Page 29 of The Marriage Debt
‘My father married twice,’ he began slowly. ‘His first marriagewas childless and his wife died when he was forty. He married my mother a few years later and he was forty five when I was born.’ He watched her attempting to calculate his own age and did the addition for her. ‘He is now seventy three. Not possibly the most flexible of ages for dealing with prodigal sons. I have a younger brother, Robert, who was obedient where I was rebellious, dutiful where I was arrogant, sober where I was a rake.’
‘Were you?’ She was leaning forward, engrossed in his story, her hands still in his, her eyes alight with interest. ‘I’ve always wanted to meet a rake.’
‘Well, you are married to one,’ he responded somewhat grimly.
‘And your father? Has he lands? Or an occupation? The church perhaps?’
Katherine was warmed by the sudden flash of humour that transformed Theo’s face, the first real smile she had seen for days from him. She smiled back, not understanding the joke, but happy that he was amused. ‘What is so funny?’
‘The thought of my father in the church. Robert would make an excellent cleric, that I can believe. No, my father…farms.’
‘A large farm?’ He was telling her so much she did not want him to stop now.
Again, that flash of amusement. ‘Yes. Large. But up in Northumberland that is the way of things. The land is less fertile and the climate hard, so you need more land.’
She thought she was beginning to understand. ‘And you did not want to be a farmer?’ She could believe all that energy and pride and courage would not sit well with the need to worry about the Spring sowing or the routine of stock raising. ‘He will be glad to have you back,’ she said gently. ‘He is an old man now, he will need your help. What would have happened if you hadnever gone back?’
‘If I had dangled for a few more minutes from that rope, you mean? Or simply continued on my undutiful way?’ There was the darkness back in his eyes and unconsciously she tightened her grip on his hands. ‘After seven years of no news I could be presumed dead in law and Robert would become the heir. Doubtless he would make a much better fist of it than I.’
‘Do you not like your brother?’ His voice had been bitter.
‘Like him? I love him, no-one could fail to. I was not being sarcastic – he truly should have been born first. He was a good boy, he will be a good man now.’
Katherine’s heart twisted. So much bitterness, so much pride. ‘Youare a good man,’ she said impulsively, lifting her hands so they brought his up against her cheek. She met his eyes, dark and intent on hers, saw the harsh twist of his mouth soften and the sensual lips curve into a smile.
‘You are a sweetheart, Kat,’ he said softly, opening his fingers so they spread on her cheek, cradling it gently. ‘So sweet.’
Something inside her slipped, moved. She felt dizzy for a moment, surely her heart should not be beating like this? Then, as she turned her face instinctively into his caressing hand it hit her with the force of a blow. She was in love with Theo Lydgate. In love with her husband who was no husband and who must never be.
Chapter Eleven
Katherine knew she should move away from those gentling hands, break contact with those expressive eyes. Theo must not know how she felt or she was certain he would feel honour-bound to their strange marriage.
She looked away with an effort that left her breathless and sat back in her seat, releasing his hands as she did so. ‘They will be so happy to see you again,’ she said with a bright smile. The feel of it on her lips reminded her of the determined expression she would use to assure her younger brother that he had nothing to fear from a visit to the tooth-puller. Inside she had an unpleasant feeling that it was just as false a hope that Theo’s homecoming would be painless.
Theo raised one brow quizzically: he was clearly not convinced either. ‘I am putting all my reliance upon my father being so charmed by my beautiful wife that he forgets my numerous sins.’
Katherine blushed. She was not beautiful, she knew that. Her chin was too pointed, her eyes too big, her hair was too dark to be truly fashionable and her manner far too independent and forthright to appeal to an elderly patriarch, even if he managed to look beyond the staggering debt she had brought to the marriage.
‘There is no point in flattering me,’ she said briskly. ‘I do not believe you, and in any case your father is going to have far too much on his mind to notice anything about me except the numerous disadvantages of the situation.’
Theo settled back against the battered squabs and regarded her seriously. ‘I have told you before that you are beautiful. Why do you not believe me?’
‘You told me I resemble a cat,’ she pointed out. ‘And I know Iam not in the slightest in the fashionable mode. I am far too used to having my own way–’
‘Surely not,’ Theo interrupted. ‘Your life recently appears to have consisted of anything but self-will and indulgence. You have no close friends that I am aware of, no money, no life of your own. You have been an unpaid housekeeper for years and somehow you seem to have remained dutiful in the face of your brother’s outrageously selfish behaviour. If that is having your own way, then our definitions of it must be very different.’
‘I am too managing then,’ she amended, trying not to let him see how his ruthless description of her life affected her.
‘I am sure my father will approve of that.’
‘Will that be before he learns of my debts and the annulment, or afterwards?’
‘There is no need to worry about the debt, I told you. And we agreed to leave the annulment for one month after we arrive in Northumberland, didn’t we?’
‘But we must tell your family,’ Katherine protested.
‘Why?’ he asked.
