“I’ll be careful. We won’t be discovered.”
“No. You don’t understand. You think I’m simply worried about my reputation, but my father will kill me if he thinks I’ve been with you. That is not an exaggeration.”
He understood perfectly. But she was not the only person affected by this situation. Carlisle crossed his arms over his chest. “And what of the safety of my family? You tell me the marquess holds a grudge against us. What if he hurts my mother or one of my sisters?”
Katie opened her mouth to say that wouldn’t happen, but she closed it again, presumably because she didn’t know that her father wouldn’t go after another Carlisle now that he’d ruinedHenry. She sighed. “I want to help you, Carlisle, but…” She shook her head.
“I understand,” he said. “I would never want to put you in danger. You’ve been…mostly kind to me. Thank you for telling me what you know.” Arguing more tonight was pointless. He needed a new strategy.
With a bow, he went to the window and pushed it open again. Katie followed, and he gave her a nod before slipping back out. He wrapped his coat about him and turned to look back at the library. She was standing in the window, her hand on the drapes, watching him. He raised a hand and blew her a kiss. He knew he shouldn’t do it, but she was so easy to shock.
As he expected, she gave him a horrified look then pulled the drapes closed with a flourish. Henry chuckled. He wished they’d met under better circumstances, but he was selfishly glad all of Society had not had a chance to meet her. They would have eaten her up and spit her out. All of her fire would have been extinguished, and she’d be like every other milksop miss he’d had to dance with at Almack’s.
He walked back to the dower house, thinking about Katie and hoping she’d be enough to keep him from succumbing to the urge to find a card game.
*
The next day,Katie went about life as usual. She walked to the Fallows’ farm to check on Lizzie. The little girl was feeling much better, and Mrs. Fallow reported that the cottage was less drafty. Still, Katie couldn’t help but notice the smoke from the hearth filled the room. The chimney needed to be cleaned, and the puddles on the dirt floor indicated the roof was not altogether sound.
She visited another family, and though they said nothing, she saw problems with the drainage near their house and that the shed with their animals was all but falling over. If there was a stiff breeze, it would collapse on the pigs and cows inside.
All her warm feelings for Carlisle from the night before, including the tingling that had remained long after he held her hand, drained away and were once again replaced by anger at him. He was not a heartless man. How could he have neglected his tenants so?
She stomped back to Carlisle Hall, wishing she might help the tenants. But she knew nothing of patching roofs or building lean-tos. She’d asked Mrs. Fallow about Gillett, the steward, and the woman had been rather vague about him, saying only that her husband often saw him out in the fields. But he couldn’talwaysbe in the fields. She had yet to catch a glimpse of him, and she’d been here for weeks.
She dined with Mrs. Murray, who spoke of the weather and hinted at taking a trip into the small village to shop. Katie didn’t want to go to the village. She’d have to don her veil and hide her face. The people on the estate were used to her birthmark. She didn’t want to be stared at by strangers.
She retired early and planned to read before going to sleep, but her book was so dry, she fell asleep immediately.
When she woke with a hand pressed over her mouth, her room was dark.
“Do not scream,” said a male voice.
Katie ignored it and tried to scream anyway. The hand pressed harder against her mouth.
“I said, do not scream. Katie, I’m no threat.”
Katie froze. She knew that voice, the way the man said her name. “Carlisle?” she asked. Well, at least shetriedto say his name. She couldn’t do more than mumble with his hand over her mouth. He pulled it away tentatively.
“You won’t scream?”
“What are you doing in my bedchamber?” she asked. “Answer me quickly, or Iwillscream.”
“I brought you a gift,” he said.
His words were so unexpected, she was at a loss for what to say next.
“May I light the lamp?”
She nodded mutely, then realized he couldn’t see her and murmured, “Yes.” A moment later, the lamp flickered and a glow spread across the room. There was Carlisle, dressed in trousers and shirt sleeves for easy climbing to her window, smiling down at her. Her gaze strayed to his neck, visible without the neckcloth. It was a nice neck, not too wide and looking strangely vulnerable without any covering. His forearms were bare as well. She couldn’t help but see how the hairs had been bleached golden by the sun and how the defined muscles moved in the lamplight.
Katie suddenly realized if she were looking at him, he might be looking at her, and she wore only her nightgown. She pulled the sheets up to her throat. But Carlisle wasn’t looking at her. He opened a sack he had thrown over his shoulder and pulled out a box with a large ribbon tied in a bow on the top. She stared at it.
“Take it,” Carlisle said.
She took it and stared at the pretty ribbon. It was pink, and the bow was enormous.
“Now, you pull the ribbon loose and open the box,” he said, obviously impatient. “You act as though you’ve never received a gift before.”
