Page 28 of The Marriage Debt
Katherine could feel the icy stare behind her and watched appreciatively as John looked bland and Jenny gazed round the yard, apparently entranced by what the stable boys were up to.
‘Very well.’
Katherine stepped up to the coach and waited modestly to be handed into it. She kept her eyes down to hide the amusement in them and waited for what Theo would say next.
Nothing, appeared to be the answer. She flickered an upward glance through her lashes and saw him regarding the passing street scene from under lowered brows. Her amusement died as irritation returned.
‘Why are you avoiding me?’ she asked abruptly.
That seized his attention at least. The dark eyes fixed hers and she saw a flash of anger in their depths. ‘I am not avoiding you, Kat. I could not leave John to drive day after day.’
‘And you could not be bothered to speak to me in the evenings?’
‘Bothered?’ Theo’s face cleared and he leaned over and took both her hands in his. Her pulse fluttered and raced. ‘It was not that, Kat, I am sorry if it seemed so. I have been…preoccupied and not good company. And you looked tired.’
As he said it Theo realised that telling any woman that she looked tired was not a remark likely to pacify her. The hands he had trapped in his stiffened, Kat’s chin rose and the pansy-brown eyes hardened.
‘I can assure you that I have felt nothing more than the usual slight fatigue to be expected after sitting for hours on end in an uncomfortable coach. Certainly nothing that would have prevented me holding a conversation.’
Rebuked, he fell back on part of the truth. ‘This is an unconventional journey, I thought it wiser to keep my distance during it. After all, you are a well-bred young lady, I imagine that a long journey in the enforced company of a man would not be to your liking. Especially as we have been staying in inns which are not of the first respectability.’
Except last night. That had been a risk. Kat was going to find out the truth soon and he acknowledged that he was not looking forward to her realisation of just what she had married into.
‘You are my husband,’ she pointed out, her eyes downcast. Theo regarded her narrowly, unable to read her mood.
‘For a few weeks only,’ he reminded her and was unprepared for the flash of anger in her eyes as she looked up.
‘So what you really mean, and are tactfully circling round, is that it is better if we keep our distance in case anything occurs which prevents our marriage being annulled?’ she said sweetly. ‘I really have no fears that you are likely to make assaults on my virtue and jeopardise our release from a situation which I persuaded is as distasteful to you as it is to me.
‘Especially,’ she added with a flash of fire, ‘when you have been entertaining yourself last night in much more congenial company than that of awell-bred young lady.’
Theo sorted through his emotions, discovered that amusement was uppermost and grinned, apparently infuriating his wife further. ‘I can assure you, my dear Kat, that John and I indulged in nothing more carnal than a large beefsteak pie, rather too much Yorkshire ale and a disappointing cock fight. I have to admit that John did wink at a comely redhead, but thatwas as far as our encounters with the fair sex went.’ He added fatally, ‘There is nothing for you to be jealous of.’
‘Jealous?’The icy hauteur in her voice would have frozen water. Theo sat back, abruptly releasing her hands and found that this new Kat was every bit as intriguing as all the others he had encountered. An aloof cat who any minute was likely to spit and claw, he decided appreciatively.
‘I have no reason to be jealous of what you do, sir. We are, after all, nothing to each other.’ That hurt, an unexpected swipe of her claws. ‘We have nothing emotional between us,’ she corrected meticulously. ‘Naturally I am deeply grateful to you for your help with my debt, but that does not mean I wish to arrive on your father’s doorstep after having had to spend nights sleeping in this coach because you have spent our resources on expensive inns and gambling on cockfights.’
Now he was beginning to sense what was upsetting her. ‘We have enough money,’ he assured her. ‘The inns north of here are far from luxurious and I do not gamble on cockfights. I wager little these days,’ he added meeting her disbelieving stare. ‘Real life produces more interesting games of chance.’ And he recalled only too clearly the time when his entire livelihood depended on his skill with cards to want to repeat the experience for amusement.
Kat produced the sound he thought of as her infuriated-kitten noise.
‘Will you not tell me what is really upsetting you?’ he pressed.
‘Very well.’ The sparkle in her eyes was more anger than unshed tears. ‘I am about to arrive – penniless – on your family’s doorstep knowing not the first thing about them other than that your return is likely to be difficult for all concerned. Not only have you married without your father’s blessing to someone completely unknown to him, but I bring with me a vast debt and the prospect of disgrace and scandal. Then, however delightedhe will be to see me gone from your family he can hardly welcome the prospect of an annulment.’
‘Kat.’ He tried to take her hands again but she batted his away.
‘And I have absolutely no idea how I am going to support myself and my servants, let alone pay off this debt.’ Theo opened his mouth to speak, but she was before him. ‘And I donotmean I want you to help me. This ismyproblem andmydebt. All I meant was that I would have welcomed discussing it so that I have some plan to lay before your father. I would not have him thinking I will be a burden upon him for the world.’
‘You do not think that saving his son’s life entitles you to some support and assistance?’ Theo enquired mildly.
‘I did not help you because I wanted a pension. And to accept being a burden simply because of an act any humane person would see as their duty…’
That was another swipe from her claws, and one she did not even realise she had delivered. ‘So you rescued me simply out of a sense of duty?’
‘Of course.’ Her head was averted now, but her chin was still up, then he saw her expression soften, just a little. ‘I believed in your innocence and you had treated me much better than my situation deserved.’ Suddenly she moved to face him, reaching out her hands to take his. ‘I am sorry, but I feel better for that outburst, I have to confess. Theo, please tell mesomethingof what to expect.’
Her bare hands in his were small, soft, yet, as his fingers closed over them, he felt their strength and determination too. He sought for some words to satisfy her that would leave all the difficult matters untouched. Soon he was going to have to sacrifice his pride and confront the past, but not yet, and by then he hoped she would have given up this nonsense of an annulment.
