stomach clenched in a sharp spasm.
The reverend was not in his robes. He had changed and come back for her.
‘Katherine!’Not Miss Spencer.The man’s voice echoed about the church, calling her name for the second time.
The reverend was of an age with himself. John’s grandfather had appointed him three years ago.
‘I am here, Richard.’
An icy cold sensation crept across John’s skin. Jealousy. John walked into the aisle as Katherine had done a moment before. He stood in the middle of the square of four arches beneath the church tower, feeling like a cockerel in a pit, ready to fight this man whose first name she had used.
Perhaps John had walked in on a tryst they had planned?
He forced a smile. ‘I enjoyed your sermon, Reverend. I was just offering to take Miss Spencer home.’
She looked at him, she was embarrassed, blushing again, her expression displaying her surprise that he had followed. ‘Thank you, Your Grace, but Reverend Barker usually drives me home.’
Ah, so she had not been hiding. She had been waiting for the vicar. Now, John felt awkward. But moments ago she had been kissing him.
‘Forgive me, I thought Your Grace had left.’ The reverend gave John a deferential bow but John could see the man was prickling. There was a stand-off here. Two men interested in one woman.
The reverend sent Katherine a conciliatory and questioning smile. He obviously did not trust the duke near his prim Sunday school teacher.
John laughed internally. It was not bitter. But he felt a desperate need to keep Katherine for himself. He felt so much better in her presence – he felt alive, human, with her.
Setting a false smile, every bit the old Duke’s grandson, John met the reverend’s gaze. ‘I saw Miss Spencer’s parents leave, I had not realised you had an arrangement.’ Was the reverend her beau? Was Katherine inclined towards him?
‘If you’ll excuse us then, Your Grace?’ The reverend dismissed John and looked at Katherine. ‘Are you ready?’
She nodded.
Now he was bitter, seething. Nobody dismissed him. Katherine was his and this bloody nobody was going to damn well have to step aside.
‘Your Grace.’ She turned to him and dropped a deep curtsy as though he were a stranger.
