“Don’t change the topic. You are not disfigured. Your father has made you feel less than, and there was no reason for it. There is nothing wrong with you.”
“So you will marry me, then?”
Henry inhaled sharply. He hadn’t seen that coming. “Now, let’s not jump to conclusions. Just because you would make a perfectly acceptable wife doesn’t mean we should marry. Why the sudden interest in matrimony?” And then he realized. He closed his eyes and put his hand over them. “Oh, no. It’s because of this afternoon, isn’t it?”
Katie lowered her brows. “This afternoon?”
“When I kissed you and—er, other things. You think I’ve ruined you. I promise, you are still a virgin. You are still untouched, and there’s no need—”
“I know that. I’m not a complete idiot.”
Henry blinked. “Oh. Well, some young women are rather”—how to put this?—“er…sheltered, and have strange notions about these matters.”
“I have four brothers, and while I don’t claim to be an expert, I know I’m still a virgin.” Her cheeks turned quite red, and she lowered her voice. “I won’t require you to have conjugal relations with me if we marry. I won’t even argue if you want to take a mistress.”
“Whoa, whoa.” Henry held up a hand. “Let’s not get into discussions of conjugal relations.”
“You started it.”
“I did, yes.” Why had he done that?Oh, right.“If you don’t believe you are ruined, then why propose marriage? You’re not…in love with me, are you?” The last few words came out on a squeak. Henry felt the need to loosen his neckcloth.
“No.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Are you certain? I’ve been told I am quite a good kisser. I fear I’ve made you fall in love with me.”
She folded her arms across her chest. “It will take more than a kiss to cause me to fall in love with you.”
“That’s a relief.” And it was, wasn’t it? He didn’t want her to fall in love with him. No, definitely not.Back to the issue at hand.“If you’re not ruined, and you don’t love me, why the interest in matrimony?”
“I want to escape my father.”
“Ah.” Henry leaned back against the table. “I see now. You want to trade him for me?”
“More or less. I thought long and hard about what Mr. Gillett revealed this afternoon, and then I conferred with Mrs. Murray.”
“And she confirmed Gillett’s statements?”
“Yes, my father plans to let this house fall to ruin. He’ll sell the land, then sit back and watch the place crumble. I think he plans to watch it crumble around me. As far as I can tell, he has no plans to bring me home. I’ve been exiled here.” She sighed and looked around the library. “Last night I went over my options. I can’t flee to the Continent; I have no money. I can’t go to a relative.”
“They’ll just return you to the marquess. Yes, I understand that.” He tapped his fingers on the table. “Might I point out that I also have no money? And while your father might have stuck you in a home in disrepair, at least you have a home. I’ve lost my town house and my country estate to your father. There’s nothing left for me but a crumbling castle in Cumbria. Surely you don’t want to live there.”
“How badly has it crumbled?”
“Lady Katherine!”
She grinned. “We’re back to Lady Katherine now?”
Henry couldn’t say why, but he felt rather desperate. “We cannot marry.”
She cocked her head. “Why? You’re not married, and neither am I.”
“That’s true but—but—but—I’m cursed!” As if to prove his point, he pulled out the scrap of paper from Dunwich. “See here.”
She waved a hand. “I’ve seen it, but it doesn’t look like a curse. It’s more of a prayer, heretical though it may be.”
“It’s a counter-spell—at least, that’s what I surmise. I was cursed when I was thirteen.”
Katie gestured to the couch near the hearth, which still burned with banked coals. “I think you’d better explain.”
