she’d all but lost control over it. And she was at risk of giving, and losing, so much more. “What if it’s too late?”
“It’s not too late. Didn’t you just threaten to have me flogged?” His grin was a momentary flash that hardened almost instantly. “Your threats only prove the Katherine I know is still here.”
The only thing her threats proved was that William was still capable of aggravating her to no end.
“My ferocious, bloodthirsty corsair,” William murmured, catching her tears with his thumbs. “You’re a powerful woman, not a foolish child, and you’re much too shrewd to succumb to this kind of romantic fluff. Take him to your bed, if it pleases you. Marry him because he’s the best of your choices—I won’t see you married to anyone less, mark my words—and God knows he’ll make an honest woman of you or he’ll answer to me. Enjoy the bastard’s company, even. But don’t let it be more than that.”
It was already too late for that. She broke away from him and went to the rampart wall where it faced the sea. Below, the east tower’s ruins sat in a wretched heap. She ran her hands over the cold turret stone, letting her fingers play in the pocks left behind by Papa and his friends the night they’d decided to fire their pistols at a row of bottles.
How could Dunscore have meant so little to him, when it meant so much to her?
William joined her at the railing. “Didn’t hear you agree,” he said quietly.
That was because she was too afraid he was wrong. It would be impossible to marry James and not lose herself to him. “If only there were some word from the committee,” she said.
“I heard nothing before we left London. Croston himself said it was too soon.”
“Yes. I know.” But there would be no mercy from the committee, and she didn’t expect any.
She touched the ragged spot where an entire corner had been shot away. She would have it repaired. She would have everything repaired. Before the month was out, there would be a crew of masons rebuilding the east tower and an army of gardeners coaxing the rose garden back to life.
The two ships were barely visible on the horizon now. A ship can only have one captain, and I prefer to be it.
If she didn’t do something to steer herself on course, everything she’d worked so hard to gain would be crushed. She would be crushed. She needed to solidify things with Lord Deal now—today—before she lost herself completely to James.
THE NEWS OF the committee’s decision had not yet reached Dunscore.
It was the critical fact that pounded through James’s thoughts as he thundered across the countryside toward Deal Manor with the night’s sensations still thrumming in his blood.
Last night had made one thing clear: he needed Katherine like a cannon needed powder. Like a sail needed wind.
The way she’d felt in his embrace this morning—he’d wanted to renew his proposal right then and there. But he wasn’t a fool. He knew Katherine too well to believe last night had changed her mind about anything.
That she still believed she needed to marry was his only hope for success.
Deal Manor came into view, and a familiar feeling coursed through his veins. An old exhilaration surged up from some hidden place. His strategy unfolded before him.
With any luck, this one confrontation would be all that was necessary.
James dismounted outside Deal Manor, rehearsing his attack as he handed off the reins. Once Deal was no longer an option for her, his marriage to Katherine would be all but assured.
Inside, he found Deal comfortably seated in his breakfast room. A copy of the Edinburgh Courant lay open with a scattering of crumbs dusting its pages.
“Had an uncanny feeling I might be seeing you,” Deal said.
“Oh?”
Deal only smiled and gestured to the empty chair at his small table nestled in a bay of tall windows. “Please, be seated. I’ll call for an extra plate.”
James preferred to stand, but there was no need to be an ass. “No need for the plate. I’ve already eaten.” It was a lie. Food was the last thing he could stomach this morning. A maid poured him a cup of coffee before being dismissed by Deal, and James sipped the brew even though he would have preferred something stronger. Good Scotch whiskey, for example.
“I’ll come straight to the point,” James said. “Whatever your understanding with Lady Dunscore, I want you to break it. I am prepared to negotiate an incentive.”
Deal took a bite of some dark bread, unperturbed save for a slight raising of his bushy brows. “And if the promise of an incentive doesn’t tempt me, you’ll resort to stronger measures, I suppose.”
James tamped down a flare of anger. “I’ll do whatever is necessary.”
Deal chewed his bread and took a sip of tea. “I can see now why Katherine said you were unsuitable.”
James’s gut pitched sharply. “Katherine thinks anyone in breeches is unsuitable.”
“But she has too volatile a nature to hide her emotions well, and when we discussed marriage it was clear her love lay elsewhere.”
Her love. James squelched a callow urge to embark on a fishing expedition.
“I asked her if she’d left someone behind in London—someone who’d broken her heart, perhaps—” Deal gave him a pointed look “—but she said no, that there was nobody appropriate. Now I can see perhaps she was right. Do you really think to win Katherine by threats and bribes?”
“I will have Katherine by whatever method it takes. Have you come to an understanding?”
“That, Croston, is a question you should be asking her.”
“I’m asking you.”
“I certainly won’t deny Katherine my help, though I’ll admit I haven’t yet decided what form it should take.” There was a stubborn set to Deal’s face that James didn’t like.
“Perhaps I can help you decide,” James said coldly. “Katherine may be carrying my child. And even were that not the case, there’s a good chance that after last night it would be.”
Deal set down his bread and looked James in the eye. “Impertinent bastard. I would call you out for besmirching her if it wasn’t plain as day you’re besotted. A man in love deserves a measure of mercy, I suppose.”
In love. The idea grabbed him by the throat and for a moment he couldn’t breathe.
Deal gave James a look he hadn’t received since school days. “My only question is how you plan to make her say the vows. Will you hold a pistol on her?”
Somehow he managed to inhale. “I’ll take care of it.”
“You
