"Who told you that?" Callum asked.
"You are surprised that I found out?" Louise asked, "Well, the lady you told that you were only courting me as a sham, Catherine, told me."
"No, No!" Callum said, shaking his head as he rose to his feet, "I have never told anyone that, and certainly not Lady Catherine."
"It does not matter. Maybe someone you told her," Louise said, "what is more important is that you do not deny that Felington employed you to distract me? Tell me, what did he offer you? Money? Land? What was it?"
Her voice broke as tears welled up in her eyes.
Callum came to her side and tried to hug her to himself but Louise pushed him off angrily.
"I cannot believe that I truly thought that you cared about me. I suppose you also give Felington reports of our dalliance," Louise said.
"Louise... Louise..."
"Do not call my name like that," Louise said, "do not act as though I mean anything to you when I am nothing but a deal to you."
"That is not true, Louise," Callum said, "just listen to me."
Louise breathed heavily as she tried to blink the tears away.
"Can you take a seat so that you can listen to me, Louise?" Callum asked and for a moment, Louise was tempted to believe that he really was telling the truth.
"Fine!" Louise said before sitting on the chair opposite Callum's own.
Callum leaned against the table so that he could look down at her.
"What Catherine told you is only half the truth," Callum said.
"What do you mean?" Louise asked.
"Felington indeed offered me a deal where I would seduce you. Since I am a Rake, he believed that I would have an easy time getting close to you and occupying your time," Callum said.
"And yet I believed that you only pretended to court me because I asked you to," Louise said.
"I courted you because you asked me to, Louise," Callum said, "I did not take Felington's deal and I told him that I could not possibly do that to an innocent lady."
"Is that so?" Louise asked, as she slowly felt the anger seep out of her.
"Everything that happened between us was natural. I did not get close to you for any sinister reason. Far from it, in fact," he said, "ever since I saw you, there was just something about you that pulled me."
"If you did not tell Catherine about the deal Felington tried to make with you, then who told her?" Louise asked.
"I think I have an idea," Callum said, "Catherine followed our hunting party at the house party and while we were in the woods, I came across Felington and Catherine having a conversation. Then, he told her that he had made a deal with me to court you. What he did not tell her, however, was that I, in fact, I refused the deal."
"Why then would Catherine lie that you told her?" Louise wondered.
"That may be because I told her that I was not in any way interested in her," Callum said.
Louise gasped. "You did?"
"Indeed. It seems Felington had been trying to matchmake us and due to this, she believed that we were meant to be together. In order not to disappoint her, I told her that I was not in the least interested in being with her," he said.
"Poor Catherine," Louise said, "if only she knew that you have sworn off marriage."
"That is not the reason I told her off," Callum said, in a low tone.
"What are you talking about?"
