Scandal's Child by Sherrill Bodine Page B

right?”
    Blinking rapidly, she nodded. “Yes, a walk in the garden will be just the thing before retiring.”
    Following them from the dining room where Jacko and Saville already had moved to the fireplace with their port, Hannah yawned. “Kathryn dear, would you mind if I failed to join you? I find traveling so exhausting.”
    “No, Hannah, you go on up. We shan’t be long,” she called back, rushing to keep up with Caroline who was already out the side door and into a moonlit garden.
    “Oh, look at all the stars!” Caroline sighed, twirling around on the crushed rock path. “And there is the most pleasant scent in the air.”
    “This is an herb garden.” Kat bent lower to the plants. “Here are rosemary, thyme, and fennel. Over there I smell mint. The French are much more clever in their use of herbs for cooking.”
    “Oh, Kathryn, you are so knowledgeable.” Even in the pale moonlight Kat could see how woebegone Caroline’s little face had become. “No one ever taught me about such things. I don’t even know how to plan menus for a household. Sir George’s housekeeper always did so and before that, Papa.”
    Impulsively, Kat gave the smaller girl a hug. “Perhaps when we reach the château I shall be able to give you some pointers.”
    “Oh, wonderful!” Caroline clapped her hands, suddenly animated again. “You will soon be the mistress of the château so you will be taking inventory of the linens and the kitchen. You can show me just how to go on. Oh, what fun we shall have! But here I am, going on like a chatterbox, just as your brother said!”
    “Don’t be taken aback by Jacko.” Kat smiled. “He is simply accustomed to dealing with me and our sister, Mariah. He is a bit spoiled I’m afraid.”
    “Oh, he doesn’t bother me a bit,” Caroline said breezily. “You are all being so kind I would be a poor creature indeed to complain of anything. I’m only happy that we are all so comfortable together and that your brother can treat me like a sister.”
    In all her twenty years Kat had never heard another female speak so offhandedly of her devastatingly handsome brother. Intrigued, she couldn’t help but laugh softly. “You are very unique, Caroline.”
    “Oh, because I am not enraptured with what an Adonis Lord Thistlewait is?” She sighed, a trifle dramatically, Kat thought, smiling in the darkness. “I believe I prefer older gentlemen.”
    The smile was quickly wiped from Kat’s face at the idea that this young girl might be developing a tendre for Saville. It was a very uncomfortable thought.
    “Perhaps that is why I was so foolish with Sir Edmund. But I have learned my lesson.” Thrusting her tiny nose into the air, Caroline stared at her with wide serious eyes. “I shall not be so quick again to think myself attached. I will wait until I meet someone like the comte and we fall in love like the two of you.”
    Kat could not quite meet those wide trusting eyes so she looked down. She discovered, much to her chagrin, that she must have dropped the small reticule that had hung around her wrist.
    “I’m such a peagoose,” she muttered, glancing around at the shadowy foliage. “Caroline, could you fetch me a lantern or a candle? It seems I have lost my reticule.”
    “Oh, my, yes. I shall return in a trice.” Lifting up the hem of her blue dimity dress, Caroline fairly flew into the inn.
    Kat bent over, brushing aside some unruly mint stalks, hoping to spy the small mesh bag. Really, Willy was right. Kat was shockingly careless with her belongings, and this had most definitely gotten her into the suds. If she hadn’t left Jacko’s note just lying about, Willy wouldn’t have followed her, and they all wouldn’t be in this shocking coil.
    Hearing footsteps on crushed rocks, she straightened, turning.
    “How quick…” The words died on her lips as fear bounded into her throat, cutting off her sentence.
    Blocking the pathway to the inn door was Sir Edmund Trigge, the