Miss Impractical Pants (21 page)

As Katie and Sidney walked away, she heard Lucas snap, “Well, Olivia, it looks like you’ve been outclassed.”

There was a low murmur of consent around the table as Olivia silently watched Katie exit.

“What a bitch!” Katie spat when she and Sidney were tucked away in the car. Remembering her manners, she added, “Sorry.”

“Aye
pet, that
she is. I should have known,” Sidney apologized, his Northern accent miraculously reappearing.

“Geoffrey, wait!” Lucas called as he came trotting out a minute behind them.

Katie stiffened as he slid onto the seat next to her. Away from the social pressure, she could feel her fury mounting, and there was plenty of it to divide equally between Olivia and Lucas.

He put his hand on her arm. “Katie, I’m really sorry. There is no excuse for—”

She jerked her arm out from under his touch. “Please don’t talk to me,” she whispered.

“Katie, I—”

“Please,” she insisted even more quietly.

She sat erect, staring straight ahead out the windshield, allowing Sidney to gingerly pat her hand. Like clockwork, the tears were building behind her eyes. It was all she could do to hold them back
.

As if he could feel her determination not to cry, Lucas eased the attention from her by speaking to Sidney—or maybe just himself. “I feel sick with guilt for subjecting Katie to…to what? Olivia? I’ve never seen this mean-spirited side of her before. Have I? I’m beginning to understand the sour expressions and cryptic remarks made at the mention of her name.”

The sound of his cell phone ringing, much too loudly for the confined space, interrupted his reflections. He fidgeted awkwardly, trying his best not to touch Katie as he wriggled his phone from his pocket.

“Bollocks,” he muttered under his breath, glancing at the number, then answered it. “Yeah, hello Mum… I’m sorry. I didn’t think… We went to the Waverlys’ charity ball… You’re where
?…
Of course, of course you are,” he said with a sarcastic note. “Listen Mum, it’s not a good time right now. We’re in the car on our way back and we’ll be at Sidney’s soon. Can you wait until then to bite my head off
?…
Yeah, love you, too.”

He hung up and looked at Sidney.
“Looks like there’s been a change of plans.
Mum’s come into town. She’s already settled herself at your place.”

Sidney chortled. “You didn’t tell her you were keeping our Katie, did you lad?”

Lucas shook his head. “She’s in a right snit—took the first train from Yorkshire as soon as Andrew returned alone.”

“Well, Katie, love, this day just gets more and more eventful for you,” Sidney sniggered.

Katie’s eyes softened and she responded with a feeble smile.

Seeing that her mood had lightened, Lucas took her hand, which she instantaneously recoiled and tucked away under her folded arms. She resumed her intent stare out the front window and stayed in her brooding position for the remainder of the ride.

***

“Whoa, Avery didn’t tell us he’d sent a bloomin’ princess!” Lottie Hayden threw a demonstrative hug around Katie. “Hello Miss Katie, I’m Lottie.”

Katie took in the short, fashionable woman and smiled, allowing Lottie’s enthusiasm to thaw her anger.

“Sounds like you’ve had quite a day,” Lottie noted.

She turned her slender, nearly five-foot frame on Sidney and Lucas and gave them a lighthearted reprimand. “She was supposed to be
my
new playmate. Avery promised
me
a niece to dress up and show off. And you two already beat me to it! That wasn’t a very nice thing to do to your Mum.” She sashayed over to Lucas and caught him up in a tight embrace, her head not quite reaching his chest. “How you doing, Chicken?”

Not waiting for a reply, most likely because her mother’s intuition told her that her son was not doing well, she went to Sidney and planted a kiss on both of his cheeks.

“Hello love.
Happy to see you again.”

“And you,” Sidney smiled.

Rounding her full attention once again on Katie, Lottie continued her inspection.

“Well, didn’t these boys do a brilliant job? You look ab-so-lute-ly fabby, darling—just fabby! And would you get a load of those ivories—straight outta Hollywood, those are.” Lottie perched on her tiptoes, squeezing Katie’s cheeks together for a better look at her teeth.

Before Katie could say thanks, Lottie let out a screech.
“Bloody hell, Sidney!
These are the Chatworth diamonds!”

“So I’ve just learned.”

“Why am I not surprised that after sixty-odd years of obscurity, you produce them out of your arse?”

Sidney blew out a long breath. “Upon my soul, I’ve never before heard of the bloody Chatworth diamonds! I assure you, I am just as astonished as everyone else.”

“Lordy, I can’t believe you boys sent her into London society for the first time wearing these! I’ll just bet she stuck out like a dog’s bollocks.”

Katie shuddered, not so much from being compared to canine genitalia, but from the accuracy of the statement. 

“Was it so bad, dear? Did those status-stalking arseholes eat you alive?”

“Just one,” Katie retorted, casting an angry glare at Lucas.

Lottie turned an accusing scowl on her son. “What has your fiend—I mean your fiancée—done now?”

Lucas’s jaw set. Ignoring the question, he crossed the room and plopped down on a chair.

Katie hoped someone would change the subject. The last thing she wanted to hear was more talk of Olivia. In the awkward silence, Sidney slid toward to the next room, beckoning Lottie to follow. Katie got the feeling Lottie wasn’t following out of obedience or concern for their privacy—she seemed eager for dishy details—but she trotted after Sidney and disappeared.

“Katie, I feel horrible,” Lucas began.

Katie snapped her head away from him.

“Please
Katie,
let me make it up to you.”

“I have never been treated so hideously.”

He was straining to hear her words. She hadn’t turned her head back to face him; she wouldn’t let him see her cry. Especially since she didn’t know herself if they were angry tears or tears of humiliation.

“I know. I’m sorry.” His fingers twitched.

At the thought of Olivia, she snorted. “Funny, isn’t it? You asked me to help protect you from the wolves tonight, and the only wolf I saw was the one you’re marrying, and it was my jugular she was after.”

“It’s
all my
fault. I had no idea Olivia could be…I didn’t know she was so...I didn’t know. I’m sorry. For what it’s worth, thank you.”

The good news was she’d found Lucas’s flaw: He had horrible taste in women. She knew he couldn’t be that perfect.

“I want to go to bed now, I’m tired.” She sighed and started for the stairs. “Please tell your mom and Sidney goodnight for me.”

Once safely in her room, Katie traded Greta for her fleecy pajamas. Wrapped in a bundle of softness, her world, though it was all going wrong, began to feel a little right. For the first time since her toilet promise, keeping Jared as her boyfriend felt like the right thing to do, and she felt an ache in her heart to have him comfort her. In her hurt and confused state, she was able to imagine a Jared who knew all the right things to say.

Her moment of self-pity was interrupted by a soft knock at the door. Pulling herself together, Katie called to her unseen visitor to enter.

Lottie cracked the door and hesitated before poking her head inside, her maroon boy-cut hair framing her tiny face.

“Katie, may I sit with you, or would you rather I just bugger off?”

“Of course not…come on in,” Katie invited, glad to have friendly company.

“Is there anything I can do, flower?” Lottie took a seat on the oversized bed, the fluffy duvet swallowing her bottom half.

Katie shook her head. “No, I’m fine. I don’t know why I’m so upset.”

“I know why—you’ve met my soon-to-be dragon-in-law,” Lottie smirked, patting the spot on the bed next to her as an invitation for Katie to sit.

Katie accepted. “It’s not that. Well, partly that…but normally someone like Olivia wouldn’t get to me. I think it’s probably a mixture of PMS, jet lag, and thinking about my boyfriend.”

“A dangerous combination for a woman’s nerves.”
Lottie put an arm around Katie’s shoulders and pulled her into a hug. Katie couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a genuine maternal hug. She wished she could stay in Lottie’s embrace forever.

“Don’t think I’m letting you off the hook from telling me all about this boyfriend.” Lottie winked and squeezed Katie tighter. “But right now I want to talk about something else. I don’t want Olivia to drive you away. We’re so excited that you’ve finally come to us.”

Katie felt the sincerity of her words and a guilty lump rose in her throat. “Thank you, Lottie. I already love your family. But after tonight, I don’t think I can work for Lucas.”

A look of concern crept across Lottie’s face. “I was afraid of that. I can’t say I blame you. I’m not going to try to change your mind. But we can still keep the other half of the arrangement.”

“What other half of the arrangement?”

“That you will stay on in me home and be me new playmate.”

Katie hesitated. She didn’t even want to be in the same county should Lucas and Olivia pop by for a visit.

Lottie read her mind. “Olivia wouldn’t stoop so low as to be caught dead any further north than Nottingham. You’d be seeing Elton John posing for
Playgirl
before you’d find Olivia knocking on me door. Charles and I are not her kind of people.”

Katie had to admit that the idea of staying with Lottie sounded more appealing than going back home with her tail between her legs. Especially since everyone had gone through so much effort to get her here.

“We’d have to find some way for me to earn my keep—
if
I were to agree. Can I sleep on it and give you an answer in the morning?”

“Of course you can, dear. I’ll let you go right to sleep so you’ll have plenty of time to dream about how much fun the two of us will have.”

Lottie gave Katie a gentle kiss on the top of the head and pranced toward the door. Pausing before exiting, she added, “I heard what you did tonight—with the Waverlys and the hotel. Lucas is very thankful. And the rest of us are very grateful to you, too.”

Katie gave her a puzzled look.

“Because of you, he finally saw her for what she really is. We’ve been trying to get him to open his eyes to that ogre for years.”

“But I didn’t do anything,” Katie protested. “I was just there to be a warm body.”

“Sometimes that’s all it takes.”