Page 115 of In the Prince's Bed
Katherine bristled. “I didnot!”
“You made him think you wanted him for himself. When you really wanted him so you could access your fortune.”
“That’s not true! IlovedSydney.”
“Did you? Then why did you let Lord Iversley court you? Why did you accept his proposal of marriage and let him bed you? Your love for Sydney couldn’t have been too strong if you tossed it aside for Lord Iversley’s attentions.”
Her first instinct was to strike back at her mother for putting her in such a cold light. “I tossed it aside because you wanted me to marry soon, and Sydney would not marry…well, he seemed not too eager, and…” She trailed off as the validity of her mother’s words hit her. “No, that’s not true. I mean…it is true, but Sydney did offer for me at the party. And I refused him.”
Seeing herself through her mother’s eyes, she felt ashamed. She’d used Sydney ill. Long before she’d fallen in love with Alec, she’d deceived Sydney about her feelings for Alec, merely to provoke her friend into marrying her. Just as Alec had deceived her about his own true feelings to tempt her into marrying him.
And she’d done it for what? To avoid trouble. How was that any different than Alec?
“I’m not saying you were wrong, mind you,” her mother went on. “You wanted to marry Sydney so you could make all our lives more comfortable. But that was his lordship’s reasoning, too. He wanted to make all his tenants’ and his servants’ lives more comfortable. So why do you blame him?”
“Because…because…” Because she loved him. And she wanted so badly for him to love her. She wanted to believe the sweet things he’d said and done, and now she couldn’t. How could she live with a man whose every word she suspected?
She wasn’t sure she could. One thing she did know—she’d behaved badly to Sydney. He’d deserved better from her.
Turning on her heel, she strode toward the door.
“Where are you going?” her mother said.
“I have to apologize to Sydney for how I’ve wronged him.”
“Do you think he’ll still have you?” her mother asked hopefully.
Katherine started to snap out a hot retort, but caught herself just in time. “It doesn’t matter if he would, Mama. I could never marry him now. You were right—I never really loved him. And I treated him almost as badly as Alec treated me. But the answer to that isn’t to marry him without loving him. That wouldn’t be fair, either.”
Now that she knew how much it hurt to be wanted for something other than oneself, she couldn’t bear to think of anyone else suffering the same pain. And perhaps by seeking absolution for Sydney’s broken heart, she could learn how to live with her own.
***
In a frenzy, Alec rode Beleza toward the Lovelace town house. This would probably be his last time to ride the Lusitano. If Draker came to London at Alec’s summons, he’d soon arrive at Stephens Hotel to claim the horse.
But if Alec could get Katherine back, nothing else mattered. And since she had run right to Sydney upon her return to London, that was by no means certain.
When Mrs. Merivale had told him where Katherine was, he’d cursed a blue streak. Hearing that the woman he loved had turned to another man for comfort had briefly shaken his confidence. But Alec refused to lose her now.
At last he reached Lovelace’s town house in Mayfair. Alec wasn’t terribly surprised to find it a costly building of understated elegance. If he hadn’t spent the last month assessing the price of improving his estate, he might not have realized just how costly. But as he dismounted and strode up the marble steps, he was painfully aware of the probable expense of procuring each finely crafted slab and hiring craftsmen talented enough to lay it so perfectly that no joint showed and not a single chip marred the surface.
Thiswas what he meant to take Katherine away from? This easy wealth and secure position with a man whose temperament suited her?
Damned right he did.
Sydney might suit her in some ways, but the man didn’t love her. And that kept Alec climbing those expensive marble steps, pushing past the footman in fine livery who tried to turn him away at the door, and striding through halls papered in silk until he located the drawing room.
He didn’t know what to think when he saw Molly standing outside it. Katherinewashere, and clearly she was alone with Sydney. He brushed past the maid and into the drawing room.
Where he found Katherine crying on Sydney’s shoulder.
His low, involuntary moan drew their attention instantly. At the sight of him, Lovelace turned hostile, but Katherine’s reaction was harder to read. She sat in the curve of the baronet’s arm with her chin trembling, her nose red, and her eyes swollen by tears.
She’d never looked more lovely.
His heart twisted in his chest. It didn’t matter that she was with Sydney. He refused to let her go. “Katherine, may I please speak to you alone?”
Lovelace stood to put himself between them. “Haven’t you done enough? Can’t you just leave her be?”
