Not when I knew him, and we were forced to compete with each other. For everything, food notwithstanding. The bastard was ruthless.
“Circumstances have brought us together. Not compassion,” he reminded sternly. “And, lest you think it, not fate. I will leave you now. Sleep. I suspect you will be feeling better very shortly. I will arrange the marriage license and the terms of our contract.”
“Contract?”
“Of course. There must be a contract so that we both know where we stand and what is expected of us. There will be no gray areas and no uncertainties.”
She nodded, head sinking into a cloud of pillows.
“That is all very sensible…”
She closed her eyes, and Gideon opened the door. He stood for a long moment in the architrave, watching her.
Who are you who has attempted to storm my walls and invade my life? What is your plan?
He left the room and closed the door when he recognized the feeling of warmth he felt as he watched her peacefully sleeping face. There was no room for that warmth in his life. No room for attachment.
It had once robbed him of his own childhood.
I will bide my time until this scandal is doused, then I will be rid of you, friend of Aaron Tarnley. Damn his soul and damn yours, Catherine Ainsley! I want no part of you.
CHAPTER 6
ONE WEEK LATER
Caerleon Manor, Berkshire
“Iam to give you away, Your Ladyship,” Mr. McKay said to Catherine in his clipped, efficient manner.
Catherine wore a dress that had been made for her at Aaron’s expense. It was white and simply made, but the first time in her adult life that she had been purchased a new gown. She stood humbly before the full-length dress mirror in the guest room she had been given, which she did not dare regard asherroom, and admired the dress with its misty veil.
It is beautiful. Simple but elegant. Unadorned but somehow more lovely than if it had jewels sewn into it.
“Very well, thank you, Mr. McKay,” she smiled.
Sally fussed around her skirts, straightening them until they were just right, then beaming at Catherine in the mirror.
“I never thought I would see the day…” the maid breathed.
“Sally! We do not share personal opinions on the master,” Mr. McKay snapped with the air of a Sergeant Major on a parade ground.
“Of course, Mr. McKay. Sorry, Mr. McKay,” Sally blushed and curtsied twice.
Catherine furrowed her brows. “You have my permission and my oath that it will not leave this room,” she whispered from the side of her mouth. “Why did you think you would never see this day?”
Mr. McKay clicked his heels together and turned, offering an arm held at a precise right angle to his body. “We are expected at the chapel, Your Ladyship. If you would be so kind.”
Catherine responded at once to the imperative and took the butler’s arm. As she did, she recognized the instinct for obedience within herself.
It was a survival instinct at Haventon, but I do not need it any longer. I am safe. I can be myself. I wonder if I know how anymore...
As she walked with the butler through the twisting, meandering halls of Caerleon Manor, she resolved to ask for Sally to be assigned as her personal maid. And then to quiz her in private about Aaron.
If I am to help him to defeat the scandal that Aunt and Uncle are going to stir up, I must know how. I must know his new life to a degree.
She remembered the dark and gloomy halls of Caerleon from childhood, when she would visit with Aaron, and they would play hide and seek. It had frightened her as a girl. Aaron’s father had terrified her. The house seemed haunted, and the Duke was a dark and tyrannical figure from whom the children often steered clear.
“I remember how much of a maze this house was,” she giggled.
