Chapter 4
At some point, without even realizing it, he had stopped thinking of Katherine as a substitute, stopped thinking of their marriage as a duty. He had thought that one day they would truly have a life together.
Then Samantha came back.
Divorced. Pale. Fragile. Alone.
The moment he saw her again, all the old feelings he thought he had buried began stirring under the surface. He knew there was no future there, knew the past should have stayed in the past, but when he looked at her—so thin, so lost, so dependent on him—he could not stop himself from wanting to take care of her.
As for Katherine…
Katherine was his wife.
She would always be there, wouldn’t she?
She would always wait for him to settle Samantha’s affairs, to soothe Samantha’s emotions, to clear away the unfinished debris of an old story. After that, he told himself, he would come back to Katherine properly. He would make it up to her. He would treat her twice as well. They had a lifetime ahead of them.
That was what he had always believed.
But now, looking at Katherine’s utter indifference, the way she seemed almost willing to push him away, that certainty suddenly cracked.
He opened his mouth, wanting to say something—an explanation, a promise, anything at all.
Just then, her driver came hurrying over.
“Ma’am, the wheel on your carriage cracked. It won’t be repaired anytime soon. I’m afraid it can’t move.”
By then, a fine cold drizzle had begun to fall from the gray afternoon sky.
Nicholas glanced upward, then said at once, “It’s fine. Samantha and I came in our carriage. We’re headed back to the estate anyway. You can ride with us.”