Page 50 of Christmas at the Castle
Kat would never associate Gill with the word coddled.
“Surprised?” he asked.
“Yes. Neither you nor your mom seem like the coddling types.”
His smile remained. “That may be true now, but my mother was very hands-on when we were younger, in spite of each of us having a nanny. Lots of hugs and kisses and playing on the floor.”
Kat wished she’d had a taste of that from her mom. “Must have been nice.”
He nodded. “My mother might not appear to be the warmest person, but she loves us, and I have no doubt she would do anything to protect Sophie and me.”
Another warning? Kat hoped not.
She liked hearing there was more to Queen Louise, who appeared so controlling and opinionated. Kat would take a mother like her over one who wasn’t around. “You’re fortunate she cares so much.”
He glanced at his watch and then stood. “I must return to my office.”
“I’ll go back to admiring the ornaments on the tree.”
Gill hesitated. “Those are part of my father’s legacy.”
“How so?”
“He didn’t like themed trees, so he proclaimed no decorators were allowed to hang the ornaments on the sitting room tree. Only family and a few longtime staff members like Jennings and Claude.”
“What a wonderful thing for your father to do.” Kat remembered Sophie’s stories about him. Before he passed and after. Losing her grandparents so close together, and then Sophie’s dad dying after that, had brought them closer, even though they lived far apart and very different lives. “That’s what makes this tree perfect.”
Gill’s gaze traveled from Kat to the tree. “Nothing is perfect, but this comes close.”
With that, he turned and walked out of the sitting room.
This was the second time he’d walked away without saying goodbye. Third, if she counted last night, except she’d been asleep.
At least they’d spoken pleasantly just now. No disagreeing. That would make Sophie happy. And strangely, that made Kat happy, too.
*
Later, in hisoffice, Gill signed documents at his desk, but his mind was elsewhere. He couldn’t stop thinking about Kat. She wasn’t what he expected, and he was having trouble reconciling the woman he’d spoken with earlier that afternoon to who he believed her to be.
He’d been walking by after playing fetch with Maximillian when he saw her standing at the tree. The backdrop of the lights and ornaments had been picture perfect, and he’d wanted a closer look.
Her apology for not believing him had been unexpected. Nor had he thought she’d say anything less than flattering about the queen, but he’d appreciated Kat’s politeness and honesty.
His mother could stare through a person as if they weren’t there. What his mother didn’t say often had more meaning than if she’d spoken.
He gave Kat credit. She was both observant and sharp. In some ways, she reminded him of the teenaged girl from camp. He’d tried many times to get a rise out of her, but he’d always failed. No doubt because of Sophie.
But he couldn’t decipher who Kat was now, and that bothered him.
The office door opened, and his mother strode in. The skirt of her blue evening gown swished around her legs. She wore a tiara from the royal collection.
“I should have known you’d still be working,” she said. “It’s almost dinnertime.”
He rose from his desk that had once been Jacques’. Before his mother’s coronation, when his grandfather was still alive, she’d used this desk, too.
Gill walked around to the front to greet his mother with a kiss to the cheek.
“You look lovely.” The scent of her signature perfume—the same fragrance she’d worn for as long as he remembered—hung in the air. “Are you going out?”
