Cate stayed up very late that night, waiting for David and Sarah to return. The thought of them alone together in a small coach made her anxious now. Was Laurie right about Sarah being in love with David?

It would perhaps explain some things. Like the way Sarah kept prolonging her stay in Wales, even though she had initially wanted to return quickly to London. And perhaps also the possessive way she behaved about the house, offering tea to David or directing the servants. That was Cate's position as lady of the house. Not Sarah's.

David did not encourage Sarah's feelings and would never encourage any uncousinly affection. Cate was quite sure of that. Nevertheless, while she waited for them to return, she kept thinking of the close proximity of the coach, of Sarah perhaps resting her knee against David's, of Sarah trying to flirt, in the clumsy way she would flirt, and David politely ignoring it, the way he would. What was Sarah thinking!? David was a married man — oh, to be sure, their marriage was irregular, but she wore his ring on her finger and bore his name. It was a betrayal of womanly friendship for Sarah to harbour secret feelings for him, as well as an insult to David's honour. Unless, of course, Sarah planned to keep her feelings secret and never utter a word, but if she did, why was she here, with him? Why not pine from a distance and try to forget him?

Unless, perhaps, she was not in love with him at all and Laurie was mistaken, or merely malicious. But the more Cate thought about Sarah, the more it seemed that the only explanation for her strange behaviour was some secret passion for David.

It was well past midnight when Cate heard them return. Voices spoke softly from below, then footsteps sounded in the gallery outside the private bedrooms. Cate went to the door of her dark sitting room on silent, bare feet and listened, her heart racing, feeling guilty for eavesdropping.

"Goodnight then, cousin." Sarah yawned loudly. "My goodness, I'm tired. I will sleep like the dead tonight, I am sure."

"Goodnight, Sarah."

David's door opened then shut softly while Sarah continued yawning. There was a silent pause, then Sarah's footsteps moved briskly off down the gallery. Cate thought they sounded annoyed. What did she expect? Sympathy for her yawning? Compliment?

But perhaps Cate was being uncharitable. She went to the door that connected her sitting room to David's bedroom and knocked.

"Cate?" David spoke from the other side. "Did we wake you?"

"I wasn't sleeping. Can we talk?"

"It's late. I'm just about to go to bed."

"I know. Something happened today. Please."

There was a brief pause, then the key snapped in the lock and the door opened. David had already taken off his coat and cravat, and stood there in his shirt and vest, with his sleeves pushed up to his elbows. The flame of the single candle on his washstand flickered, sending shadows dancing over the planes of his lean, muscular arms. Cate swallowed.

"Cate?"

"Yes. Um. While you were out, um, Luke had his first tantrum."

David laughed softly. "Did he? He's growing up. What about?"

"He didn't want a bath. I thought he would scream the roof down."

"Charming. Cate, my dear, I'm very tired. Can this not wait til morning?"

My dear. Cate's heart skipped a beat. "That could, but it is not all I have to say. David, Herbert Oliver called on me today."

The smile froze on David's face. "I warned him off."

"He's not the kind of man who cares for warnings. Or perhaps he waited until he knew you were out of the house."

"Did you speak to him?"

"I did. He wanted to see Luke, and I said no. He's getting married, you see. The woman is rich and too old to have a child. So I suppose he regretted abandoning Luke."

"He has no right to change his mind now."

"I told him the same."

"And did he listen? Or must I track him down and convince him? Must I give him the thrashing I threatened?"

"No, don't!" She grabbed David's hands. "Please. Don't. If you hurt him, it will only come back on you."

David stiffened a little when she took his hands then slowly relaxed. "If he hurts you or Luke, I will hurt him back. I will hurt him worse."

"He won't."

"If he does."

"Fine. If he does. But he did not today. Not with more than words. I don't need you to protect me from words, David."

"Aren't they what you're most afraid of?"

"Maybe I'm not such a coward as I used to be." She tried to smile. "Or perhaps it depends whose words they are. Oliver's don't ring true, you see, and it's hard to be afraid of words that aren't true. Laurie, however..."

"Laurie?"

"She visited unexpectedly and saw Oliver. She went after him with her umbrella, actually. He left the house running. Then she came after me with her words." Cate's voice shook. "You know how she can be."

"Ah, yes. She's not known for her honeyed tongue. Don't take it to heart, Cate. I think she likes you, actually."

It was the first time anyone had suggested that to Cate, and she had certainly never suspected it herself. She thought back, with some confusion, over Laurie's behaviour recently. Perhaps it was true. There had been several times she had defended Cate from her mother's harsh criticisms or otherwise distracted the conversation away from them. And sometimes she would come by to see Luke, then stay to join whatever activity or conversation Sarah and Cate had been involved in. It certainly wasn't Sarah whose company she lingered for.

Perhaps they had been making friends, but after today, after what Cate had said about Wynn, that was all ruined.

Tears pricked at Cate's eyes, and David's waistcoat buttons blurred. She blinked and sniffed.

"Oh, Cate. Don't cry." He rubbed her arm. "She doesn't ever mean half what she says."

"It's not that. It's not just that." Cate wiped her face with the sleeve of her dressing gown. "She said Sarah's in love with you."

Almost instantly, she realized that that made it seem like that was what she was crying about. As soon as she realized it, it became something else to cry about, and more tears came cascading down her cheeks.

David's hand stiffened on her arm. "Sarah's not in love with me."

"Isn't she? Why did she stay here so long when Wales obviously bores her? Yet when you were going to go back to London, she wanted to go as well. And sometimes, she's very familiar with you. The more I think about it, the more I think Laurie's right."

David fell silent while Cate wiped her tears and tried to regain control of herself. After a little while, he moved away, went to a chest of drawers, and took out a handkerchief, which he gave to her. She patted her face dry, hoping her eyes were not too swollen or red.

"To tell the truth, I sometimes suspected she had feelings for me," he said. "Then I thought perhaps I was being conceited for thinking it. And when Laurie spoke of it to me, she said instead that Sarah wanted to believe I was in love with her which made her jealous of you."

"Why do you think a woman would want to believe a man in love with her if not because she loved him herself? What reason would she have to be jealous of me if not for love of you?"

David shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "Laurie might be wrong."

"But she's not, is she?"

"Sarah has never seriously acted upon her feelings. And if she did, you know I would not encourage them."

"I know. I know." Cate took a deep breath to calm her nerves. "But, David, I think she needs to be actively discouraged. She's been here for three months already on the slenderest of hopes that, what, a married man might return her feelings? That hope must be broken somehow. You must tell her... something. Please."

David looked at her, a deep line between his brows. "I'll talk to her tomorrow."

"Thank you." Cate swallowed the last of her tears. "Good night, then."

She pressed the handkerchief into his hands. Rather than taking it, David held her hands for a moment, looking thoughtfully at her, then he pulled her close and gave her a swift, warm hug.

"Sleep well, Cate."

* * *

After his conversation with Cate, David found it hard to sleep. He woke late the next morning and delayed dressing and getting up. Shortly before noon, he finally emerged from his room and came downstairs to his study. There were some reports from Benson on his desk which he read over coffee. Then he read them again, just in case he had missed something. Through the window, he could see Sarah pottering about in the garden with her easel and paintbrushes. She never seemed to move far out of sight of the window. It only seemed another piece of evidence against her. He shifted his chair so his back was to the window and tried not to think about it. The garden wasn't the place for such an awkward conversation anyway.

In fact, he was good at delaying awkward things that he managed to avoid both Sarah and Cate until nearly dinner time. Then, it occurred to him that he had no excuse today for dining out of the house and that he could not dine with Cate without having had the conversation with Sarah first. Reluctantly, he went up to Sarah's room when he knew she would be dressed and just about to come down. She was sitting at her dressing table, putting some finishing touches to her hair.

"David! What a surprise!" She stood up as he entered. "Do you need me?"

"Only to talk," he said.

"You can talk to me about whatever you wish," she said warmly. "Is something your mind?"

"Yes, actually. Something is on my mind, and Cate's mind, and also Laurie's mind."

The warmth of her expression cooled a little. "Oh. What then?"

David realized he should have planned out in advance how he was to approach the matter, for there was no easy way to say it. "Um. We think... that is... Sarah, what do you think about me?"

Her eyes shone. This was definitely the wrong way to go about it. David cursed his own foolishness.

"If I were to describe you to a friend," she said, "I would say that you're a very decent sort of gentleman, a man of honour and kindness. You've a strong, intelligent mind, and, moreover, a wonderful sense of humour and wit. You are always making me laugh."

"That is high compliment," David said, "but that's not what I meant, Sarah. I wanted to know... forgive me for there is no easy way to broach this subject, but I wanted to know if you are in love with me."

There, it was out. Sarah stared agape at him.

"Laurie suggested you were jealous of Cate because you were in love with me, or wished that I were in love with you," David said. "And sometimes I did wonder myself if there was not something abnormal in your manner towards me."

"Abnormal!" Sarah flushed scarlet. "Is it not normal to hold affection for one's cousins?"

"Certainly, but Cate is a little uncomfortable with the way you behave around me. She thinks you are too familiar for a cousin."

"Then she must be the jealous one! It is always the way, with these unfaithful women. They see in other women the flaws they feel in themselves."

"There won't be any talk of that," David said sharply. "She has never been unfaithful to me since we married."

"But before—"

"I said there won't be any talk of that."

Sarah closed her mouth tightly and turned away. For a long time, she was silent.

"It's not fair," she said at last. "That is what I think of you. We grew up together. We were friends. I knew you would inherit Plas Bryn one day. My home. Which, if I had been a boy, I would have inherited myself. It wasn't fair that I should lose it, so it seemed natural, proper, that one day you would marry me. And then we were adults. You were in the army, so of course we could not marry yet. You might get hurt, or die and leave me a widow. I could not bear the thought. Then my father died and you inherited and quit the army. I thought then something might happen. You were in London, and so was I. You even came to visit me the first day you arrived in London. I remember that. You said you would visit again the next week. You did not. You must have forgotten. So the week after that I came to you, and you told me that you had some very happy news, you were engaged to be married. I had been waiting for you all my life. And you chose someone else. You're not fair, David. You're just not fair."

David stared at her. "You can't mean it. You haven't been in love with me all this time."

"I don't know. I just know that I never considered in all my life marrying anyone else. You were the only one."

"Because of Plas Bryn. What if I had been killed in the army and Paul had inherited?"

"But that didn't happen."

But it very well might have. And if it had, would Sarah have transferred her expectations to Paul? It seemed more than likely.

On walking into Sarah's room, David had not intended to make this an argument. He had thought to gently draw a confession from her and even more gently let her hopes down. But she was not in love with him. She simply coveted his inheritance. What distant sympathy he had for her withered into angry contempt.

"In all my life, Sarah, I never once considered marrying you. Your expectations were hopeless and unfounded on any vestige of reality. I cannot even apologize to you. I have done nothing to encourage your delusions."

"Delusions! Am I the deluded one? You married a woman who bore another man's child and you hate her so much you cannot even bear to consummate the marriage."

"I don't hate Cate. But that isn't even relevant to this. Sarah, there was never the remotest prospect that I would ever marry you. The way you're behaving now is only proving that."

Sarah laughed bitterly. "Yet you married Catherine the adulteress and dote upon her baseborn son. My pride stings."

"But your heart is unbruised, which only proves that you don't really love me. It was only Plas Bryn you wanted."

"Perhaps I don't," she said coolly. "But whatever I feel for you, it is more than Catherine does. The only man she ever loved was James Redwood. She told me so."

The arrow fell so absurdly far from the mark that David laughed. "She never loved Redwood, and she certainly never told you that she did. Don't lie to me about Cate. I know her too well to believe any such nonsense. Luke's father is nothing to her but a mistake and a painful memory."

Sarah narrowed her eyes. "You sound very sure."

"I am." David went to the door. "Forgive my inhospitality, Sarah, but I would rather not see you at dinner tonight. You lied to me, you see. I will have a tray sent up, unless you insist on coming downstairs, in which case I think both Cate and I will dine in our rooms."

"Oh, I'll stay here. I know when I'm not wanted."

"Not really," David said politely. "Good night, Sarah."

He left the room. There would be other problems to deal with in the morning, no doubt. It would be more comfortable for everyone if Sarah left soon, but thankfully she was not really in love with him. That was one awkwardness averted.

He was halfway through the gallery when he heard Sarah's footsteps behind him and turned.

"What now?" he asked.

"You're very certain that she never loved Redwood."

"I am."

"But then you said, 'Luke's father' like it was a different man. Is it, David? Is Redwood not the father? Are you the father after all? Is that why you married her? But that doesn't make sense either. You'd have married her before the baby was born. Is there a third man?" Sarah laughed. "How many men have there been?"

David schooled his face to be still, afraid she could read his thoughts through his expression. "You should go back to your room before you embarrass yourself, Sarah. Jealousy is never pretty."

"Ah, then that means..."

"And keep your mouth shut about my wife in future. I chose her over all the other women in England. Remember that, if you have any desire to remain my cousin, let alone my friend."

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2023-06-4: Oh, look a hug. A hug? Why aren't they kissing already? What's stopping them at this point?