Page 5 of The Marriage Debt
Then his eyes met hers and he was quite simply a man in desperate trouble, a fellow human being that she and Philip were using for their own convenience.
‘I wish to speak to Mr Standon privately.’ Her voice sounded unnaturally calm to her own ears.
‘I am not sure that is wise, ma’am.’
‘I will speak to him,’ she insisted walking forward, past the highwayman and into the far corner of the room. ‘Mr Standon, please.’ Her legs shook.
He followed her, chains clanking, stood with his back to the room shielding her and raised one eyebrow interrogatively. ‘Yes, Miss Cunningham?’
Katherine regarded him, startled. He was so well spoken. A gentleman turned highwayman? It happened, she had heard of cases. ‘I want to know why you have agreed to this,’ she said, keeping her voice low. ‘What possible benefit to you can there be in it?’
The dark eyes held hers and laughter lines crinkled at the corners. ‘It is an improvement on sitting in a dark cell for twenty four hours a day.’
‘That cannot be all,’ she said impatiently. ‘If you had some dependents I could promise to take care of, I would do my best by them, despite my circumstances, but my brother says you have no-one.’
‘I have no-one who needs your help,’ he confirmed and she wondered at the sudden grimness in his voice.
‘Then why?’ She was not going to be fobbed off, suddenly it was important to know why this condemned man should put himself out in any way for her.
The laughter lines were back, and with them a new note in the deep voice. ‘I have to admit that the prospect of tonight was apowerful incentive, Miss Cunningham. Once I had seen you.’
‘What do you mean, tonight?’ Her heart was beginning to thud. He could not mean...? No, surely not.
‘A legal marriage requires two things, Miss Cunningham. A wedding ceremony and the consummation of the union.’
Katherine felt the blood draining out of her face and the room began to swim. She staggered and his hand was under her arm. She blinked, steadied herself and withdrew from him. ‘I must speak to my brother.’ Turning, Katherine stalked across the room and took Philip firmly by the arm. ‘Outside please, and you too, Arthur. Excuse us, Mr Rawlings, Reverend.’
The corridor outside the office was deserted. Katherine turned on the two men, her voice shaking with outrage. ‘You did not tell me this wedding would have to be consummated! What are you thinking of? How can I possibly give myself to a man I do not know, a convicted criminal? Am I supposed to retire to his filthy cell for the night? Is that what you expect? Because if that is the case let me tell you, you are far and away out.’
‘Katherine, please calm down,’ Arthur took her hand. Furious, Katherine swatted him away. ‘The moneylenders will have their spies in here. This is not an uncommon occurrence. If they can find grounds to contest the marriage and pursue their money, believe me they will.’
‘And they promised me he will have a bath and a shave first,’ Philip added, flinching at the look his sister sent him. ‘And a nice cell…’
‘Anicecell? And what does that consist of, pray?’ She had to keep her anger fuelled or otherwise she was going to give way under the wave of fear and embarrassment which threatened to swamp her. ‘House trained rats and tasteful sackcloth hangings?’
‘No, it is a proper room, Katy, like a room in a good inn, I promise you. It has just been vacated by one of the better-offdebtors.’
Katherine took a few hurried steps away from them until she could rest her forehead against a bookcase which stood in the corridor. Behind her she heard Arthur say, ‘Leave her for a moment.’
The tears welled up in her eyes and she blinked them back, but not before two escaped and ran down her cheeks. She scrubbed them away and tried to think. What was the alternative? To end up in this place herself with no prospect of release? Put like that, the choice seemed relatively simple.
She supposed a young lady should be prepared to die rather than surrender her virtue in such circumstances, but was it so very different from the young girls whose families married them off to men old enough to be their fathers, or to some dissolute rake for money or dynastic reasons? Like them, she would be married. And, for some reason she could not define, the condemned man in the other room made her feel ridiculously safe.
‘Very well.’Do it now,an inner voice urged.Do it while you have the courage of your anger.Without looking at the two young men she threw open the door into the office and went in to find herself in the middle of an argument between the prisoner and a very flustered chaplain.
‘The name on the Licence is incorrect, I cannot proceed.’
‘That is my name.’
‘Your name is Jack or John Standon.’
‘That is what they call me.’ The prisoner reached out a hand and laid it on the Bible that the chaplain had placed on the desk. ‘I swear upon this book that what is written there is my true name.’
There was sincerity in his voice which appeared to convince the clergyman almost as much as the oath had done. ‘Very well, we will begin. Let us go down to the chapel.’
The ceremony passed like a strange dream for Katherine who was aware only of the hand holding hers as Philip stepped forward to give her away, the tall presence next to her and the sudden shock of hearing his real name.
‘Will you, Francis Theodore Charles Lydgate, take Katherine Susanna Cunningham…’
