The Lady Who Broke the Rules by Marguerite Kaye

they have imagined it, it is so very unlikely. It doesn’t even seem real to me.’
    ‘That a duke’s daughter should kiss a freed slave, you mean?’
    She shook her head impatiently. ‘That someone like you would find someone like me even remotely kissable. I am not the type of woman men want to kiss, I know that. Besides, what can I ever be to you? Your life is so different from mine you may as well come from another world. You are here to see our village school. Castonbury is but a stopover on your route north. It is known that I have an interest in abolition. Why should people put any other construction on our being together? It is ridiculous, that is what I meant.’ Kate nodded, quite satisfied with this explanation, now she came to think of it.
    ‘Ridiculous,’ Virgil repeated slowly. ‘Ridiculous that we could possibly mean anything to each other, is that what you mean?’
    ‘Well, I suppose so.’
    ‘Though that doesn’t stop me finding you extremely kissable.’
    ‘But that’s probably why you do. Because it’s so unlikely.’
    ‘You have a very low opinion of yourself, Kate.’
    ‘A very accurate one, Virgil.’
    ‘No. You are quite unique.’ He caught her hand and pressed a kiss on her palm. ‘But you are quite right too,’ he said, smiling down at her. ‘It is so impossible that it is almost laughable. You think that’s why we are attracted to each other?’
    Was that relief in his voice? Was he, then, just as confused as her? It was true, Virgil being the antithesis of everything her family would deem eligible added a frisson to their kisses, but it wasn’t all there was. ‘Each other,’ she said with relief, only just realising what he had admitted. ‘It’s not just me?’
    ‘I thought that was pretty obvious.’
    She was going to blush again. She was twenty-four years old, and quite beyond blushing. Kate consulted the little gold watch which she wore on a fob at her waist. ‘We must get on. I promised Giles I’d set whatever must be done to the Dower House in motion this afternoon. Our new sister-in-law—if that is indeed what she is—is expected within the week.’
    She was right, again. It was just a kiss. An aberration for both of them, and they now had a perfectly reasonable explanation. No point in discussing it further. It couldn’t mean anything. It was just a kiss. Virgil nodded to himself and made haste to follow Kate off the bridge.

Chapter Four
    T he path they were following went round the side of the house, joining another, wider but overgrown, which led in one direction back to the disused gatehouse where they had stopped yesterday, in the other to a copse of trees, behind which the mellow sandstone of a building could be glimpsed. They made their way through the copse of oak trees, and onto the approach to the Dower House. Kate walked quickly, her arms swinging out by her sides, easily keeping pace with Virgil’s long-legged stride, the skirts of her habit flying out over the weed-strewn gravel.
    The Dower House was built of mellow sandstone, with a pillared portico, two stories under a very low roof and very long windows in the old French style reaching almost to the ground. It was shuttered, and had about it an air of neglect, with weeds clogging the approach and a fretwork of ivy working its way along one of the side walls up into the eaves. Several large shrubs were so overgrown as to make the path which wound round to the north-facing garden impenetrable.
    ‘These will need to be cut back,’ Kate said, producing a large iron key from the pocket of her habit. Though it fitted easily enough into the lock, it would not move. Kate swore under her breath as she wrestled with it in vain. ‘I don’t think anyone has been here since Cousin Frederica died.’
    ‘Let me try.’
    ‘It needs oiling,’ Kate said stubbornly.
    Nudging her aside, Virgil turned the key easily. She glowered, caught his eye and was forced to laugh. ‘Very impressive,’ she said