Page 44 of The Marriage Debt
The clock that was on the landing outside struck, time passed, it struck again, and again. This was ridiculous, she was fixed there like a rabbit mesmerised by a stoat. Now she was so tired she knew she could not sleep, she seemed to have passed beyond exhaustion into some kind of dream state.
A book, that would help. Katherine threw back the covers and slid out of bed, jolting herself painfully as she forgot the height she was at. But the room revealed not a single item of reading matter. She knew where the library was: dare she go down and find a book?
Katherine shrugged herself into a wrapper. Anything had to be better than sitting sleepless in this ice-cavern of a bedchamber, and no-one would be about at this time of night. Her slippers appeared to have vanished, so with chamber stick in one hand she opened the door and slipped out into the corridor.
It seemed she had much to learn about life in a ducal home. Candelabra stood lit at each turn of the corridor and she saw a soft-footed servant making his way methodically along them trimming wicks, presumably just in case the duke or one of the household decide to take a night-time stroll.
Katherine blew out her own candle and drifted silently along the tortuous way to the stairs in the wake of the footman. He continued on and she ran lightly down, only to freeze at the bottom at the sound of light snores. A pair of legs protruded from the deep cowl of the porter’s chair by the front door, its occupant unstirring as she made her way across the hall and through the library door.
Even here there was a branch of candles on a side table by the fireplace and the fire itself was alight, banked up behind a wide brass screen. The great winged chairs on either side looked warm and inviting, the most homely sight she had seen since sheset foot in the mansion.
Books were everywhere, filling the shelves, in piles on the floor and heaped on tables. She began to turn over one pile, delighted to find it consisted of novels, and recent ones at that. She took two at random, then went to curl up in the nearest wing chair, tucking her feet up under her with a little sigh of pleasure. Books had always been a refuge when having to think about, and face, reality became too much.
Katherine flicked open the first book and found it was the first volume of Scott’sWaverley.Good, she had missed that last year. She leaned forward to set the other volume on the table next to the candlestick and almost dropped both in shock.
‘Hello, Kat. Is the fire warm enough for you?’
It was Theo, leaning back in the shadowed depths of the other wing chair, enveloped in the dark folds of a silk dressing gown, a glass of brandy cupped in his hands.
‘Oh! You… I had no idea you were here, that anyone was.’ She swung her legs down and began to get to her feet. ‘I am sorry, I will go.’
‘No, sit down, please, Kat. I did not want to scare you away. What brought you down here? If the fire in your room has gone out, you only have to ring.’
‘I wanted a book to read, that is all. And I wouldn’t dream of disturbing the staff at this hour of the night.’
Theo shrugged. ‘Someone is always on duty.’
‘It seems ridiculous, on the off chance that someone might want something at two in the morning. I’m sorry, that was rude of me, of course his grace must order his household as he sees fit. This is his home, your home.’ Home sounded a hopelessly inadequate word for this place. ‘Palace,’ she corrected herself.
‘Does it seem like one to you?’ Theo sounded amused. ‘I suppose I just think of it as normal. I was brought up here, played in the corridors, fought the suits of armour, climbed upthe ivy. Fell off the ivy,’ he added with a grin. ‘And into the lake.’
‘It is magnificent,’ Katherine said, ‘It is not that I do not appreciate it, just that tonight I needed somewhere cosy.’
Cosy,she chided herself.What a ridiculous word to use.
‘Was our cell cosy?’ Theo asked, the smile still in his voice.
‘Our cell?’ Katherine laughed. ‘How wonderfully domestic that sounds. I should imagine no-one has ever thought of a Newgate cell with any affection before.’
‘Do you think of it like that?’ She was becoming used to the flickering firelight now, could see the lines of his face etched by the light and shadows.
‘Yes,’ she said, then caught herself, surprised. ‘Yes,’ She repeated slowly. ‘It was…safe. I was so frightened before – of the debt, of what Philip had done, of what was going to become of us.’
‘Of me?’
‘No, never of you. Never from the moment I saw you,’ she said vehemently.
‘Why ever not?’ Theo twisted in his chair so he could look directly into her face. ‘I must have looked terrifying.’
‘Your eyes were not. And you are…big. That is reassuring. And I just felt that if anything threatened me you would stand in the way and whatever, whoever, it was, would never get past you.’
‘Then let mekeepyou safe.’ He was on his feet in a swirl of rich, dark silk, the firelight glinting off his hair, raising red lights in it. He looked magnificent, angry, barbaric and Katherine’s heart missed a beat. ‘Forget this nonsense about an annulment and let this marriage stand.’
‘No.’ She stayed in her chair, it was too dangerous to get closer to that male energy, that powerful force. ‘It would be wrong. I take marriage very seriously. I have the example of my parents to guide me and I will settle for nothing less than a love match and a marriage of equals.’
‘You are a stubborn woman.’ He came to a halt in front of her, silhouetted against the flame so she could not make out his face as she stared up. ‘I could, so easily, ensure you could never get your annulment.’
‘And you would never force me. We discovered that last night,’ Katherine said, keeping her voice steady with an effort that hurt.
