Her Lord and Protector (formerly titled On Silent Wings) (10 page)

She merely
regarded both of them as one would two pesky flies.

How in hell
could this stubborn female continue her impertinence? “Leave this table
now
.”

In answer,
Katherine gave him a smug smile and, grasping her fork clumsily between her
thumb and index finger, she took a narrow sliver of meat from the tray in front
of her. She kept her eyes glued to his as she skated the morsel once over her
pink tongue, and then delicately sucked it into her mouth.

Alex saw the
triumphant gleam in her eyes. Even as the sensuality of her action caused heat
to rush to his groin, he reacted to the molten steel that surged through his
veins.

In one fluid
movement, he was at her side with his hand like a talon on her shoulder.
Something primal and hot spiraled through him at the feel of her silky skin
under his fingers, but he ignored it. “Rise,” he commanded harshly, “or feel
the cut of my whip on your bare back.”

She gasped.
Under his hand she stiffened and trembled, and he felt like a louse. Her lavender
scent caressed his senses and he fought the urge to gentle his grip on her soft
shoulder and tell her he meant nothing by his threat. Useless now, his fingers
slid off her shoulder when she stood.

Her face was
frozen in a pleasant expression, but guarded uncertainty filled her eyes.
Without looking at him, she left the room with Millie following close behind.

He wanted to
follow and quietly explain the reasons behind his decision. With great effort,
he returned to his seat.

“Interesting
woman,” one of the merchants remarked as he lifted his goblet to his thin lips.
“A bit too active for my tastes.”

The second man
straightened his ill-fitting black wig. “I wonder if she is that much of a wildcat
in bed,” he mused with a chuckle.

Robert asked,
“Do you think she will ever understand your rules?”

“She understands
that she will not dine at my table,” Alex answered. His two reasons were
sitting at his table right now, discussing her body and behavior. Alex wanted
to shield her without her thinking that he cared a whit about her, which he did
not.

Elizabeth spoke
in her hesitant murmur, “Pray do not be unkind to her.”

“I have made my
decision, Elizabeth,” Alex warned with a smoldering look. “Do not question me
further.” His cousin didn’t understand his intentions, and he saw no cause to
explain them.

Elizabeth quaked
under his gaze and murmured her assent.

As Alex led his
guests toward the parlor after dinner, he was surprised to see Katherine,
tight-lipped and pale, descending the stairs. He strolled over and waited until
she had reached the bottom step. “Did you enjoy your solitude?”

The question was
not meant to mock her, yet she apparently took it as such. Engaged by the fire
flashing in her eyes, Alex almost missed the hand that shot up to slap him. He
caught her wrist and noticed that she had removed her bandages. For the first
time, he saw a pink scar that extended in a thick line across her palm.

Another injury!
But this one was not new. “What—” he began, and then she stunned him by
swinging around her other hand and cuffing his chin. Her face, set in
determined resolve, nonetheless revealed the pain it must have taken to ball up
her fist and strike the hard bone of his jaw. Behind him, he heard Robert’s
guffaw and Elizabeth’s shocked intake of breath.

“What did I tell
you?” one of the merchants muttered to the other with a smug nod. “Hellcat.”

Alex wanted to
throw back his head and laugh—an odd sensation, since he had not truly laughed
for at least four years—but instead, he adopted a frosty expression and spoke
to Katherine with threatening calm. “You would take care not to give me grounds
to put you out of this house, my lady.”

To his dismay,
her eyes filled with tears. He took a quick breath and stepped back. He hadn’t
meant to make her cry.

She swiped at
the moisture with the back of her hand, thrust out her chin, and nodded.

Perplexity
replaced his concern. “What?”

She pointed at
the front door with a quick flick of her hand.

“You
want
to leave?”

He read her
vehement nod just as clearly as if she had shouted the words. Yes. She wanted
to leave. And
right
now
.

Was she serious?
Alex stared at her, then moved so close that his breath stirred the darling
curls along her forehead. “You really are a dolt,” he said quietly so his
guests wouldn’t hear. “Do you not know that if you walk out of here, you will
be in danger? Do you not know what’s out there in the night? The things you
will be made to do by men who do not care that you are a lady of high status?”

She was
listening, but her eyes told him she wasn’t convinced.

He lowered his
voice to a heated whisper. “You will become a filthy, begging whore within
days. You will have to lie with many men in order to survive. And within weeks,
you will die of starvation or disease. Now just give the signal,
Lady
Katherine, and I will have my servant open the door.”

Her features now
rigid, she shook her head in small, jerky movements.

Alex ran his
gaze over her attentive face, the fast moving pulse point on her soft throat,
the lovely tops of her breasts that swelled from her lacy bodice. She needed to
stay here, under his protection.

Under him.

The unbidden
thought made a sudden, powerful heat shoot through his loins and all at once,
his arms itched to lock her within them. He felt his body calling to hers with
a passion that rocked him to the core.

She was chipping
away at his barriers. He would not allow it. “No,” he whispered savagely
through tight lips. “You cannot do this.”

Wide-eyed,
Katherine shook her head again. She thought he referred to her leaving, and he
didn’t correct her.

“Still a burden,
is she?” came a low, amused voice in his right ear. Alex glanced at Robert and
then turned his attention back to Katherine, who, with irritation sparking in
her eyes, ran that pink tongue over her lips.

The sight nearly
undid him.

He had to turn
away lest she see the physical proof of his attraction for her. He beckoned to
the merchants and strolled toward the parlor, leaving her standing alone. To
his guests, it seemed he had bypassed honoring her request without appearing
like he gave a damn.

“She will be
leaving soon,” he said to Robert. “I have procured a husband for her.” He
looked back and saw her glaring after them with her hands on her hips.

“Ah. Will you
bed her before you send her off? Or was virginity part of your contract—if she
is a virgin?”

“It wasn’t
mentioned,” Alex said, thinking that if she were willing, she’d be in his bed
this very night, “but I doubt Wiltshire cares. His days of fornication are long
over.” He absently rubbed his sore jaw.

Robert chuckled.
“You might wish to gain her affection before she pummels you black and blue. Or
give her the whip, as you warned.”

Distaste filled
him. Had she been sent to Robert to do with as he pleased, Robert would have
gladly dispensed punishment. “I will not beat her. And I am not interested in
gaining her affection. Or any woman’s, for that matter.”

Robert hesitated
at the door to the parlor. “Which brings me to the purpose of my visit, Alex.
Your wife has been dead over a year now. Perhaps ’tis time to reconcile your
grief.”

Alex steeled
himself. “And I know you want your daughter to help me do that.”

In her
bedchamber, Katherine studied her tender fingertips for a moment before lifting
the quill with a loose grip.

The letter was
succinct, albeit in a sloppy scrawl.

Lord Drayton,

I must relate to
you my feelings. Your treatment of me is offensive and intolerable. I wish to
be placed with another guardian, one who will not frighten me with punishment
nor ban me to my bedchamber to eat.

I also wish to
have a say in the matter of choosing my husband. You have been most rude in
keeping me uninformed.

Signed,
Katherine Seymour

There. After
sprinkling fine sand over the ink to dry it, she folded the letter and sealed
it with wax.

She waited for
Millie to come and tell her that Lord Drayton summoned her. She would give him
her letter and would not leave his study until he’d given her an answer.

To pass the time
until he called for her, she read one of the books she had pilfered from Ellis’
collection. He would never miss them since he rarely read; the books were
ornaments in his parlor to impress his wealthy guests.

Memories of her
last parties in London surfaced in her mind and overtook her concentration of
the pages. Memories of condescending looks and whispers behind fans. Averted
eyes and exasperated brows. Ellis’ rigid smile signifying his embarrassed
impatience over her clumsy efforts to keep up with conversation through her
slate.

Lord Drayton,
too, must be uncomfortable by her silent presence. Why else would he keep her
from his table? He might have used the valid excuse of the presence of the
soldiers this morning, but in the dining room sat two rather bland-looking men
with several chins and wide bodies. No danger there. She was used to being
ogled during parties, and had ignored their stares at her breasts.

The light
gradually faded from the edges of the curtains, and no summons came. Her
stomach rumbling with hunger, Katherine closed the book. She would go to the
kitchen and get some bread and cheese from the pantry.

Someone knocked
on the door.

At last.
Katherine rose and picked up her letter.

But there stood
only Elizabeth with folded hands and an uncertain gaze. “I wanted to see if you
were all right.”

Katherine
exhaled in exasperation and stepped back to allow Elizabeth access. How to respond?
Yes, she was all right, and frustrated, and anxious.

And smarting
with the realization that Lord Drayton didn’t care to see her again this night.

Elizabeth
touched Katherine’s arm and her head lowered. “I am so sorry for my cousin’s actions.”

Katherine
shrugged. It was all she could do.

Elizabeth
cleared her throat and spoke in hushed tones, as if afraid of someone overhearing.
“Please do not take offense at what I say. I know you are from London and
perhaps things are different there. But out here—” she raised a slim hand and
gestured around her—”ladies must do exactly as their guardians decree.”

And then
literally cease to exist except to please the men who claimed them. The
familiar rebellion rose in Katherine’s heart. She waved Elizabeth to a chair
and then took a seat at the writing table.

Could there
never be a loving meeting of the heart and mind of two people? Would she always
have to yield to the whims of whatever man had power over her, of having the
vitality crushed from her being?

It wasn’t London
that was so different from the country; it was she who was different from many
women who, seemingly without struggle, accepted their fate as property. She
herself would be given to a stranger in a matter of weeks or even days, and
would have no say in the matter.

Elizabeth
sighed, shifted on the brown brocade seat, and looked around the room. “’Tis so
sad in here. The colors....” She was quiet for a moment, then said, “He has
changed over the last four years. He became a different person during
Mary’s...infirmities.” She shrugged her delicate shoulders and looked at
Katherine with apology in her gray eyes.

Katherine penned
a note while she tapped one foot on the floor and prayed for patience. Although
Elizabeth seemed to be more comfortable around her, she still maintained a
maddeningly hesitant manner of speaking. And her penchant for taking blame for
everything made Katherine want to shake her.

What was he like
before?

Elizabeth read,
and then studied a knothole embedded in the thick wood planks of the floor.
“Happy,” she said. “Smiling and laughing. As he almost did downstairs, right
after you—you struck him. Life comes into his eyes when he looks at you.”

Of course life
came into his eyes—flashing fire at Katherine. Well, he’d had his chance to
throw her out, but when she’d agreed, he had backed down. She leaned one elbow
on the writing table and placed her chin on the heel of her hand.

Elizabeth
continued. “He went through a terrible time during his marriage. He believes he
caused his wife’s death and refuses even to discuss it.”

Katherine raised
her chin off her hand. What did Elizabeth mean, caused his wife’s death? She
picked up the quill.
How did she die? What happened?

Elizabeth
flinched at the question. “Many things happened. Mary wasn’t well. She-she said
things about Alex that I did not believe. But I have only been living here
since my mother died three months ago, so I do not know the truth. All I can
tell you is that he is not the same man.” Elizabeth touched her bodice. “’Tis
as if he died inside, in his heart. He shows little emotion except...except
sometimes, he seems so sad.”