Page 64 of A Rogue to Resist
Drake read over the completed letter, each word perfectly correct and utterly wrong. This was what reason dictated—the clear path to securing his inheritance, ensuring Greythorne’s future, and resolving the boundary dispute with Katherine in a single, efficient arrangement.
He folded the letter precisely, reaching for the sealing wax to make it official.
As he held the wax over the candle flame, a memory surfaced with such vivid clarity that his hand stilled: Katherine, standing in the spring sunshine at Greythorne, explaining to young Thomas Bennett why the new drainage system would keep his family’s cottage dry during the rainy season. Her face had been animated with genuine enthusiasm, her blue eyes bright withintelligence, her laughter spontaneous when the child asked if the rainwater could be redirected to flood the schoolmaster’s vegetable garden instead.
In that moment, she had been entirely herself—not the guarded widow maintaining careful distance, but a woman of warmth and wisdom and unexpected humour. A woman Drake had come to admire, to respect, and yes, to desire, with an intensity that no practical arrangement could ever inspire.
Lady Westmore offered order, efficiency, and clarity. Katherine represented uncertainty, challenge, and the exhilarating possibility of something far deeper than a mere business arrangement.
The realization struck Drake with the force of certainty: he would rather have chaos with Katherine than order with anyone else.
The letter crumpled in his suddenly tightened grip. With deliberate movements, Drake tore it in half, then quarters, then smaller still, until Lady Westmore’s sensible proposition lay in fragments on his desk.
“Good heavens,” he murmured, staring at the scattered pieces with a strange sense of liberation. “I’ve completely lost my senses.”
Yet as he brushed the torn paper into the wastebasket, Drake felt more clear-headed than he had in weeks. The path forward was neither simple nor guaranteed, but it was the only one he could now contemplate with any satisfaction.
He would not marry Lady Westmore, however practical her proposition. He would not surrender Greythorne to Captain Halston, however confident the naval officer might be. And he would not allow Katherine to maintain the fiction that her interest in Greythorne was merely professional concern for an estate she had once managed.
What precisely this meant for his future—for their future—remained uncertain. But as Drake extinguished the candle and rose from his desk, one truth had become inescapable: some risks were worth taking, even for a man who had built his fortune on careful calculation.
And Katherine Halston was a risk he could no longer pretend he wasn’t willing to take.
Chapter Sixteen
“You’ll like him, Katherine,” her brother insisted, his expression earnest as their carriage rolled through the countryside toward Thornfield Park. “He’s steady, kind. A widower himself, so he understands what you’ve been through.”
Katherine gazed out the window at the passing landscape, the vibrant greens of late spring a stark contrast to her subdued mood. Three days had passed since Lady Fairchild’s reception—three days without word from Drake, without any indication of whether he had accepted Lady Westmore’s proposal.
Not that it was any of her concern. His marital decisions were his own affair, regardless of the inexplicable hollowness she felt at the thought of him marrying the elegant widow.
“I have no desire to remarry, James,” she said, repeating the statement she had made countless times since her brother had announced this excursion the previous evening. “I appreciate your concern, but I am perfectly content with my independence.”
James sighed, exchanging a glance with Rosabel, who sat beside him. “It’s been nearly a year since Edmund’s passing, Katherine. Your period of mourning is complete. There’s no reason you shouldn’t consider the possibility of a happier union with a more suitable gentleman.”
“Lord Clifton is highly respected,” Rosabel added gently. “His first marriage was reportedly quite harmonious, and he has spoken of you with admiration on several occasions.”
Katherine’s brow furrowed. “When has Lord Clifton spoken of me? I don’t recall ever being introduced.”
“He attended the Pemberton’s musicale last Season,” James explained. “You were still in mourning and didn’t attend, but he inquired about you then. And more recently, he mentioned to me at White’s that he remembered you from your debut Season. Apparently, you made quite an impression.”
“How flattering,” Katherine replied, unable to keep the edge from her voice. “A man I cannot recall has been harbouring an interest in me for nearly a decade. Surely the foundation for a blissful marriage.”
“Katherine,” James frowned. “Your sarcasm is unbecoming. Lord Clifton is one of the most eligible widowers in Society—wealthy, well-connected, with an impeccable reputation. Many ladies would be honoured by his interest.”
“Then perhaps you should introduce him to one of those ladies instead,” Katherine suggested. “You will recall I am no longer under your guardianship, brother dearest.”
Rosabel placed a restraining hand on James’s arm as he opened his mouth to deliver what would undoubtedly be a brotherly lecture on proper gratitude and behaviour.
“We only want your happiness, Katherine,” she said softly. “After what you endured with Edmund... we hate to think of you spending the rest of your life alone.”
Katherine felt a twinge of guilt at the genuine concern in her sister-in-law’s voice.
James and Rosabel meant well, even if their efforts were misguided. They couldn’t understand her reluctance to risk marriage again—not fully, since she had never revealedthe extent of Edmund’s cruelty. And they certainly couldn’t understand the confusion Drake Halston had introduced into her carefully ordered existence.
“I know you mean well,” she conceded. “But please understand that ‘alone’ is not the same as ‘lonely.’ I have my independence, my work at Willow Park, my involvement with Greythorne’s improvements—”
“Ah, yes. Greythorne,” James interrupted, his tone sharpening. “I’ve been meaning to discuss that with you. Your continued involvement with the estate is becoming the subject of talk, Katherine. Particularly given Lord Greythorne’s need to secure a bride.”
