Miss Templeman might be a gem, but Katherine Collins was a diamond of the first water, and he refused to let her slip through his fingers because of his misplaced pride and her stubborn heart.
Hope pushed up anew as he entered his town house. That hope changed to something else when he learned that Davis Laughton was waiting for him. Handing his hat to his butler, he hurried to the library.
Laughton had been sitting in one of the chairs, but he rose as Alex entered. With his brown hair and eyes and slender build, Laughton looked more like an Oxford scholar than the cream of Lord Hastings' staff as Alex knew him to be. His gaze this morning was cool, and Alex felt his gut clench anew.
"Good afternoon, Borin," he said politely. "Lord Hastings would like a moment of your time. I have been asked to escort you to the War Office. Immediately."
Chapter Twenty
Katherine came down the stairs more slowly in Alex's wake. It was done. She had been noble and let him see her true self. She was not surprised that he had rejected her. She was only surprised it hurt so much.
Constance and Eric were peering out the withdrawing room door. It was a guess as to whose eyes were wider.
"You showed him the War Office," Eric guessed.
"The what?" Constance asked.
"The War Office," Katherine told her, amazed she could be so calm. "It is across from the schoolroom. We studied Lord Borin quite thoroughly before presenting him to you. We had his entire life neatly cataloged on the walls. We listed his likes, dislikes, strengths, and weaknesses. And now he knows ours. I thought it was only fair."
Eric grimaced. "Was he awfully mad?"
"Tremendously," Katherine replied, trying not to remember the hurt and anger on his face. "We shall not hear from him again unless it is through his solicitor calling us before the magistrates."
Eric paled as Constance gasped. "The magistrates? Surely you did nothing criminal."
"Perhaps not," Katherine allowed, "although there might be some prohibition against trapping a man into marriage for material gain."
"But that's not what you did," Constance protested. "He wanted to marry you. You wanted to marry him. You love him."
"That is immaterial," Katherine snapped. "I am a managing female. Lord Borin should be thankful to be rid of me."
"You are a skilled administrator," Sir Richard corrected, coming up the stairs. "And Borin would be lucky to have you beside him, as would any fellow."
Katherine raised her head, hoping he would not see the pain that must be blazing from her eyes. "A shame he did not see fit to agree with you, Uncle."
"A greater shame that you do not agree with me, Katherine," he chided.
"Agree with you?" She felt tears coming and dashed them away. Could none of them understand? "How can I agree with you? I have too much evidence to the contrary."
"Who would say such a thing to you?" Constance cried.
"You!" When they stared at her, Katherine rushed on. "Eric complains endlessly that I manage him. Constance encourages me to pursue more womanly activities as if managing this house is somehow unmaidenly. And Sir Richard tells me he must take over my responsibilities as if somehow it is wrong of me to do them when I am far better at them than he is."
Her voice had risen with each sentence. She sounded like a veritable shrew! She pressed her lips together to hold back the frustration, but she knew her eyes were daring them to disagree with her. Her uncle regarded her sadly, and Constance stared at her with tears in her own eyes. She couldn't stand their pity. For the first time in her life, she fled.
She was thankful they did not immediately follow her to the room she shared with Constance, leaving her to sob her heart out alone. She should not have lost her temper with them. They only spoke the truth. This drive she felt to line things up nicely and neatly was a curse. She could not fix the world's problems, she could not fix their problems. She couldn't even fix her own.
But crying had never helped much. The tears let out her anger, but they could not relieve the weight on her heart. Even in trying to force Alex to see her as she was, she had lied. She let him think she sought him for herself. It wasn't so very different from the truth, she supposed. She had not trusted him to make the decision she wanted, and so she had set out to manage him to her wishes. She could not help it that her wishes had changed along the way.
It was not long before her natural inclination to order reasserted itself. She sat up from where she lay crying and wiped the tears off her cheeks. She had work to do. Like it or not, her management skills would be needed if they were to remove themselves from London for the country. She had a house to find, furniture to sell or give away, clothes and belongings to be packed. It was going to take a great deal of work to leave town. It might even be enough to help her forget Alex.