Page 60 of Courting Claudia

“It covers everything but your head and the aforementioned erotic toes. I have a confession to make, and all I can think of is bedding you.”

She swallowed, then tried to speak, but her voice failed her. Clearing her throat, she tried again, “You have a confession? Oh goodness, you want an annulment.”

“God no. What gave you that idea?”

She shrugged. “Figured you’d come to your senses.”

“Come sit with me.” He patted the bed beside him. “I won’t bite you, I promise.” He flashed her a toothy grin. “Unless you ask me to.”

She complied, but sat far enough away from him so that they could not touch without one of them moving.

“Claudia, we’re married now. Nothing will ever change that. I meant my vows.” A frown creased his brow. “I need to know that you meant yours, too.”

“Of course I did.”

He shook his head. “All right, I’m going to come right out with it. I’ve lied to you.”

“You didn’t mean your vows?”

“No, not just now. I meant that. I lied to you before.”

“Was it for a good reason?”

“That was not the response I was expecting. Is there ever a good reason to lie to someone?”

“I’ve never been certain of that myself. My mother, on occasion, lied to my father. She claimed she wasn’t lying, she was merely withholding information from him. I admit I’ve done the same. Obviously I did not tell him about my position with the paper.” She picked an imaginary piece of lint off her nightgown. “I suppose that’s horrible. To lie to your father.”

“No, I don’t think that’s horrible. We need to discuss that more. Your father, I mean, but not right now.” He rubbed his temples. “I lied to you about courting you.”

She felt the color drain from her face. “You were never seriously courting me. You never intended to win my hand in marriage.”

He didn’t answer, but the expression on his face said it all. She’d guessed correctly. All along, her doubts had been well founded.

How could she have been so stupid? She knew, deep inside, that he’d never wanted her, not really, but she’d wanted to believe it so badly, wanted it to be true, that she ignored her mental protests and blindly accepted his words. His betrayal scalded her. She wanted to hit him, which surprised her, because she’d never even considered physical violence in the past.

Her second thought was to leave. To simply gather her ridiculous nightgown around her and hail a hackney to Poppy’s house. But she was a married woman now, and while she was no longer tied down by her father’s command, she couldn’t leave Derrick on a whim. He owned her.

So she ignored both impulses and settled on the only words that would come to her. “I suspected as much.”

“I had an excellent reason. In the beginning. Or perhaps we could call it a purely selfish reason, but then something changed.”

“What was your reason?”

“Your illustrations. You told me that day you came to my office that you would have to quit when you got married. I decided to court you to prevent you from marrying anyone so that you could continue working for me.”

“An excellent reason, indeed. A very selfish reason. I would very much like to box your ears at the moment.”

“Go ahead. I deserve it.”

She closed her eyes to try and ease the anger, but it did not help. And oh, she felt the utter fool. She sent a brief prayer heavenward that the floor would simply open up and swallow her whole. Free her from this mortifying moment.

But nothing happened. She was still here, in his bedchamber wearing her nightclothes and feeling very much like an arse, if a lady could in fact, feel such a way.

“Did you intend to court me forever and never present me with the opportunity to marry another?”

“To be honest, I hadn’t really thought about it. I didn’t know you then. At first you were merely a means to an end. Do you realize that your illustrations are the reason the aristocracy started buying that paper? Before that it was a paper for the common man.”

“Is that not why you created the paper in the first place? To offer a worthy newspaper for the lower educated and lower income people?”

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