Married By Morning (The Hathaways #4)(48)

“Guilt often takes the form of anger.”

“But I never blamed Harry for what happened to me. I wasn’t his responsibility.”

Leo’s face hardened. “Apparently you were no one’s responsibility.”

Catherine shrugged uneasily. “Harry didn’t know what to do with me. He asked where I wanted to live, since I couldn’t stay with him, and I asked if he could send me somewhere far from London. We settled on a school in Aberdeen, called Blue Maid’s.”

He nodded. “Some of the peerage send their more unruly daughters or by-blows there.”

“How did you know about it?”

“I’m acquainted with a woman who attended Blue Maid’s. A severe place, she said. Plain food and discipline.”

“I loved it.”

His lips twitched. “You would.”

“I lived there for six years, teaching for the last two.”

“Did Rutledge come to visit?”

“Only once. But we corresponded occasionally. I never went home on holiday, because the hotel wasn’t really a home, and Harry didn’t want to see me.” She grimaced a little. “He wasn’t very nice until he met Poppy.”

“I’m not convinced that he’s nice now,” Leo said. “But as long as he treats my sister well, I’ll have no quarrel with him.”

“Oh, but Harry loves her,” Catherine said earnestly. “Truly he does.”

Leo’s expression softened. “What makes you so certain?”

“I can see it. The way he is with her, the look in his eyes and … why are you smiling like that?”

“Women. You’ll interpret anything as love. You see a man wearing an idiotic expression, and you assume he’s been struck by Cupid’s arrow when in reality he’s digesting a bad turnip.”

She looked at him indignantly. “Are you mocking me?”

Laughing, Leo tightened his arms around her as she tried to struggle from his lap. “I’m merely making an observation about your gender.”

“I suppose you think men are superior.”

“Not at all. Only simpler. A woman is a collection of diverse needs, whereas a man has only one. No, don’t get up. Tell me why you left Blue Maid’s.”

“The headmistress asked me to.”

“Really? Why? I hope you did something reprehensible and shocking.”

“No, I was very well behaved.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“But Headmistress Marks sent for me to come to her office one afternoon, and—”

“Marks?” Leo glanced at her alertly. “You took her name?”

“Yes, I admired her very much. I wanted to be like her. She was stern but kind, and nothing ever seemed to disrupt her composure. I went to her office, and she poured tea, and we talked for a long time. She said I’d done an excellent job, and I was welcome to return and continue teaching in the future. But first she wanted me to leave Aberdeen and see something of the world. And I told her that leaving Blue Maid’s was the last thing I wanted to do, and she said that was why I needed to do it. She had received word from a friend at a placement agency in London that a family of … ‘uncommon circumstances,’ as she put it, was searching for a woman who could act as both governess and companion to pair of sisters, one of whom had recently been expelled from finishing school.”

“That would be Beatrix.”

Catherine nodded. “The headmistress thought that I might suit the Hathaways. What I never expected was how much they suited me. I went for an interview, and I thought the entire family was a bit mad—but in the loveliest possible way. And I’ve worked for them for almost three years, and I’ve been so happy and now—” She broke off, her face contorting.

“No, no,” Leo said hastily, taking her head in his hands, “don’t start that again.”

Catherine was so shocked to feel his lips brush her cheeks and closed eyes that the tears instantly evaporated. When she finally brought herself to look at him again, she saw that he was wearing a faint smile. He smoothed her hair, and stared into her grief-ravaged face with a depth of concern she had never seen from him before.

It frightened her to realize how much of herself she had just given away. Now he knew everything she had tried to keep secret for so long. Her hands worked against his chest like the wings of a bird that had found itself trapped indoors.

“My lord,” she said with difficulty, “why did you come after me? What do you want from me?”

“I’m surprised you have to ask,” he murmured, still caressing her hair. “I want to offer for you, Cat.”

Of course, she thought, bitterness welling. “To be your mistress.”

His voice matched hers exactly for calmness, in a way that conveyed gentle sarcasm. “No, that would never work. First, your brother would arrange to have me murdered, or, at the very least, maimed. Second, you’re far too prickly tempered to be a mistress. You’re far better suited as a wife.”

“Whose?” she asked with a scowl.

Leo stared directly into her narrowed eyes. “Mine, of course.”

Chapter Eighteen

Hurt and outraged, Catherine struggled so violently that he was forced to release her.