Blood Lust (18 page)

The earl smiled. “I will be certain to tell him, Lady Katherine.” He bid her a word of farewell and was gone.

Katherine sat down on the tapestry sofa. The more she thought about what had just happened, the angrier she got. How dare he! How dare he try to heal his miserable conscience with an offer of money! She wasn’t his whore! Just because William regretted their passionate lovemaking didn’t mean that she did. In fact, she was superbly grateful she had been given the chance to enjoy such a wondrous experience with a man she are for so greatly.

Katherine jumped up off the sofa and started toward the stairs. She didn’t want William’s money. If he offered it again, she would tell him to go straight to hell!

Chapter Thirteen

William paced the floor in his bedchamber at Damien’s house. As soon as he had heard the door open in the entry he headed into the hallway and down the stairs. Following his friend into the drawing room, he closed the door.

“Well, how did it go?” he asked impatiently.

Damien smiled at him. “Hold out your hand.”

William did as he friend requested. Smiling, Damien turned the once-sealed correspondence upside down, and tiny scrapes of paper spilled into his palm. William knew what they were.

“You might tell by the size of the pieces just how pleased the lady was with your offer.”

William scowled. “What did she say?”

“She said, basically, that you could take your good intentions and shove them.”

“And?”

“She also said to thank you. She said she enjoyed your last meeting very much.”

“What!”

“That is what she said.”

William slammed his fist down on the table. “That woman! I swear she is unlike any woman I have ever met.”

“I certainly cannot disagree. I am not surprised she refused your offer of assistance, even though from what you have told me she needs the money badly.”

“There is no doubt of that.”

“Do you still aim to help her?”

“I have to, I owe her that much.”

William paced back and forth. Finally he stopped at the window and stared out. He turned to Damien. “I’ll do the only thing I can do. What that little vixen has forced me to do. I’ll have to marry her.”

Damien’s eyebrows shot up. “I thought you said you weren’t interested in marriage.”

“I’m not and this isn’t going to change the way I feel about marriage, however, it will solve Katherine’s problem. And there is something else, Damien.”

“Which is?”

“Last night when I left her house, a man was standing in the shadows. He wasn’t there when I went in, which means he must have arrived after Katherine came home.”

“You think this man was following her?”

“I don’t know. I made sure he didn’t see me leave, but he was very definitely watching the house for some reason. My instincts tell me that Katherine has been sniffing around, asking questions about Benjamin. If she had been, she might be in danger.”

“I’ll have our man look into it.”

“Good idea. I will speak to Katherine about it.” An awful thought suddenly struck, twisting hard inside him. What if she refused his proposal?

Katherine stood in front of her glass mirror. William had come. Even now he waited in the drawing room downstairs, determined to see her. Why, she had no idea. Damn that man. Didn’t he know how much he put himself in danger every time he stepped out in public? There was always that chance that someone might recognize him.

At first she did not see him, having thought he would be seated in a warm spot in front of the fire. A quick scan of the room and she spotted him standing at the opposite end of the room. He was standing off to one side, before a row of portraits, pictures of her mother and father, her grandmother and grandfather and a small porcelain miniature of herself and her brother.

He hadn’t heard her enter the room. She watched him as he studied the portraits. It was odd the way he looked at them, his features tense and brooding. There was something forbidding about him, the darkness, the bloodlust she had seen in him before. He appeared every inch the dangerous man he had been the night he had stolen her from her carriage. As crazy as it was she was still attracted to him just as much as she had been that first night.

“William?”

He turned to look at her, his burning eyes fixed on her face. “Hello, Katherine.”

“I didn’t expect to see you today.”

“Didn’t you? What did you think would occur when you refused my offer?”

She swallowed hard. She wasn’t a fool. She might be attracted to him, but she knew that he was a hard man, not a man to trifle with. “I believed you would come to your senses and let the matter rest. I told you I had a means of my own for solving my problems.”

“Did you mean what you said? You told me you didn’t really want a husband. That you valued your independence, that you would keep it if you possibly could.”

“I meant every word.” She had meant it. If she could not marry for love, she would rather be alone.

“Then I’ll marry you.”

“What?” she hissed.

“I said I’ll marry you, at least for a while. Once we are wed, I can see your dowry returned to you. Your financial problems will be solved and, you’ll still have your independence.”

“I’m afraid I don’t understand. If I’m your wife, how can I have my independence? And what do you mean you’ll marry me for a while?”

He shook his head. “Once we are married, I can help you get control of your dowry. However, I cannot stay in England. I don’t belong here anymore. As soon as I’m gone, you can file for an annulment.”

“Let me get this straight. You expect to marry me, spend time in my bed, then leave me whenever you wish? How damn convenient! I imagine there are any number of eligible gentlemen who would be willing to agree to that plan.”

“I don’t intend to bed you. That should have never happened. As I told you Katherine, I do not want a wife and I certainly don’t want children, ever. This will simply be a marriage of convenience. You’ll have your money and my conscience will be clear for taking your innocence. This is strictly a business arrangement.”

William was the third man who had approached her with a marriage proposal that was purely a business arrangement. Her heart twisted. None of them loved her. What was it about her that made that so difficult for them?

She swallowed hard. “I appreciate your concern, my lord, however there is no need to trouble yourself. I have been proposed an arrangement that would also solve my problems. I have not yet given the gentleman an answer, but I intent to shortly.”

The color left William’s sun drenched cheeks. “You are saying that you would rather marry one of those boring, piggish lords?”

There was something in his eyes, the darkness she had seen before, a shadowy despair that engulfed him. “I didn’t say that, my lord.”

“I suppose you are right though. Lord Stanton could surely be in love with you. He could give you children, be the husband and father I could never be.” He stared at the floor between his feet.

Her heart was breaking. She was sure of it. What on earth had happened to him to make him feel this way. “He does not love me. There is a good chance he loves Elizabeth Stanwick.”

“Then why does he want to marry you?”

“As you indicated, it is merely a business arrangement.”

The tension in his shoulders seemed to ease. His gaze locked with hers, so intense that it would not let her look away. “If that is the case, then you shall marry me. Once I am gone, you’ll have time to choose a proper husband, someone who will love and care for you as you should be.”

He didn’t love her, but he cared for her in some way. “I must know William, why it is you feel about marriage as you do?”

The darkness in him swept over him like a wave. His jaw flexed. “A man like me doesn’t marry. He doesn’t have a wife and children. A man like me wouldn’t begin to know how to lead a normal life anymore.” He looked at her and the pain in his eyes touched something deep within her. “I’ve been gone from England for a long time now. I’ve seen things a man should never have to see. I’ve done things a man should never have to do, things I’ll regret for as long as I live. I could never be a husband to you, I could never be a father to your children, Katherine. This is a civilized country and I am no longer a civilized man.”

“William. . .” She reached out to touch him, but he took a step away.

“Give me your answer Katherine, who is it going to be?”

Every shred of common sense told her to run as far and as fast as she could from William Spencer. He was certain to hurt her. Already his pain tore into her heart as if it were her own. She loved him, and with each passing day that love would grow stronger. And then he would leave. Run, run! Her mind told her. But her heart told her the words she finally said to him “I choose you William. I’ll marry you whenever you wish.”

The darkness faded as fast as it had appeared. It seemed he was yet unsure of what he was about to do. “Damien can obtain a special license. Three days hence, you’ll become Lady Habersham. By the end of the week, you’ll be a wealthy woman again.”

A wealthy married woman, she thought grimly. In love with a man who didn’t love her. Wife to a husband who never intended marriage and meant to abandon her.

She tried to smile, but inside her heart hurt just to think about it.

Benjamin Spencer leaned against the wall, watching Elizabeth as she spoke quietly to one of her friends. Benjamin’s hands unconsciously fisted into balls. Elizabeth had been attracted to another, having discouraged his suit only to please her father, who had very little use for the gentleman. That and the fact that Sir Paul was obsessed with the notion of making his daughter the duchess of Sussex. She looked exceptionally pretty tonight. He shifted a little, easing the pulling fabric, and smiled to think of the evening ahead, of the pleasure he would feel capturing the prize Lord Stanton had wanted. Pulling his gold watch from the pocket of his gold brocade waistcoat, he checked the time, then smiled as a liveried footman bustled into the room carrying a silver salver. The gangly man scanned the crowd, then headed straight for Elizabeth.

A half hour later she was seated across from him in the sleek black carriage, bundled beneath a lap robe, her gentle features marred by worry for her supposedly ailing father. So far his plan had worked perfectly.

The carriage rumbled over the last of the cobbled streets and onto the dusty roadway leading out of the city. Elizabeth’s soft, worried voice broke through the clatter of wheels and the jangle of harnesses.

“I just do not understand. Even if my father has fallen ill, why would he insist I come to you? That is extremely unlike him, to involve outsiders in matters of the family.”

“I am hardly an outsider, my dear. It won’t be long until I shall be your husband. I am honored that your father already considers me part of the family.”

Elizabeth thought about it for a moment. “I am certain that must be it, but even so, why was there need for such secrecy? His note was quite cryptic. I was to tell no one but you.” She shook her head. “And why would father want for us to travel together unchaperoned?” Her eyes suddenly filled with tears. “I am so worried, your grace. Something dreadful must have happened, there is no other explanation for such behavior.”

Benjamin reached for her hand and gave it an assuring squeeze. “You mustn’t fret so, my dear. In time we’ll reach the inn where your father was taken and you’ll discover the truth of what has occurred.”

But not until they reached their destination. A small thatched roof inn and tavern on a road that led out of town. Not until she had worriedly climbed the stairs to the room where she thought to find her ailing father.

Not until Benjamin had forced her down on the bed, ripped away her clothing and pushed himself deep inside her. She had stopped struggling by then, had lain there like a limp, battered doll beneath him, fighting tears of pain and humiliation as he grunted and strained above her.

When he was finished at last, he pulled his flaccid member from between her blood smeared thighs and announced that they would be married by special license in the morning.

“I am sorry, my dear,” he said without a single ounce of sincerity, but you simply left me no other choice.” His satisfied smile made her stomach ill with nausea. “I’m afraid I wanted you far too badly to endure a long engagement.” It was all she could do to keep from throwing up.

Squeezing her eyes shut against the sight of him next to the bed, Elizabeth lay rigid while he fastened the buttons at the front of his breeches. He strode to the door and pulled it open, then sauntered nonchalantly into the hall.

Listening to his laughter echoing down the stairs to the taproom, Elizabeth knew what her father did not, that the man she would be forced to marry was nothing at all the sort of man her father would have chosen for her husband.

Elizabeth sobbed into the pillow on the bed, wishing with all her soul that she had listened to her heart instead of trying to be the dutiful daughter. She would have chosen a man she loved, a husband who would care for her as deeply as she cared for him. She would have found a man who would make her happy.