Comprehension dawned and with it revulsion so strong it burned his gut. "You planned this. You played on my emotions to elicit an offer of marriage."
"Guilty," she said, making his fists ball at her breezy reply.
He could not seem to grasp the enormity of the offense. Glancing from one piece of paper to another, he shook his head. "Was your stepsister's fortune a humdrum? Was Lord Templeman's bravura part of the game? My word, but it was a neat trap."
"And you nearly fell into it," she replied. "You see why I say you cannot love me, my lord?"
Blood roared in his ears. "Love you? Madam, I never even knew you. The woman I fell in love with was a fiction."
Her smile was tight. "Then you won't mind taking yourself off?"
"Nothing could induce me to stay." He brushed past her, the brief touch raising the bile in his throat. He stormed down the stairs, snatched his hat off the hall table, and slammed the door behind him.
"Home," he barked to his startled coachman. He leaped up into the carriage and threw the lap robes out of the way. To think he had been so anxious to make his case this morning that he had rung for his carriage rather than walk.
For what? To be made a fool, to have his heart ripped from his chest and trampled upon with wild glee. He wanted to throttle her. He wanted to pretend he'd never met her. He wanted to erase the memory of her face from his mind and her touch from his body. Hastings was right: He would never have made an agent. He was entirely too dim-witted, hot-tempered, and puffed up with his own consequence. Small wonder the man had refused him. Small wonder Katherine had refused him.
The sweet light of logic pierced his dark thoughts.
Why had she refused him? She had had him, heart in hand, ready to lay it at her feet at but a word from her. After all that work, why refuse?
He took a deep breath and forced his emotions to calm. Something wasn't right. Was he still being manipulated? Why had she balked with the prize in hand? She had schemed and planned to trap him. Could it be that her courage had failed in the end?
No, not her courage. He had called her courageous and even this revelation could not change that image. Katherine hadn't a cowardly bone in her body. Even if she wasn't the woman he thought, her actions spoke for themselves in that regard. She had trailed spies and confronted men twice her size. So if it wasn't fear that motivated her, then what?
Could it be that her conscience had pricked her? If she were as wicked as he'd painted her, it seemed odd for her to suddenly realize her guilt. Perhaps she was worried how he would react if he learned the truth, but if she'd simply agreed to his proposal he would have been honor-bound to wed her, deceitful chit or not. She had hooked one of the biggest trout in the stream and deliberately set it free. Was all this some demented game?
No, that he could not believe. The affection, the genuine love he'd felt among the Collins family could not have been a fiction. Sir Richard's passion for his country could not be false. Eric and Constance truly cared for one another and the others in their family. Katherine's passion for her music was equally fervent, as was her ceaseless devotion to her stepsister, brother, and uncle. A woman who loved and lived like that could not be a scheming temptress.
What then? Had she truly worked only to find a husband for Constance? Her ways were unconventional, but her purpose was sound. Her activities were not much different from what he hoped to accomplish with Lord Hastings. And if Templeman's greed was no fabrication, she had greater need. Was the real Katherine so different from the woman he had imagined?
He shook his head. He'd been a fool. Instead of railing at her, he should have delved more deeply into what she was trying to say. She had let him believe her a schemer when in truth she was simply far more skilled at management than he could ever be.
And she didn't think that trait lovable. That was what she'd meant by the demons that hounded her: She doubted her worth. He was not fool enough to think his love would be the one thing to turn that tide, but at least he could tell her how wrong she was. Her ability to plan and carry out her campaign was exactly the trait so often missing in himself. She was clever, courageous, and spirited, exactly the kind of person he wished to become. She wasn't afraid to work, if through that work she could help the people she loved. Together, they might make the perfect marriage.
He almost had the carriage turn around, but somehow he didn't think she was ready to hear words of love from him just yet. The pain would be too fresh. He would give her a day to calm and then renew his suit.