Page 109 of In the Prince's Bed
He looked stricken. “That will be difficult once we’re married.”
She gaped at him. “You still expect us to marry? You took a harder blow to the head than I realized if you actually think I’d marry you now.”
“Be sensible.” He left the bed to jerk on his drawers. “You’ve been compromised, and you need the money as much as I do. I know you’re upset, but in time—”
“You don’t know a blessed thing about me if you think I’d live one day with you after this.”
A cold stillness came over him as he faced her. “You don’t mean that.”
“I most certainly do.”
“But what about your father’s debts, what about—”
“I don’t care about all that, don’t you see? I’d rather rot in debtors’ prison than stay with a man who made me think he cared for me when he only wanted…” She broke off with a sob and turned away, not wanting him to see her tears. Shaking with the effort to restrain them, she dragged on her chemise, then picked up her gown.
“Please, sweetheart, I do care,” he said hoarsely. She felt him come up behind her, but when he slid his arms around her waist, she shoved them away.
“I know you can’t believe this now,” he went on in a rough whisper, “but I meant what I said about not being able to imagine anyone else as my wife. I wanted you from the day we met. And I swear I’ll make this up to you for the rest of our marriage, if that’s what it takes.”
“We arenotgetting married!” She whirled on him, her anger so intense that just the sight of his handsome face notched it higher. “And your promises and…and lies won’t work on methistime.” Yanking her gown on, she fumbled with its fastenings. “You can forget about any marriage between us.”
“You can’t just throw away what we have together,” he choked out.
The stark pain in his face gave her pause. But she knew better now than to believe anything he said. “And what exactly do we have?” Hastily, she slid on her shoes. “A collection of lies and deceptions, that’s all.”
“Katherine, I never meant to hurt you so badly.”
His look of remorse only fired her temper higher. “No, you thought we would marry, and you would jolly me out of my anger with your seductions if I ever discovered what you and Byrne had plotted.” When his guilty look told her she’d hit it right on the mark, she went on more coldly, “What a pity for you that you weren’t alone in wanting my fortune. But at least Mama is honest about what she wants.”
He stiffened. “So what do you mean to do? Marry Sydney? Who didn’t fight for you, whose mother disapproves of you, who—”
“I don’t know what I’ll do,” she snapped to stave off the cruel flow of his words. “But I’d rather make one of those awful marriages of convenience with an honest fortune hunter than marry a man like you.”
His eyes turned deadly cold. “You mean a man who would do what he must to restore his estate, protect his tenants, and save his servants from poverty?”
She forced herself to ignore that very valid point. “You didn’t have to lie to me about it. You should have told me you needed to marry a fortune—”
“And then you would have leaped eagerly into my arms?” he growled. “You, who won’t trust any man because of your blasted father?”
“That’s not true! I trusted Sydney—”
“Because he never got close enough to make younottrust him. You could always keep him at arm’s distance. You liked him precisely because you knew he would never hurt you. But he wouldn’t move you or challenge you or—”
“Leave Sydney out of this!” she cried, hating that he knew her so well.
“Why? He’s your idea of the perfect man, isn’t he? God forbid you should risk your heart on a man who breaks your blasted rules about how a courtship should run and what a husband must be.”
“Don’t youdaregive me all that nonsense about how wonderful it is to break the rules and how dreary my life is because I follow them.” She gave up on buttoning her gown and crossed her arms over her chest. “I don’t mind your breaking the rules. I even admire you for it sometimes.”
She choked back the tears burning in her throat. “But breaking rules is one thing, and breaking hearts is quite another. You broke my heart to get what you wanted, and for that I can’t forgive you.”
The fight seemed to drain out of him. “I went about this all wrong,” he admitted in a low voice. “But I thought it was the best way to handle it. My parents married because of Mother’s money, and they never had a real marriage because that always stood between them. I thought that if you and I got to know each other first, then once you found out—”
“It wouldn’t matter? I wouldn’t be hurt? Don’t you understand? How can I ever separate the things you said to win me, from the things you said to win my fortune? I doubt evenyoucan do it. And that’s nothing to base a marriage on.”
“Then what about basing it on love?” he bit out. “You said you loved me.”
“That was when I thought I knew who you were. But I didn’t know anything about you at all.”
