In the gallery outside the door to Cate's apartments, David sank against a wall and took deep, strained breaths. The blood was pounding in his ears and his hands were shaking. He wanted to hit something.

That lying bitch.

That filthy, conniving old woman.

He clenched his fist then forced himself to slowly release it. Violence would only make him look more the fool. Besides, it was the first recourse of halfwits and blackguards. He had seen enough of those in the army. Men who never applied their brains to a problem until after their fists had made it worse. Not that there was much opportunity to apply his brain to this problem: Catherine had lied to him. Neither brain nor fist could fix that.

To be sure, it had all been Miss Skinner's idea, but Catherine had not opposed her. Not seriously, anyway. She was not merely dishonest, she was a coward.

His fist closed in on itself again. David took another deep breath. He had already known that. The real problem was that he had lost his chance to settle the bargain with Lord Varley. And that could be solved, yes, there were several solutions. There was no need to worry about the mines. No need to panic about the finances.

As the first heat of his anger cooled, David became aware of the hurt beneath it. He had believed Catherine to be in danger. She had played with his emotions, twisted him into believing it. Treated him like a puppet. Oh, to be sure, it had not been her plan. He had heard enough to understand that Miss Skinner had been the originator and architect of it. He had stayed by the door silently listening, hoping that Catherine would fight for him. And instead, she had deserted him. He meant that little to her.

He shook himself from head to toe. It did not matter what she thought of him. There was no point being hurt by her disregard or her fear. They were her feelings, which she owned entirely, and which he had done nothing to earn.

Steeling himself, he went downstairs, where he found Laurie and Sarah standing in the hall regarding each other with all the suspicion of two stray cats meeting unexpectedly in an alley. Sarah and Laurie never had got on.

"She says you invited her to stay for a while," Laurie said suspiciously.

"She invited herself," David corrected. "But that might forgiven in a cousin."

"Hmph." Laurie did not look impressed. "What happened upstairs? I heard you yell."

"A lover's tiff?" There was a teasing spark in Sarah's eyes.

"Not exactly." David did not wish to explain it in front of her. "Why don't you go up and introduce yourself to my wife, Sarah? She will forgive the imposition, I am sure."

"She is not too unwell for visitors?"

David did not wish to admit the truth he thought Sarah must already suspect. "On the contrary, I think the diversion will lift her spirits."

"Hm." Sarah looked from him to Laurie and back again, but her curiosity about the new was greater than her interest in the old. "If you think it wisest."

She went away up the stairs, holding her skirts six inches off the ground. Laurie watched her go with a scowl.

"What's she really doing here?"

"She said she wished to see Wales. I own, I had rather hoped she meant to stay with a friend."

"In which case, she would be limited to the hotels of Bangor."

David laughed then bit it back. "She has been very kind to me in London."

"Because she wants something."

"I can't imagine what."

"You can't?" Laurie raised an eyebrow. "Huh. Well." She turned away and looked up the stairs. "What were you yelling about?"

David breathed out through his teeth. "Nothing good. I lost my temper."

"With Catherine?"

"Miss Skinner. And, I suppose, Catherine too. Cate." The name was foreign on his tongue. "She is not really ill, Laurie. Miss Skinner had some stupid plot for Catherine to pretend to be very ill so I would pay to send them both on a health cure."

"I thought she looked sturdy enough." Laurie scowled. "So she took advantage of you, again."

"It is the last time I let it happen. I swear. That woman has taken so many miles she cannot have another inch. I will not let her."

"That's the spirit. You've given her far too much already. Marriage, for one." She sighed. "Never mind. That cannot be undone now. What are you going to do about this?"

"I sent Miss Skinner away. Told her that she must pack her things and leave. But I don't know what I can do about Cate. If she really wants to leave Wales, I would send her away somewhere. But it would be an unnecessary expense and I fear a little scandalous as well. Right now, I need both money and public respect. She lost me my biggest investor with this trick. I had to leave London before I could sign a contract with him, and now... I fear it's too late."

"I say keep her here. Not that I enjoy her company, of course. But I resent you spending your money on her. You're far too generous. She sleeps in a room fit for a princess. You should throw her in the scullery like Cinderella."

"I won't mistreat her."

"I know. You won't." Laurie looked annoyed. "You never mistreat anyone, no matter how badly they treat you. You and your cursed honour."

"Decency," David corrected. "Father always insisted that it is the mark of a man to treat others with kindness and respect."

"Well, I am not a man, and I cannot find it in myself to be kind towards Catherine. Or Sarah, for that matter." Laurie looked suspiciously up the stairs. "I wish you hadn't brought her with you. She's going to make trouble."

"She's been a perfect host to me in London. I am merely returning the favour. Besides, with Miss Skinner gone, perhaps she and Cate will make friends."

Laurie made a strange noise in her throat, halfway between a laugh and a cough. "I do not think that likely."

"Why not? If Cate can find a companion in Miss Skinner, she should be able to find a friend in someone at least closer to her own age and situation."

"Perhaps the problem is that they are a little too close." Laurie gave him an enigmatic smile. "Never mind. I will enjoy seeing it play out, whatever happens. After all, I don't believe you to be in any danger, so a casualty on the battlefield would not trouble my heart."

She turned and left, leaving David wondering exactly what she had meant.

* * *

After Demery left, Cate went into Luke's room and picked him up and held him sleeping to her chest to comfort herself. Cuddling him seemed to be the only thing that could still her racing heart and lessen the lump in her throat. She was standing over his cradle and holding him, trying not to cry, when there came a knock at the door. She turned, thinking it was Demery, but the person in the doorway was a stranger to her: tall, dark, a little older than herself, and wearing a cautious smile. She had donned that smile with as much as care as her neat indigo travel dress. Cate was not ordinarily perceptive about such things, but she had worn too many similar smiles herself while in company she did not care for not to recognize it.

"I hope you'll forgive the intrusion," the woman said, in a soft, breathy voice. "David said you would not mind."

"David?" Cate looked the woman up and down again and saw now the resemblance between the two of them, the same height and long face and impossibly dark eyes. "You are his...?"

"Cousin. Sarah Demery." The woman held out her hand and Cate gingerly shook it. "I begged him to bring me to Wales. It has been years since I have stepped foot in the place." She sighed and looked about the room. "It has changed so much, and for the better. It looks so comfortable. It used to be my school room, did you know?"

"No. Demery did not tell me."

"Demery?" Sarah's smile broadened. "Is that what you call him? I could not, for I share that name."

"As do I, now." Cate joggled Luke a little; he was beginning to get heavy in her arms. "Do you mind if we go to the sitting room? I'd like to sit down."

"Of course. David said you were unwell." Sarah's tone was all sympathy as she led the way back through the bedroom to the sitting room. "But you do look much better than we thought. The letter we got made us think that you were very poorly indeed."

Cate did not feel she could say anything to that and so said nothing. She sank down onto the sofa and repositioned Luke to a more comfortable position.

"I hope you are feeling better now?" Sarah continued solicitously.

"Yes. Much." That was an easier lie, but still Cate felt uneasy. She rocked Luke back and forth. "It was just a cold, really."

"Oh." Sarah wore another smile. "What a relief."

There was a strange, awkward silence. Neither seemed to know exactly what to say. At last, Sarah said, "How do you like it here?"

"I think the house is very interesting. And I love waking up every morning and looked out over the sea." Cate jogged Luke in her arms a bit as he began to stir. "I have not yet taken Luke down to the beach because it is so cold, but when the weather warms up, I will."

"Yes, the sea is..." Sarah looked at the windows. "...Beautiful. I sometimes forget how beautiful it is. I have spent so long in London. We used to go walking down on the beach, David and I. We were very close in age, so we were more often together than he was with Paul and Laurie. When we were young we would make sand castles. When we were older we would just walk and find drift wood and talk about what lay on the other side of the sea. It is Dublin to the west and Dumfries to the north, but when we were about fifteen it might have been anywhere at all. It seemed so far away."

Sarah's description spoke of a sentimentality that was at odds with her very neat and fashionable dress. Nor did it quite seem true of Demery. Cate had no doubt that he had always known that it was Dumfries or Dublin, and even the number of miles between them. Nevertheless, she was not going to quibble with a woman who showed even the faintest hint of amicability. She could afford to lose no more friends, even if Miss Skinner had not precisely been such.

"It sounds lovely," Cate said. "You must have had a wonderful childhood. Demery— David has not told me much about it."

Because even when they were courting, he had not talked much about himself, and now he talked even less.

"I do not know if it was as wonderful for him as it was for me," Sarah said with a smile. "He was quite the poor cousin. His father went into law but never managed to make much of himself. Whereas my father owned Plas Bryn and doted upon me. I knew it was all going to go to David one day, of course. His father refused to break the entail and there seemed no chance I would ever have a brother. Indeed, sometimes I thought of David as my brother. But not quite."

"It is the surrounding country I mean, and the freedom to roam in it. Particularly for a boy." Luke was waking now, making little mewling cries and kicking his feet against Cate's waist. She kissed the top of his head. "I hope Luke enjoys it, when he grows up. My own father would never let us walk on the beach without supervision. I could not even walk in the garden without a servant until I was seventeen."

"Yes, my father was not so protective. Or perhaps I did not let him protect me. I was an independent child. I think I had more spirit than David, actually. It was he who required protection. From his mother." Sarah smiled. "She's rather a dragon, don't you think? She was always yelling at him. She used to order the whole lot of them about, even his father, when his father was alive. It was she who insisted David go into the army, though he had much rather gone into the law, after his father. She wanted that for Paul instead. I don't know she did not choose right. Paul always was rather twisty and honeyed with his words."

"What about Laura?" Cate asked. "What did Mrs Demery want for her?"

Sarah laughed. "Not to run away with a red-coat. Well. It was not really running away, though she threatened to. Laura's the only one of them who ever managed to stand up to her mother. And look what it got her. Poverty and unfaithfulness."

"She is hardly impoverished."

"She would be, if she had gone with him. Mr Wynn never could lay his hands on a silver guinea without it turning to lead. Now she lives with her mother, on her mother's income and David's pity. Sometimes when I think of Laurie, I am glad that I never married."

Cate thought there was a certain self-consciousness behind those spiteful words. As little as she liked Laurie or Mrs Demery, she could not quite respond in turn. She repositioned Luke so that he could blink sleepily out at their visitor. He liked people, and smiled and babbled cheerfully at Sarah.

"Of course," Sarah continued, "there are certain advantages to the married state. You have a beautiful baby, I see. Though you did not require marriage to get him."

"I was... very foolish. And David was very kind." Cate did not wish to explain it further. She was wary of the curious glint in Sarah's eye. "Would you like to hold him?"

That might distract her. No doubt she would pick up the gossip from someone else, perhaps from Laurie, but it was easier to know that people were talking about her than have to parry their attempts to dig information from her.

"Oh, I'd love to. How sweet he is." Sarah held out her arms and Luke allowed himself to be transferred over. He squirmed a little in Sarah's arms. The heavily buttoned front of her dress looked uncomfortable. "What a darling."

Luke squirmed more. Then, with a heave of his tiny chest, he gave a momentous burp. The dregs of his last meal came up with it. Sarah shrieked, but, to her credit, kept hold of him. Cate hastily pulled him into her arms and patted his back gently.

"I'm so sorry," she said. "He doesn't normally do that until after he's eaten."

Sarah patted at her dress with a thin silk handkerchief. Her cheeks were very red. "Think nothing of it. He is a baby after all."

Cate tugged a more sturdy cotton handkerchief from her pocket. After Luke was born, she had grown very distrustful of silk handkerchiefs. She gently patted Luke's face dry. "But I really must apologize. I will get you a damp cloth. And our maids do a wonderful job with the laundry."

Sarah cleared her throat. "No. Of course. It is no matter really. I think, though, that I will go and get changed. If you don't mind. It was wonderful meeting you though. I'm so glad I can finally make your acquaintance."

She got to her feet and left the room. Cate hugged Luke thoughtfully to herself. There was something rather cold about Sarah. She was not sure she liked her. On the other hand, she had talked quite readily to Cate. There were not many people who did that, these days.

"What do you think?" she asked Luke.

"Gayah!" he said.

__

2023-02-12: I've pretty much accepted that I won't be able to post anything this month if I try to edit, lol. Thankfully, I write pretty clean to begin with. So I'm hoping I can plough on with the story even if it's not perfect. Anyway, Sarah got puked on. A cruel and unusual punishment.