She paled and then scrambled to her feet. Her eyes darted nervously about the room. For the first time in Katherine’s lifetime she found her mother an unsettled, stammering, bundle of awkwardness. “Uh, w-welcome, Y-Your Grace. Tea?” she squeaked.
Jasper arched a midnight black brow.
“Uh, th-that is,” Mother crushed the fabric of her skirts in her hand. “That is t-to say…”
“I believe my mother is offering you tea, Your Grace,” Anne said. She dropped an elegant curtsy and smiled. God love Anne; she epitomized ladylike elegance and grace.
Alas, it appeared this husband-to-be of hers was wholly unaffected by her sister’s gentle charm. Jasper peered down the length of his slightly crooked, Roman nose at her, and remained silent.
Nor did it fail to escape Katherine’s notice that he’d failed to bow.
Anne’s smile dipped.
Katherine’s gaze moved between Jasper, and her sister, as she considered for the first time how very important it was for Jasper and her sister Anne to like one another.
She hurried across the room. “Your Grace,” she said.
He froze her with a look…and the words died on her lips.
This was clearly not a man eager to make her his wife. This was the coldhearted beast who’d harshly reprimanded her after he’d pulled her from the Thames.
She staggered to a stop several feet from him, hating the unease that coursed through her. The Jasper she’d come to know did not elicit this uncertainty. He laughed; albeit rusty and harsh, but he laughed. And he spoke in gentle tones.
Mother seemed to compose herself. She tilted her chin up a notch, and cleared her throat. “Your Grace, may I offer you—?”
“A moment alone with Lady Katherine,” he interrupted in a low, dark tone.
Mother paled, and managed a jerky nod. “V-very w-well. Come along, Anne,” she said, and snatched Anne by the forearm and steered her from the room as though she were an archangel saving her daughter from a dark demon.
The door closed behind them, and Katherine stood stock still in the middle of the room with that dark demon. She folded her hands in front of her. “Jasper,” she said quietly.
He said nothing.
Katherine caught her lower lip between her teeth and troubled the flesh. His eyes narrowed as he followed that distracted movement.
She stopped. “You know, there really is no reason for you to be so surly.”
His nostrils flared, but other than that he gave no outward reaction to her statement.
“Anne was perfectly polite—”
“And your mother?” he interjected, his voice as cold as the hard edge of a knife.
Katherine took another step toward him until they were a mere hand’s-breadth apart. “I’d not find fault with you for the crimes of your father or mother.”
His body went ramrod straight; his broad shoulders stiffened within the fabric of his black coat.
Some volatile emotion flared in his eyes, and Katherine took a hasty step backward. Of a sudden, her mother’s outrageous charge about Jasper surfaced. Katherine knew with certainty the words to be false; Jasper could never commit an act of violence, most especially against a woman…yet, his hardened eyes and the rigid set to his square jaw would be enough to give the most courageous gentleman, pause.
It struck Katherine that she knew nothing of Jasper’s parents, and that she’d quite callously insulted them. “Is your mother—?”#p#分页标题#e#
“Dead,” he said flatly.
Her heart twisted with pain for him. “I’m sorry,” she said.
He flexed his jaw. “Don’t be.”
Just that. Two words. A chill ran along her spine. What manner of man was he that he could be so emotionless when speaking of his parents?
He brushed his fingertips along the edge of her cheek, and she flinched.
A wintry smile formed on his lips. “What, are you regretting your offer, my lady?”
Katherine hesitated. “Of course not.” However, even he seemed to detect the uncertainty in her reply.
He cupped his hand around the nape of her neck, and warmth fanned out from the point where his fingers touched her skin, and raced through her. Her heartbeat fluttered wildly in her breast with a heady awareness of him.
Jasper dipped his head, so close their lips nearly met. “Not even with your mother’s charges against me?”
Her heart paused a beat. Something in his question begged her to ask him more, and God help her for being a coward, even as she longed to know the details surrounding his wife’s death, she couldn’t bring herself to ask the words.
He touched his finger to the tip of her nose. “Come, Katherine. I’d imagine you’re very curious to know the details? What? Silence?” He made a tsking sound. “How very disappointing when I’ve come to expect boldness from you.”