don’t think of it. Anyway, I thought Lydgate was going to pay. You have other things to consider before that, it’s a mere trifle; I told you I would have lent the money to Philip.’
‘I do not borrow money and I have saddled Mr Lydgate with more than enough debt already,’ Katherine said rather grimly. ‘Please tell me.’
Reluctantly Arthur said, ‘One hundred and twenty pounds.’ ‘Is that all? Honestly, you would think Philip would have the gumption to get a better price than that.’ Katherine felt half-relieved—for at least she could repay Arthur from what remained of the necklace money—half-exasperated at Philip’s foolishness.
She and Arthur ate with Jenny and John around the kitchen table, too tired and drained to worry about changing clothes or using the dining room. When Arthur took himself off home Katherine helped Jenny in the kitchen and sent John to make sure Nicholas had everything he needed. She had no intention of causing her emotions further turmoil by going up herself.
The sanctuary of her bed did not bring the rest she needed. The worry about the debt sat like a brooding vulture on the bedpost, and the presence at the other end of the landing of a mysterious half-stranger who was refusing to do the sensible thing and annul their marriage threatened to completely overset her resolution to do the right thing.
Consequently it was a heavy-eyed and depressed Mrs Lydgate who breakfasted alone and then set herself to establish the true extent of her financial difficulties. She gathered her own careful account books and the small pile of tradesmen’s bills and went along to Philip’s study.
The final demand from the moneylenders was easy enough to find; it took longer to unearth all the other bills, dunning letters and scrawled vowels that littered the study or were jammed into drawers.
She had just drawn a line under a long and staggering list of figures when the door opened behind her and Nick said, ‘There you are.’
Katherine pushed back the chair and stood up, scanning him with anxious eyes. He looked well enough in John’s respectable jacket and breeches and the colour was back in his face. The edges of bandages showed under his cuffs and around his neck he had tied a loose spotted bandana.
He followed her eyes and said apologetically, ‘Not perhaps the clothes to be seen wearing in St James’s, but I can tell you the luxury of clean linen is priceless.’
‘Should you be up?’ Katherine asked. ‘You do look much better, I have to admit, although your eyes are still red. Your voice sounds awful.’
‘I slept like—I almost said the dead—like a log. Which is more, I think, than you did.’ One long stride brought him in front of her and he ran the ball of his thumb gently under her eyes. ‘You look tired.’
‘After yesterday’s excitements I found it hard to sleep.’ Katherine tried not to shiver at the light caress.
‘And what are you doing?’ Nick reached behind her and picked up the paper she had been using to list Philip’s debts. He let out a low whistle. ‘Your brother’s?’
‘Yes.’ Katherine took a deep breath. ‘I have decided I cannot deal with those, he will have to, if and when he returns. I have added up my own housekeeping accounts and I can pay those with what is left from the necklace money. I paid Arthur for the pawnbroker last night. That leaves … let me see … just over thirty pounds. That will feed us and pay the housekeeping for a while, but it is not going to help with the big debt.’
‘We need to leave town.’ Nick turned and went to lean on the mantelshelf, apparently engrossed in the dead embers in the fireplace. ‘If we go away, it will take them a while to find us, that’s all I need, to buy a little time.’
‘Where can we go?’
‘Home,’ he said simply. ‘I will take you home.’ Then he turned and Katherine saw the bitter frustration in his eyes before he dropped his gaze. When he looked at her again he had his expression under control.
‘You do not want to go,’ she stated, feeling miserably guilty.
Nick shrugged. ‘No, but it is time I faced up to my responsibilities, swallowed my pride and made peace, I know that. Coming to London was only a way of delaying the inevitable.’
‘Make peace with whom?’
‘My father, and my brother perhaps, although Robert would forgive me anything, I sometimes think.’
‘And where do they live?’
‘Northumberland.’
Katherine stared at him. Northumberland. Why, that was almost Scotland. ‘What will they say when you come home with a wife who isn’t a wife and a debt of such proportions?’
‘Robert will adore you. My father will be not in the least surprised at whatever I do. He and I have never seen eye to eye.’
‘Is that why you left all that time ago?’
‘Yes,’ he said shortly. She waited, but he did not add anything.
What to do? Travel hundreds of miles to a family she did not know who would have every reason to resent her and the debt she brought with her? They must be happy to know she had helped Nick escape death, but the thought that this might somehow cancel out the debt she had saddled him with or the fact he had married without his father’s blessing or approval was not one that sat comfortably with her. A life was not a commodity to be bought and sold.
‘Very well, on one condition.’ He raised an eyebrow and she added hastily, ‘I know, I should not be making conditions when you are trying to help me, but you must promise me that we will have this marriage annulled as soon as possible.’
The quizzical eyebrow stayed up. ‘Very well, if you still wish for an annulment by the time we have been in Northumberland for one month, then you shall have it.’
‘One month?’ Katherine regarded him, suspicious. ‘Why one month?’
‘To allow the charms of my family to grow upon you, perhaps.’ He smiled and her heart did a little flip. ‘Well?’
‘Yes, I agree. I suppose it will take that long to arrange an annulment anyway, do you not think?’
‘I should imagine so. It is not something I have any experience of.’ His voice was sounding painfully hoarse again and Katherine poured brandy from the decanter that always stood on the end of Philip’s desk.
‘Try sipping this. I wonder if drinking it hot with lemon would be soothing.’
‘This will be fine, thank you. Now, we must plan for the trip …’
‘No, you must stop talking and sit down and rest. I will plan and you can nod or shake your head.’
With a flash of white teeth he sank obediently into an armchair and sat watching her with such an expression of meek obedience that she laughed. ‘Oh, for goodness’ sake stop looking so conformable! I know perfectly well that you only do what I ask when it suits you.’
‘I am enjoying being ordered about,’ Nick rasped, his grin broadening. ‘Are you always so managing?’
‘Yes,’ Katherine said, somewhat
