A twitch in his jaw escaped beneath the mask.
She covered her lips and stepped out of his frozen embrace. She took one step back, and another, and then his hellion disappeared. In her place stood a woman of haughty reserve.
“I’ll have Markham make arrangements for your journey.” Somehow, her tonelessness contained deadly accusation. “You will not have to speak with me again.”
The internal howl returned—a flash of his mother’s skirt, disappearing behind a door. Without Katherine, he’d be shoved back into the night where those wretched hounds prowled. There would be no bloodline. No justification. No warmth. No laughter.
He. Could. Not. Lose. Her.
He grabbed her upper arms. She gasped.
“No,” he managed.
“No?” she repeated.
“No. This is not ruined. You are not ruined.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake.” Her eyes blazed. “Of course, I am not ruined.”
“But you said—” he started.
“I am not a virgin.” She wet her lips. “But am I a ruin just because I shared one act of love with a man I had loved all my life?”
He tried to make sense of her words.Oneact oflove.
“The vicar’s son.”
“Rector.” She folded her arms across her waist. “Not that it’s any concern of yours. Virtue,” Katherine continued with an angry huff, “is more than a lack of carnal knowledge.” Her shaking had stopped, but the anger in her eyes did not abate. “How does carnal knowledge hold up against hypocrisy? Callous disregard for your fellow man? If you ask me…”
Her mouth kept moving, but he ceased to hear.
Find the wound. Stem the—hell. This flow could not be dammed, not while a legion of screeching devils silenced his reason. But if he did not force his way through the tide, he’d lose everything.
And this time there would be no reprieve.
Try to understand.A soft, feminine voice emerged from the depths of memory.
“Katherine,” he interrupted.
She stopped speaking.
“Did he—did he use force?”
“An act oflove, I said.” She looked away, and a deep blush infused her cheeks. “At least on my part.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Cartwright did not understand when I tried to explain, either.” She laughed a mad little laugh. “Though he was perfectly willing to overlook my unnatural enthusiasm until he decided he preferred his mistress.”
“Unnatural enthusiasm?” He frowned.
Her evergreen gaze fixed on his, in a strange mix of challenge and pain. “Septimus’s words.”
“But he—”
“I seduced him,” she interrupted. “And he was so distraught by our mistake, he fled my unnatural presence so he would not be tempted again until we wed. Only, he never returned.” She squeezed her eyes closed. “I judge myself far more harshly than you could ever judge me.”
Pain. He heard pain. A howl that matched his own. She turned to leave. He grabbed her arm.
