Chapter Fourteen
Cat and the two Snowden girls were huddled together in Cat’s bedchamber.
She had told them what had happened, and they had seemed suitably sympathetic on her behalf.
Although they kept flicking glances at each other, almost as if there were something unspoken between them, but Cat was too full of her own concerns to delve into it.
“I understand how cross you are with him,” Prudence said in an excessively careful voice. “He was so nice!”
Harriet added her thoughts. “He was smitten with you, Cat. I can almost understand why he didn’t tell you.”
Cat stared at them in amazement. “Well, I can’t! He should have told me. I would have understood.”
The sisters exchanged one of those glances. “But would you?” Prudence said. “Are you sure you wouldn’t have been furious and walked off? Not that I blame you of course.”
“No,” Cat immediately rejected the idea, and then rethought it.
“Well, perhaps. But then I would have had to put my feelings aside, because I needed to talk to him. I needed to persuade him to help me. And knowing the truth then would have been so much better than knowing it now when I . . . when I . . .”
There was a silence which was broken when Bothwell leaped onto the bed and made the three of them jump. Cat hadn’t even realized he was in her room, but now here, he was being fussed over and petted.
“Sometimes people do the wrong things, but it doesn’t mean they are bad people,” Prudence went on. “And he seems determined to help you with Bonnyrigg. I truly believe he is on your side, Cat.”
“So he says,” she muttered, irritated with their championing of the Master. “I am yet to see the agreement they are drawing up. And who knows whether or not Lord Armytage will approve any of it! Mr. Sutherland . . . that is, the Master, seems to think his grandfather will not listen to him.”
“You need a solicitor to thoroughly examine the marriage contract,” Harriet warned. “In case there is some trick in there.”
Cat had thought about that. She knew she should get her Uncle James to read over the legal papers before she signed.
However, though he was a pragmatic gentleman, there were some things he would never agree to, and this may be one of them.
What if he refused outright to let the marriage go ahead?
Not that he could stop it—she was of age.
But if he informed her father . . . It would make things very awkward.
“I have to go through with it,” she said quietly. “I would not forgive myself if we lost Bonnyrigg. The family would be split apart!” Tears stung her eyes at the very thought. “I have to do this. I have to try.”
The two girls sighed and reached to clasp her hands. “I’m sure it will be all right,” Prudence said, although the expression in her eyes seemed to say otherwise. “You liked him, didn’t you, when you thought he was someone else? Perhaps in time you will like him again?”
Cat hung her head. She was so tired, too tired to think at all. Marrying a man she had thought she was beginning to love only to find out he was someone else? It felt risky, but what choice did she have?
She tried to remind herself again of how she had felt when she first set eyes on Mr. Sutherland. She had liked him, liked him a great deal. But he had lied to her and tricked her, so how could she forgive him? And yet how could she not forgive him when they must work together to save her home?
Three days more and she would have the marriage contract in her hands. She would wait until then. Perhaps it would all fall apart and she would be going home with Uncle James after all. She closed her eyes with a whimper, while Bothwell rubbed against her sympathetically.
Prudence gave her a hug, and Harriet followed. “It will be all right,” the two girls murmured. “Really, it will all turn out for the best.”
Christopher shot Sinclair a look, as if he were amused and dismayed at the same time. “I thought things were bad enough at the ball when you told me what you were up to, but this is worse. How on earth did you get yourself into such a mess, Sinclair?”
Sinclair groaned. He seemed to be groaning a lot lately. “I know, I know, I’m an idiot.”
“You don’t deserve her.”
Sinclair rested his head in his hands. “What can I do to make up for it? There must be something.”
Christopher considered his questions for a moment. “It would need to be something huge. An enormous effort on your part. You have to show her how much she means to you. How much you are willing to sacrifice for her sake.”
“Yes, all of that!” He looked up hopefully at his friend.
“Let me think.” Christopher tapped his chin. “When is the wedding?”
“Cat has to agree to the settlement, and my grandfather has to reply to my urgent message. Mrs. Dove-Lyon has written to him, too, but she says he hasn’t responded to her yet. So I have to wait, and then if they both agree to the terms, we will marry. Soon, I hope.”
“Soon, eh? That doesn’t give you very long.” Then, seeing Sinclair’s woebegone face, he patted him on the back. “Don’t despair. I’ll think of something.”
“Then think quickly,” Sinclair said crossly.
The two of them shared a look, and then they began to laugh. The situation was so ridiculous, and it wasn’t really funny, but the laughing helped to soften some of the tension. Sinclair sat back, wiping his eyes, while Christopher poured them a drink from the decanter.
“You’re sure you want to do this?” he asked. “You can say no. You do know that, don’t you? Just because your grandfather wants you to marry a duke’s daughter doesn’t mean you have to do it.”
Say no? Sinclair thought. Had he ever said no to his grandfather?
He hadn’t. He had always been the obedient grandson, no matter how much he loathed the man, and always done as he was told.
But if he stood up to Lord Armytage this time and said no, then there would be consequences for Cat. She would lose all she loved.
And Sinclair would lose her.
“I want to marry her,” he said. “I love her.”
“I know you do,” Christopher said gently. “I could see it that day in the park. You had a look on your face I can only describe as lovestruck.”
Sinclair wanted to protest, but then he decided his friend was probably right. He was lovestruck, and he was going to do everything in his power to resolve this mess to both his and Cat’s satisfaction.