No Choice but Seduction (21 page)

Katey halted those thoughts abruptly. Was she now looking for an excuse to forgive him?

She moved around the table, but when he stood up, she turned around so she could back out the dining room door, afraid he was going to try to stop her. She even held up a hand to put him off, not that it would have done any good if he was intent on keeping her there. She might be tall, but Boyd Anderson was lean, hard brawn. There was no question who would win that little battle.

“I’ve listened to you,” she said, stopping in the doorway. “Now give me the same courtesy. You have in so many words blamed ‘feelings’ for your despicable treatment of me. I find that reason unacceptable. I understand you’re sorry—well, you haven’t actually said so, but—”

“Of course I am!”

“So am I,” she continued, giving him only a minor frown for interrupting. “However, being sorry after the fact is rarely helpful. This is one of those times. You had other options. But you chose the easiest path.”

“
What
other options?” His tone was sounding frustrated again.

“You could have sent someone after Jeremy. You could have kept me at the inn, in that comfortable room until they returned with the truth, instead of taking me out in a storm!”

“When I was this close to bedding you?”

There was no space at all between the thumb and finger he held up to her, causing heat to rush up her cheeks again. “You could have at least waited until my maid returned. She would have confirmed everything—”

“That’s just it, Katey. I couldn’t wait another moment. But I did let you go. That should count for something.”

She gasped. “The devil you did, I escaped from you! And I could have broken my neck doing so, you know. Climbing out of windows, scampering across rain-slick roofs—do I look like a child who would delight in such things?”

“I wasn’t gone that long, Katey. I could have caught up with you easily, but I decided not to.” He sounded rather proud of himself. “Judy was safe, so—I let you go.”

“Oh, I see. So instead of dragging me the rest of the way to London where you thought I’d be tossed in jail, you
allowed
me to escape so that I could run into Maisie Cameron and end up in jail anyway, after she raved like a lunatic and—”

“You better be lying,” he cut in.

“You’d like to think so, wouldn’t you?”

“Katey,” he said warningly.

She snorted at him. “You’re no longer in any position to threaten me, and you better keep that in mind. You’ll be getting no information out of me that I’m not willing to volunteer. But I wasn’t keeping it a secret. If you hadn’t dragged me out of Northampton, I would have been comfortably ensconced in my coach on my way to London, right behind Judith, and I never would have run into Maisie Cameron again. The authorities would have caught up to her soon enough, since she was more afraid of her husband at that point than she was of jail. I didn’t need to be the one to take her to the constable.”

“Then why did you?”

“Because there she was in front of me when I got back to Northampton, and because it was the right thing to do. But Maisie knew I’d thwarted her plans, and while she was happy to get behind bars to escape her husband’s wrath, she was also delighted to get even with me by accusing me of the whole plot—just as you did!”

“Good God,” Boyd said, looking quite sick to his stomach. “I had no idea, Katey.”

She scowled at him. “Isn’t this where you should be gloating? That
is
what you had planned for me, after all, right? To end up in jail. Well, I did end up there, and my maid, too, and even my driver, which, by the way, is why he quit on me.”

“The constable didn’t believe you either?”

“Oh, he did. But he wasn’t about to let me go without getting clearance from the Malorys first. Their name is well known even up north. It wasn’t until nearly noon the next day, when his man got back from London with the information he obtained from Judith, that we were finally released.”

“You can’t imagine how sorry I am, Katey.”

He said that with great feeling. She didn’t doubt he meant it. But it was still too late for apologies.

“No, I can’t,” she said. “Nor do I care to try. Do you really think a few words, no matter how sincere, are going to make me forget the anger and humiliation I felt at being branded a common criminal, all because I tried to help a little girl in need?”

“For God’s sake, you have to let me make this up to you somehow.” His expression brightened as an idea occurred to him. “You said you lost your driver? I’ll drive you anywhere you want to go for as long as you like!”

She rolled her eyes toward the ceiling. “I’ve already replaced the driver. You call that making amends, giving me something I already have?”

“Katey, give me a bone here!” he said in exasperation. “There must be something you want or need that I can help you with.”

“There’s only one thing you have that—”

She stopped abruptly. Bringing up his ship, which had popped into her mind at his mention of transportation, was out of the question. He might be contrite, but not enough to give up his ship, even if she offered to pay for it. Besides, the inconvenience of planning her tour according to shipping schedules was a mere annoyance. She didn’t really want her own ship.

But he was suddenly looking much too sensual. The intense heat in his eyes nearly paralyzed her. What the devil had she said?

She drew in her breath sharply. “Oh, good grief, you are so off the mark it boggles the mind. There was nothing—inappropriate—in what I was about to say. It was certainly
not
what you are thinking.”

“Then what do I have that—?”

“Nothing!” she snapped, flustered at the turn their conversation had taken. “I lost my train of thought. I can’t recall what I was going to say. So don’t mention it again.”

His sigh was heartfelt.
She
felt it, right to her toes. And the heat was still in his dark eyes….

He leapt across the space between them and drew her hard against him. His kiss was as hot as his expression had been, just as she’d guessed it would be. And she didn’t push him away from her. Oh, no, she wrapped her arms around him. Those feelings of excitement and desire that she’d had in that room in Northampton when he’d touched her were back again, churning her insides, making her…

“You’re not very good at lying,” Boyd observed.

She blinked the brief fantasy away, and blushing for even having those thoughts intrude
now
, with him standing right there before her, she started to ramble. “Actually, I’m wonderfully good at it. I excel at it. You would be quite surprised, not that it matters in the least. And I’ve given you much more time than you deserve. I have to rise early in the morning to finish my business here, so I’m going off to bed. Please extend my good-nights to the Malorys, if you will.”

“Katey—”

She squealed as he reached for her, because that kiss she had just imagined was still too fresh in her mind. She bolted out into the hall and straight up the stairs. He probably hadn’t been about to put his hands on her to try to stop her, but she’d let him get to her, frazzling her senses more than she could withstand in one evening. Good grief, she’d been babbling like a loon!

It was that look of his there at the end, when she knew exactly what he was thinking…and wanting to do to her. And in her mind she’d let him! And how the devil was she going to sleep now, when she had already imagined how that meeting could have turned out, if that man did deserve to be forgiven?

Chapter Twenty-Two

W
HILE THE PEOPLE
in Gardener hadn’t socialized much other than on Sundays and holidays, Katey’s mother had still taught her the finer points of proper etiquette as they had been taught to her years ago, and visiting people in the rain was on the “must never do” list. Dripping rainwater in people’s foyers and tracking wet, muddy footprints across fine carpeting was a sure way never to get invited again. Not that the homes in Gardener had had any fine carpets, but Adeline had made her point.

When Katey looked out her window the next morning, she didn’t see a drizzle, she saw a steady downpour. The rain that had blown in yesterday continued and showed no signs of letting up. She waited an hour, then extended that to two, but finally she put off the visit to the Millards’ for another day. As long as she and Grace were back in London by tomorrow night to sail the following day, they could afford to spend another day at Haverston, and it was still in the back of Katey’s mind that she might cancel her departure from England if all went as she hoped with the Millards.

When she’d arrived at Haverston yesterday, she’d been awed and amazed. Sir Anthony’s house had been sparkling elegance, but the marquis’s country estate was a mansion! It literally extended over acres of land and was too big to sparkle: light got lost in such huge rooms. But the marquis’s residence had warmth—sofas so richly upholstered Katey was afraid to sit on them, fireplaces twice their normal size, paintings hanging from the wallpapered walls that were bigger than she was! Judith had given her a brief tour that lasted an hour and didn’t even cover half the mansion.

She hadn’t been to the greenhouses yet, though, to see the coach that had been turned into a garden ornament. Judith had been saving that tour for after dinner last night, when the lamps would be lit to give it a special prominence, but Katey had defected to her room after dinner because of Boyd.

She decided to see it now before breakfast. She wasn’t going to wait for the rain to stop first since it didn’t look as if it was going to. A lot of greenhouses were out back. Judith hadn’t exaggerated about Jason Malory’s love of growing things. They were all big and mostly made of glass, and Katey only had to mention “the coach” for a servant to point her to the right one.

He offered to fetch her an umbrella. She didn’t want to wait and so declined, since the run wasn’t that far from the house. But before she reached the entrance of the greenhouse she was laughing at how quickly she’d been drenched. She wasn’t cold, though. Inside, the greenhouse was warm and humid. A pathway led through the rich foliage, some plants potted, some on trellises, some even hanging from the ceiling beams, but many were just planted in the rich soil underfoot.

She slowed her step when she saw the coach up ahead and was wide-eyed and feeling amazed once again. Jason had even hung two chandeliers above it, in a greenhouse! She arrived to find one of the workers lighting them.

Now that was extravagance and she said to the man, “In the daytime?”

The old fellow chuckled at her. “Only on dark days like this, miss.”

Katey sat down on one of the benches that had been set near the coach. The servant soon finished his task and left her alone there. The coach was an amazing sight. The wheels had been removed, making it seem as if it were planted in the ground! Flowers and vines surrounded it. But it certainly didn’t need any extra light. Entirely white and gold, it was probably blinding when sun came through the windows. But the chandeliers did give it a unique glow, making it look almost ethereal, and bringing fairy tales to mind.