Page 95 of In the Prince's Bed
She shifted her gaze to his. “I’m here with you, aren’t I?”
Why was she telling him this? To remind him that she had other choices? Or show him how much she’d given up to be with him?
He chose to believe the latter. Drawing her close, he stared at her country-girl face with its sunny freckles and trembling mouth and vulnerable eyes. “Listen to me, Katherine, and listen well. I will do my best to keep you from regretting your choice. I promise to be a good husband to you. You needn’t fear on that score.”
She searched his face. “And I promise to be a good wife. I only hope that you and I agree on what that is.”
“I’m sure we do,” he said as he enfolded her in his arms.
Though she let him hold her, he wasn’t certain he’d convinced her. Never mind. He only had to keep her content until he got her to the altar, and that would come within the week.
He was in the final stretch of the race. Nothing short of an act of God could stop him from reaching the finish line now.
Chapter Twenty-three
Remember that women are unpredictable. Just when you think you have them under your thumb, they will appear where you least expect, wagging their tongues.
—Anonymous,A Rake’s Rhetorick
“You know that you’ve lost your mind, don’t you?” Katherine’s mother said two days later from across the hired carriage.
“I know.”
She really did. The closer they traveled to a tiny village called Fenbridge, the more insane this trip seemed. Yet she had to make it. She had to find out what Alec was hiding.
Because sheknewhe was hiding something. Otherwise, why not let them go with him to Suffolk?
Her stomach tightening with every mile, she stared out at the forest they passed. His reluctance simply made no sense. If he was so eager to bring her home with him to begin their life together, why not do it at once?
Unless his trip to Suffolk had nothing to do with the spring planting.
She shook off the thought that plagued her constantly.
She’d made the mistake of leaping to conclusions before—she wouldn’t do it again. But neither would she head blithely into marriage to a man she couldn’t trust. Until she was sure she knew all his secrets, she couldn’t marry him. And the only way to do that was to go to his home and see what he seemed determined to keep hidden.
“Really, my angel,” Mama said as she bounced on the uncomfortable seat, “I don’t understand why you’re doing this. First you insist upon our visiting some fellow at the Stephens Hotel yesterday. Then you spend our meager funds to hire a coach, rouse me before dawn, and drag me on this trip across two counties…and all to appear at an estate where you’re clearly not expected. Faith, you’d think you didn’twantto marry his lordship.”
“Of course I want to marry him,” she said mechanically. “I just want to be certain whom I’m marrying.”
“The Earl of Iversley, of course. Surely you’re not confused aboutthat.”
“It’s not his title I’m confused about, Mama.” Katherine had grown tired of going round and round on the same subject. “It’s his character.”
“Character, character…you’re obsessed with character. Most girls would be happy to marry an earl with an estate of twelve thousand acres. But not you, oh no. You must run him down at his home, whether he wants you there or not. You’ll ruin all your chances with him yet,” her mother predicted.
“That’s a risk I’ll have to take.”
Ever since the night he’d left her at the town house with a kiss and a promise to return within the week, she’d fretted over his odd behavior. Especially after she’d gone to speak to the owner of the Stephens Hotel the next day. She’d told him that she wanted to retrieveThe Rake’s Rhetorickwhile Alec was off in Suffolk.
“Jack” had been more than happy to sing Alec’s praises once she’d made it clear that she knew Alec had been living in his establishment. But though he’d professed to know she was Alec’s betrothed, he’d politely refused to let her into Alec’s room to look for “the book she’d lent him that he’d forgotten to return.” And when she’d asked for Alec’s direction so she could send him a note, he’d flatly refused to give it to her.
That had only deepened her suspicions. Alec hadn’t given her his direction, either—what if she needed to reach him? Clearly, he’d intended to keep her in the dark.
Combined with Alec’s peculiar reaction to her request to go with him—and his strange insistence on taking care of estate matters in person—it had been enough to send her on this quest.
It had taken her half the afternoon yesterday to coax someone at the hotel into telling her exactly where Alec was headed. Even then, she’d only managed to get the name of the nearby town. But if he was as well-known a landowner as her mother thought, then someone could direct them from there.
One way or the other, however, she intended to surprise him at his estate.
