Ha! Kitty tilted her head. “Really?” Had he completely forgotten what they’d just discussed?
She dodged sideways to make her escape but he blocked her flight, gripping her shoulders. Holding back an unladylike growl, she glared. “Nathaniel, let me pass.”
“Not until I can make you believe that I don’t want to change you—and not until you tell me who this Higley fellow is. I am most curious.” His chin lowered and he looked at her with the condescendence of an older sibling, ready to scold her for stealing a sweet.
How dare he! She let out a sharp laugh refusing to dignify his question with an answer.
Yanking from his grasp, Kitty marched down the hall.
Nathaniel followed directly behind. “Where are you going?”
She stared forward, her breath heating with each exhale. “Home.”
He pulled on her shoulder to stop her. “By yourself?”
She jerked to a halt. This time she did look at him, praying the barbs she threw from her eyes made their mark, but from the irritating smirk he failed to hide, her invisible weapons did nothing. “Aye, by myself.”
He shook his head. “If you’re leaving, then I’m escorting you home.”
“You are not.”
“You may be stubborn, Kitty Campbell, but I cannot allow you to walk home—”
“You absolutely will. I am at liberty to do as I please, am I not? I have the right to refuse to be escorted by a thick-headed patriot missionary.”
***
“Kitty wait!”
Dumbfounded, Nathaniel started after her then dropped his hands to his sides and watched as Kitty hurried down the hall and escaped through the front door. Headstrong girl. What was she thinking going home at night by herself? Was she really so angry that she would refuse his gentlemanly offer to see her safely home? Ridiculous. He should run after her and see she made it home no matter how she snarled and scratched.
Wiping his hand across his jaw, he shook his head and went back into the library to collect his scattered pride before having to enter the party as if nothing had happened. Staring into the fire, he hoped to commiserate with the only witness of the scene, but instead the flames scolded him with every popping spark. He balked as if the reprimand were audible. What could he have done different? He’d come to apologize, but she wouldn’t give him a chance.
Indignation burrowed into his chest as another cheery melody began in the ballroom and fluttered its way down the hall and into the library. Blast. Where was his buoyant spirit, his unyielding vim? Glaring at the fire that still chided him, he pressed the palm of his hand into the smooth wood of the mantel. Of all the women in Sandwich, why did it have to be Kitty who riled him so? Traitorous emotions.
“There you are.”
Nathaniel spun at the sound of Thomas’s voice and glared. “Where else would I be?”
Thomas entered, looking around the room, his brow slanted. “You seemed to be taking an excessive amount of time so I thought I’d come to make certain you two weren’t arguing.” He motioned forward. “So—did you make amends?”
Nathaniel stood motionless, mouth agape, producing only small, stunted grunts as he struggled to find the best way to describe the bloody mess.
Thomas’s timbre dropped. “What did you do?”
“Me?”
“Of course, you must have done something or you wouldn’t be standing there like a bumbling fool.” He looked around again. “Where is she?”
Thomas’s incriminating tone flicked away the last remaining thread of Nathaniel’s good humor. He brushed past Thomas and stomped toward the door. “The same place I’m going. Home.”
“She went to your home?” The shock in Thomas’s voice would have been amusing if Nathaniel had been in the mood.
“No,” he said, whirling around. “She went to your home, and I’m going to mine.” Pausing, he ground his teeth and released a rough exhale. He had to get out of here. He had to try and figure out why his conversation with Kitty had both his head and his heart spinning like a child’s toy. “Give my apologizes to your wife.”
He made a quick escape down the hall before Thomas could protest and before being witnessed by any unwanted attention in the ballroom. Plunging into the clean night air, he took long breaths to cool his heated blood. Did Kitty really think he saw her as only a “number”? Gads, it was as if she didn’t know him at all.
Nathaniel kicked at the dirt as he stomped toward home. Even though he knew her convictions were misplaced it didn’t give him the right to make her feel uncomfortable. He growled. Besides, it wasn’t as if he’d said anything wrong. She took it wrong.