Page 53 of The Marriage Debt
‘You make my point for me.’ Theo unclasped his arms and fell back on the grass with a deep sigh. ‘Bliss. The last time I lay on my back in a field I had just had my second horse shot from under me and I was lying in a pool of mud.’
‘Waterloo? Was it dreadful? I’m sorry, that is a stupid question, of course it was.’
‘It was perfectly bloody. Literally bloody. It is not easy to speak about. You’re the only person I have ever talked about it with.’ He fell silent.
‘Any time you want to tell me more, I will listen,’ she promised. They remained without speaking for a while. Katherine threaded more daisies and, finally satisfied with the length of her chain, linked it into a circle and dropped it on Theo’s dark head.
‘What?’ He opened his eyes and reached up to feel what she had done. ‘Baggage. I suppose if I had not realised, you would have let me put my hat on top and ridden off.’
‘Of course. Theo, how did you know how I would react when I discovered the truth about you? I might have had hysterics on the spot.’
‘No, not you. I knew you would be angry with me – you had every reason, even though I did it for the best. You would never have left London with me if you had known. I expected you to give my head a washing the moment we were alone, but I had every confidence that you would deal with a duke with every bit of the courage and aplomb you showed in dealing with a highwayman.’
‘I was too tired, too overawed to do more than accept whatwas happening, I suppose.’ She tucked his praise away into some secret part of her mind to take out and look at later. ‘And between you, you and your father made sure I spent much more time with Robert than with you. It is too late now to shout at you and throw the china.’ She began a second daisy chain. ‘I like your brother very much.’
‘Father remarked that when you are no longer married to me you could marry Robert.’
‘What?’ The fragile links of flowers tore in her hands. ‘MarryRobert?’
‘I believe he was trying to pique my jealousy.’
‘Oh.’ Katherine subsided. To think of marrying anyone, anyone at all, after Theo was impossible. How could she when she loved him so much and always would? Then her mind caught up with her hearing. ‘Jealous? Why should your father believe that suggestion would make you jealous?’
Theo shrugged. ‘He likes to tease us, to pink us neatly with the point of his wit and watch us dance a little. He very rightly assumes that I do not relish being reminded that my wife does not wish to remain my wife and that I am frustrated in my efforts to provide for her.’
Yes, not jealousy so much as pride, she realised. Possessiveness and the rivalry that must always exist between healthy young males, even when they are devoted brothers.
‘I am growing very fond of Robert,’ she said primly. ‘But as a brother. I would as soon marry the duke as him.’
As she had intended, this provoked a gasp of laughter from Theo. ‘Now thatwouldcreate some talk. A May and December match indeed. You are teasing me, Wife. I suspect my father is a very bad influence on you.’ He got to his feet held out a hand to her. ‘Stop sitting on grass that is doubtless damp and come and tell me what you think of the Dower House.’
Katherine waited to see if he would remember the daisychain. He did, hooking it out of his dark hair and holding it dangling from his fingers for a thoughtful moment. ‘I should be giving you jewels, Kat.’
‘No you should not,’ she retorted, gathering up Lightning’s reins and concentrating on holding them as he had shown her. ‘I do not want to be indebted to you for anything more than I can possibly help.’
Theo boosted her up into the saddle, checked her seat was secure and went to mount the black gelding. ‘I know. I do wish you would let me look after you.’
‘You are doing so, very well. At least,’ she added doubtfully as Lightning pricked up his ears and started to take more of an interest in the open parkland in front of them, ‘at least you will be if you can stop this animal going any faster than a slow crawl.’
‘You just have to show him who is in charge,’ Theo said encouragingly.
‘That’s the trouble, he knows.’
Theo laughed at her gloomy tone. ‘Never mind your fierce steed, what do you think of that?’
Thatwas a perfect little gem of a house, all soft grey stone and sparkling windows, nestling in a fold in the hillside, protected by a grove of trees and with its own miniature lake reflecting it back to itself.
‘Oh, Theo, it isenchanting.’
‘I think so,’ he agreed gravely. ‘I am glad you like it. Wait until you see the inside.’
‘Are there staff in residence?’ There was no smoke rising from the tall chimneys.
‘No, I sent to have it opened up this morning, but it is completely unoccupied now.’
Katherine stared as they approached, trying to absorb every detail. Something about the little house tugged at her. Was it just that Theo was so obviously in love with it?
He halted in front of the portico and swung down from the saddle, looped his horse’s reins over a bush and came to lift her down.
