“Is Aldora’s husband. She intended to wed his brother, the Marquess of St. James because our family…” Her words trailed off.
Jasper told himself not to pry; his marriage to Katherine had been a matter of convenience, nothing more. The details surrounding her life, and that of her family’s should not matter. In delving into those details, her life only became that much more entwined with his. “Because your family…?”
Katherine gripped the fabric of her emerald green muslin cloak. “My father was a wastrel. He spent his days and nights at the gaming tables, and indulging in spirits, and he squandered everything not entailed.”
Ahh, she’d alluded to as much in her proposal to Jasper. He was filled with the same icy rage as when she’d humbled herself by offering herself to him, a heartless bastard, all to thwart her grasping mother’s intentions for her.
“Nearly four years ago, he died suddenly of an apoplexy.” When his world was coming apart at the proverbial seams, so too had Katherine’s. He tried to imagine her then, a mere girl on the cusp of womanhood watching her every last earthly possession removed and sold to pay for her father’s sins.
Katherine glanced at him. “Then the creditors began coming round.”
His gut churned. He wished he’d known her then; wished he could have silently paid off those creditors and spared her the terror of being turned out, with no monetary security.
“They took Anne’s pianoforte, even her ribbons. They took all the unentailed property. My b…they took everything,” she amended, as though shamed in acknowledging her own material losses.
I will shower you with anything and everything your heart should desire.
“Aldora, she is the eldest and therefore needed to make a match and save us all from ruin.” She troubled the flesh of her lower lip as she was wont to do when agitated. For everything he did not know of her life, he knew the very subtle nuances of her body’s every movement.
“Aldora had been given a pendant by her friends; a simple gold heart given them by an old gypsy, purported to lead them to the heart of a d…” Her blush deepened. “Er, a dear man who would love her.”
Her telling reaction indicated there was more to her sudden discomfort. “Aldora thought with our family’s scandalous circumstances and dire financial straits that a powerful, wealthy, titled lord represented our hope for security.” She untied the strings of her bonnet, and removed the hideous thing. She tossed it across the carriage where it landed with a solid thump at his feet. “I detest that bonnet,” she muttered.
And bonnets. He would commission the finest milliner to design a limitless number of bonnets for her to choose of. One for every day of the year.
“I take it she did not marry the marquess?”
Katherine grinned. “She married his brother.” She waved her hand. “There was some scandal that clung to her husband Michael, but it mattered not. Aldora loved him.”
The red in her cheeks deepened to the hue of summer berries, and suddenly Jasper had a desire for the sweet fruit.
He shifted on the seat “And what of you, Katherine? Surely you must have dreamed of love for yourself?” Or at least more than this cold, practical contract you’ve entered into with me.
She lifted one shoulder in a slight shrug. “When I was younger, perhaps. I’m nearly twenty years, and far more logical.”
Jasper had known love and great loss, but the thought of his brave, bold, spirited, Katherine never knowing love herself, scraped at his insides like the edge of a blade being applied to his flesh.
Except…on the heel of that, was the thought of her with some nameless, carefree gentleman capable of laughter and love, and with every fiber of his selfish being, Jasper gave thanks that she belonged to him.
“You’ve not spoken of your family, either, Jasper.” Her quiet murmur interrupted his musings. “Do you have any brothers or sisters?”
Jasper bent down and retrieved her bonnet. He studied the ivory lace trim. “I have no brothers or sisters.” His had been a lonely childhood. There had been no laughter or merriment within the walls of Castle Blackwood.
“What of your mother and father?”
“They are d…”
“Dead. I know.” She leaned over and took her bonnet back. “I imagine there is certainly more you can say of the people who gave you life.”
Oh, he could say any manner of things about them, none of which would be appropriate for a lady’s ears. “My parents were cold, selfish individuals. It was a match based on their mutually distinguished positions in Society.” His parents’ had been a scandalous union ; both his mother and father carrying on with very public affairs.