the debt be paid?’
Fear rolled back like a cold fog. ‘I had not forgotten precisely,’ she stammered. ‘It just did not seem important under the circumstances. The last few days, all I have thought about was making sure you did not hang.’
‘And by saving my neck you have resurrected the debt. The moneylenders will be interested to hear about this, I have no doubt. We had better leave town as soon as possible.’
‘There is no “we” about it,’ Katherine said robustly, fighting down the waves of panic. ‘It is my debt, not yours.’
Nick grinned. He seemed invigorated by the dreadful mess they found themselves in. ‘How can you smile about it?’ she protested. ‘I only married you because I thought the debt would make no difference to you. Neither of us has any money, for goodness’ sake! You must disentangle yourself from my affairs.’
‘Kat, you saved my life. Do you think I value that at less than a few thousand pounds?’
‘Five thousand,’ she said miserably. ‘You might not be going to hang, but if you remain married to me you will end up in a debtors’ prison.’
‘I will not agree to an annulment, Kat.’
‘Then I will go to the moneylenders and tell them the marriage was not consummated. That will do just as well.’
Nick sat up, the smile vanishing from his face. ‘For one thing they will not believe you, and for another, if I really believed you would do that, I promise you I would make it a lie before you could leave this room.’
Katherine scrambled to her feet and backed off from the bed. ‘No!’ There was a very determined glint in his eyes. ‘If I promise I will not go to them today or tomorrow, will you promise me you will rest now?’ She received a reluctant nod. ‘Would you like something to eat? No? Then I will bring you some lemonade.’
‘Claret.’
‘Lemonade.’ She had reached the door and looked back, her hand on the knob. ‘We have no claret.’
‘Liar,’ he observed amiably.
‘Oh, very well, but it will do you no good whatsoever. In fact, I would not be surprised if you ended up with a brain fever!’
Katherine shut the door with a snap and went downstairs to find Jenny, feeling she had definitely come off worst in that encounter. She should have explained only what she had intended to about her adventures in Hertfordshire, she should have accepted Nick’s thanks with dignity and decorum and she should have convinced him they should seek an annulment at the earliest opportunity.
What happened instead? she berated herself as she walked into the kitchen. He knows every detail, you let yourself be kissed until you almost lost every shred of self-control and modesty and he is refusing to annul the marriage.
‘Are you all right, Miss Katherine?’ Jenny asked anxiously, emerging from the pantry with a bowl of eggs.
‘Perfectly, thank you. Could you ask John to clear the bath from upstairs when he has a moment? And if there is any left of that dozen of claret that Mr Philip thinks I do not know about, please will you take one up to Mr Lydgate?’
Jenny wiped her hands on her apron and went off to do as she was asked, leaving Katherine brooding at the kitchen table. And there is still that debt and not the slightest hope of paying it.
She was still deep in thought when the maid came back. ‘I asked Mr Lydgate if he’d like a nice omelette and some ham and he said he thought he would, so that’s good, isn’t it, Miss Katherine?’
‘He told me he was not hungry.’
‘That’s men for you.’ Jenny reached for an empty bowl and began to crack eggs into it. ‘They need tempting; I told him all about how good my omelettes are, though I say it myself. There’s the front door, that’ll be Mr Brigham and he’ll be hungry too, I make no doubt.’
Need tempting! The last thing that Nicholas Lydgate needed was tempting, he appeared to take what he wanted quite easily without any such encouragement.
‘Oh, hello, Arthur.’ The young lawyer put his head round the kitchen door, saw Katherine and came in, his arms full of a handsome French clock.
‘Here you are, and here are … where did I put them …? Yes, here are the earrings.’
‘Thank you so much,’ Katherine said gratefully, running a hand over the ornate metalwork of the clock. It brought back her grandmother so vividly she smiled as she touched it. ‘What do I owe you?’
Arthur looked embarrassed, ‘No hurry at all, 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