Then she remembered bolting the doors and realized that her curtains had never been drawn the previous night. No one had come into her room. Her temper flared again. Clearly Douglas did not care enough about her welfare to come and see how she did. No doubt he was out and about, enjoying the fine spring morning. Not that she wanted to see him, of course, or would heed him if he demanded entrance. But he did not. The only person to tap at her door was a maidservant with her breakfast tray. Mary Kate’s first inclination was to refuse to let her in. She wanted to see no one. However, before she spoke the words that would have sent the maid away, she realized she was famished. Believing it advisable to keep up her strength, she admitted the girl and fell to her meal with good appetite. Then she dressed and went to the chair by the window in her sitting room to give deeper consideration to this business of marriage. Punishments suffered at her father’s hand had rarely caused her much pain or brought more than a momentary afterthought, but her confrontation with Douglas had been another matter altogether.
