Page 5 of Lord of the Hollow Court
But "oh my" was not a yes. Katty leaned in, eager for more.
"I had not expected this," Katrina said, flapping her hand in the absence of a fan.
"Say yes," Ichabod urged, eyes large and adoring.Adoring her fortune is more like it,Katty thought bitterly.
"Except—it is only—oh, do excuse me!"
Katty's breath caught. Katrina was coming this way. She wasfleeing!
Katty had just enough time to duck around the planter as Katrina ran through with little more than a pretty flush on her face despite her indecorous behavior. Just diving to the far side of the chrysanthemums was enough to leave Katty's hair in disarray, but she didn't dare touch it. Ichabod had followed Katrina, catching her hand.
"I must have an answer," he implored.
"Oh, my," Katrina floundered, as though, at eighteen and with a very great fortune behind her, she had not once considered marriage. "You see, it is only—"
"Yes?"
"That my father—"
"Yes, Katrina, my love?"
Katrina shook her head. "You see, Mr. Crenwell, it's just that—I'm afraid I thought usfriends."
Confusion knit Ichabod's brow. "What can you mean by making that sound a disadvantage?" Katty cringed behind the chrysanthemums. He was using hisschoolmaster'svoice. "I think, upon reflection, you'll see that friendship is the very finest way to begin a marriage. I will speak to your father."
“Please don't!”
Katty stuffed her fingernails into her mouth, biting them so she would not squeak with glee. Finally, Katrina's mask would drop. Ichabod would see what Katty did—the spoiled, impetuous child behind the flawless, ladylike demeanor.
"I do not love you," Katrina said flatly, an edge of determination in her voice.
"Rest assured," said Ichabod. "It will come with time."
"But I do not wish it to!"
Ichabod frowned. Perhaps he was picturing the de Vries’s wealth slipping through his fingers, because he grasped her arm again. "Don't be silly, Katrina. I will make you a very fine husband, and you a good wife to me."
"Let go of me!"
Katty flinched. Something had changed. Katrina sounded genuinely distressed. Should she reveal herself?
With an inward curse that would have seen her mouth washed out with soap, Katty stepped out from behind the chrysanthemums, mind racing for how to interrupt the pair without revealing herself as an eavesdropper.
"My answer is no," Katrina said just as Bones stepped onto the balcony. She yanked her arm viciously from Ichabod's grasp, which, it seemed, was not so very tenuous. From the way his hand hung in the air long after Katrina had fled to Bones’ side, it rather seemed a desperate thing.
As Bones flashed a wicked, victorious grin at Ichabod Crenwell, Katty spared a gentle thought for her friend. If she thought Bones would make a good husband, or was any less after her fortune than Ichabod, Katrina was in for a heap of misery—after her beautiful wedding and months of admiring talk amongst the gossips of Sleepy Hollow, of course.
Still, Katty's shoulders drooped. She'd revealed herself for nothing.
And drooped a little further when Ichabod's eyes, wide enough to show more of the white in the manner of a spooked horse, roved over her.
"You," he exclaimed.
"Me," Katty said with uncertainty. She curtsied awkwardly. "Good evening, Mr. Crenwell."
Ichabod's eyes bulged. "You were there the whole time!" His gaze turned inward, a school-masterly muttering taking place beneath his breath. From within the de Vries' ballroom, Bones called loudly for Katrina to sing for the guests. "Why, this was all some kind of jest! She didn't mean it at all."
"Mr. Crenwell, wait!" Katty knew Katrina was too kind to fool with a man's feelings like that—at least not for long. Her robust soprano wound through the patio, snatches of lyrics of the folk songKomt vrieden, in het rondenreaching her ears.
