Page 107 of In the Prince's Bed
“How I feel has nothing to do with it.” He finally looked at her, and she saw a struggle in his eyes. “My God, how you’re going to hate me.”
“Don’t be silly,” she said, her fear growing. “How could I hate you when I just said I love you?”
“It won’t be hard, trust me. There’s something I—”
Before he could say more, someone tried the door, then pounded on it.
“Go away!” Alec called out as Katherine tensed up. “I’m ill!”
When a moment of silence passed, she relaxed…until she heard the lock being turned. Someone had found the key she’d thrust under the door.
Katherine dragged the covers up to her chin just as the door was flung open, and her mother stood there, looking surprisingly fierce.
With a curse, Alec sat up. “Hello, Mrs. Merivale.”
“Don’t you hello me, you…you fiend!”
“He’s not a fiend!” Katherine protested.
Mama’s furious gaze shifted to her daughter as she rounded the bed on Katherine’s side. “You silly fool!” Mama snapped. “For a woman who prides herself on her clever mind, you can be amazingly stupid sometimes.”
Alec glared at her mother. “Don’t blame her for this—it’s my fault. It’s all my fault.”
“Believe me, I know it,” Mama retorted. “You made sure she had to marry you, didn’t you? She might still have caught Sir Sydney, but you had to ruin her, you…you devil!”
Katherine grew more confused by the moment. Why was Mama bent on Sydney all of a sudden? She sat up, dragging the cover tightly about her breasts. “Iwantto marry Alec, Mama. You know that. We were going to marry in a day or two anyway, so I don’t see why you’re so angry.”
“You don’t see—My word, how can you be so blind?” Her mother hadn’t looked this furious since she’d caught Papa in the stables with one of the dairy maids. “If I’d thought you would be up here with him doing this…I swear I would never have left you alone with him for one minute.”
“Oh, please,” Katherine said with a snort, “you’ve been trying to arrange my doing this ever since we met the man.”
“Not after we got here, and I realized he must be a fortune hunter.”
“Don’t be silly, Alec isn’t a—” She broke off, realizing that he wasn’t leaping to defend himself. She turned to look at him, her blood chilling as she saw the alarm in his face. “Tell her, Alec. Tell her you didn’t know about my fortune.”
“I can explain, Katherine—”
“He has no money, and you expect a fortune upon your marriage,” her mother interrupted. “Do you think that’s just coincidence?”
“Perhaps,” she whispered, though she began to see her mother’s point. Especially when Alec was looking at her with such dread. “But you said you didn’t tell anyone, Mama. So how could he have found out?”
“Oh, I don’t know, girl,” her mother said impatiently. “Perhaps he spoke to your father’s solicitor or one of his creditors or—”
“Mr. Byrne.” As the light dawned, Katherine’s heart sank. She remembered when Alec had spoken privately to Mr. Byrne in the hall—could the man have explained then?
“Yes!” her mother cried. “Come to think of it, that night we were at Lady Jenner’s ball, I saw him speaking to the man. I assumed it was one of those conversations gentlemen have about cricket and war and nonsense.”
“You knew him even then?” Katherine asked Alec. This grew worse and worse. If Alec had known Mr. Byrne from the night he’d first met her—“You knew him even before you met him at our house and pretendednotto know him?”
He winced. “Yes.”
She thought she might be sick. All of his sweet words and courting had been for money?Hermoney?
“So…so you and Mr. Byrne plotted this from the beginning? Oh, of course you did.” And she was every bit the fool Mama said. “He wanted his money; you needed a fortune. It was an alliance made in heaven.”
“It wasn’t like that,” he protested.
“Oh?” Her hopes crumbled around her more with his every word. “You didn’t court me for my fortune?”
