His mouth thinned into an unpleasant frown, but he bobbed out a curt nod. “Of course. Forgive me.”
“I do miss being your friend,” she said, softening her tone as the shock of his actions began to wear off. “But as I said, things have worked out for the best. You belong with your wife, and I seem to belong with Dominic.” She couldn’t help but picture her husband with a soft smile. “He’s much different than I feared he would be all those months ago.”
For a brief moment, potent rage flashed across Cole’s face. She could almost feel it vibrate through her. Then it was gone, and he gave her a sad frown that irked her to her core.
“Perhaps he isn’t so different,” he said with a falsely distressed shake of his head. “Katherine, I’m afraid I misled you about the purpose of my arrival. Yes, it was to pay a visit, but part of why I came here was to ensure your welfare.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake, Cole,” she said, unable to keep her growing annoyance out of her voice.
She was still shaken by his aborted kiss, and now anger was added to her turbulent emotions.
“You have absolutely no reason to fear for my welfare. I’m perfectly fine—”
Clearing his throat, he interrupted her, “And to assuage my own guilt at putting you in this untenable situation.”
His growing contempt for Dominic brought out the protector in her. “Well, I free you from your guilt. I’m very happy here.”
The moment the words fell from her lips, she was filled with a sense of how very true they were. She was happy in Lansing Square. And more importantly, she was happy with Dominic. Despite her attempts to push him away, despite his secrets and searching, she enjoyed her husband’s company. She longed for his touch. And she couldn’t imagine her life without him in it.
For a moment, Cole’s face fell. Then a look of contemplation filled his eyes and he suddenly gave her a triumphant smile. Katherine’s stomach flipped. Why did he look so…so smug?
“I feel no guilt over that, Katherine. No, my guilt comes from the bargain I struck with my brother.” He let his words sink in silently.
“Bargain?” she repeated softly. Trepidation tingled through her every nerve as that one little word slipped from her lips. “What are you talking about?”
Cole clucked his tongue in disapproval. “I knew he wouldn’t be man enough to tell you the truth. Though I hoped, for your sake, he would reveal everything. To let you choose your own fate rather than to hold you under false pretences.”
“Stop talking in riddles,” she snapped. “And tell me what you mean.”
Cole started at her harsh tone, but immediately his cold smile was back. Almost like he was enjoying each and every moment of this uncomfortable game.
“The night of our engagement party when you first met Dominic, do you know why he was there?” he asked, sitting down at his brother’s desk as if he owned the room.
“No,” she said shakily. “I assumed he was there to wish you well.”
Cole laughed. “Dominic, wish me well? Not bloody likely. No, he was there because he wanted something. Some place, actually.” He leaned forward for effect. “He wanted Lansing Square.”
“Now I know you’re mistaken,” she said with a renewed sense of relief. “Dominic doesn’t care one way or another about this place.”
“Oh, but he does, though I don’t know why.” Cole smiled. It was a humorless expression, devoid of all kindness and filled with only anger and ugliness. “And he was willing to trade in order to acquire it.”
“Trade?” she whispered past suddenly dry lips.
“Yes. I needed someone to marry you in order to reduce the scandal on my name. And to save you from a life of whispers, of course. And Dominic wanted this house badly enough that he was willing to take you as part of the bargain.” He leaned forward with a gleam of satisfaction in his eyes. “Although he did protest long and hard, I finally convinced him that the only way he would ever get his hands on this estate was if he married you. So he did.”
Katherine sank into a chair as a wave of nausea almost undid her. “I—I don’t believe you.”
But that denial was a lie.
Cole statement made perfect sense to her. Dominic’s claim that he’d married her to save his family from scandal never rang true to her. Not when her few glimpses into his past revealed a man neglected and abandoned by his so-called family.
But marrying her in order to acquire the estate made perfect sense. Even though Dominic claimed to despise the place, he’d been obsessed with searching it. Whatever secrets he looked for there were more important to him than anything. And valuable enough that he would marry a woman, any woman, to find them.
But did that mean everything between them was a lie? Was the passion they shared just part of some game?
Cole reached across the desk to take her hand. She flinched back, not wanting his touch after seeing him take so much pleasure in telling her this…this story.
“You may not want to believe it, Katherine, but I swear it’s the truth. Can you ever forgive me for my part in this deception? Please know it was done with only the intent to protect you from society. At least, on my part. Dominic had other motives.” He finished with a slow shake of his head.
Tears stung her eyes, but she refused to give in to the pain in front of Cole. Instead, she did her best to focus on the anger building in the pit of her stomach. Still, she couldn’t seem to formulate any words. She was too afraid that when she spoke, she would scream out her anguish and reveal too much of her heart to Cole, and to herself.
If only she’d stayed true to her original plan and kept herself separate from Dominic, his deception wouldn’t hurt so much. But no, she had come to care for her husband. To grow closer to him with every kiss, with every kind word. But now she knew everything had been an act designed to obtain a piece of property. Perhaps some of the façade was genuine, but it had been a means to an end.
“Katherine?” Cole asked with a concerned frown.
“Why?” she croaked out as she stared at him. “Why would you come all the way here to tell me this? Evidently, you wish to destroy your brother and whatever life we have built together, but I don’t understand it.”
Cole’s face darkened and hardened in a way she hadn’t seen before. “He has always taken what wasn’t his. He lived in a house he had no right to, with a name he had no right to bear.”
She cocked her head as confusion mixed with sickening anger and hurt. “You’re talking nonsense. I don’t understand—”
Before she could finish, Katherine heard Dominic and Sarah’s angry voices in the hallway, then the two entered together. Using all her remaining strength, she rose to her feet and turned to face her husband with what she hoped was an expression of utter disdain and not total devastation.
He didn’t seem to notice as he snapped, “Cole, you and your wife will leave. You were not invited and you are no longer welcome in my house.”
Katherine’s eyes narrowed as she clenched her shaking hands behind her back. Was he trying to hurry his brother and sister-in-law away before they revealed the truth? Was this more of the same deception that had gone on so long?
“Why in such a hurry, Dominic? Are you afraid Sarah and Cole will tell your secrets?” she asked, lashing out at him in a tone designed to cut him as deeply as she had been cut.
The color drained from Dominic’s cheeks as he turned his attention on her. For a brief moment, she saw all his emotions flash through his eyes. Desperation was there. Horror. And also resignation, like he’d been waiting for this moment to come.
Everything Cole said was true. Dominic had been hiding the truth from her from the first moment they were joined as man and wife.
Her heart shattered. She wanted to go down on her knees and weep and pound the floor at what a fool she’d been. All her nightmares, all her fears had come true. She’d become so wrapped up in Dominic that she’d been blind to his lies. Just as she knew she would be if she let him into her heart.
Why? Why hadn’t she kept her distance and prevented this agony that wracked her now?
Sarah broke the silence in the room with a low laugh. “Oh, Dominic, looks like I’m too late to destroy anything for you. Cole, darling, did you tell the Ice Princess about Dominic and me?”
Cole came around the desk with a glare for his wife. “Sarah!”
Katherine stared at her husband in disbelief. Sarah’s ugliness had only been limited to innuendo before, but now it was practically an admission of an affair. And judging from Dominic’s inability to meet her eyes, it was an admission he couldn’t deny.
“What did you tell my wife?” he asked low and dangerous.
Cole’s eyes widened and his smile faltered in the face of his brother’s quiet rage, but he managed to remain confident when he said, “Only the truth. Only what she deserved to know. That you took her in trade. That you have lied to her every day of your marriage.”
“Oh, Cole!”
Katherine pivoted to see Julia and Adrian at the door. Julia’s face was pale, but she looked anything but surprised by her older brother’s statement.
“How could you tell her? Why would you do that?” Julia asked with a disgusted shake of her head.
Katherine gasped. A new round of embarrassment and shock raced through her. The tears she’d been struggling to quell now filled her eyes. She blinked them back with ferocity.
“Oh God, you knew, too? You knew what Dominic and Cole had done and you didn’t tell me? You were supposed to be my friend.”
Julia shifted uncomfortably. “Katherine—”
She turned away before Julia could finish. It wasn’t enough humiliation that she had been traded like chattel, but the entire family was privy to the arrangement? And judging from Adrian’s pitying face, he too. It seemed she was the only one who hadn’t been in on their little joke.
Dominic had remained strangely stoic, but he stepped forward with a clenched fist. There was resignation on his face. Almost a relief that Katherine didn’t understand.
“If you’re here to make confessions on my behalf, Colden, why stop with this one?” He moved closer and Cole skittered back with fear in his eyes. “Or perhaps I should take responsibility for my own lies and you should claim yours. You have as many as I do.”
Cole drew away, his face paling as he shot a glance at Sarah. Dominic spun away from them to face Katherine. His expression softened as he reached for her hand. She dodged his touch and he nodded as if he understood.
“Katherine, I wanted to tell you so many things for so long. I’ve tried, but something always interrupts, whether it’s uninvited houseguests”—he shot a glare over his shoulder at his brother—“or my own cowardice. I’m sorry this had to be revealed in this manner. More sorry than you’ll ever know, but I want you to hear everything from my lips, not my brother’s poison ones.”
Katherine struggled to remain composed when she wanted to scream. Somehow she managed to keep her emotions at bay and her gaze fixed on Dominic.
He shifted under her scrutiny, but never broke his stare away from hers. “What my brother says is true. I made the agreement to marry you in trade for this house.”
She turned her face with a stifled moan. Hurt exploded in her chest and seeped through her bloodstream. “Why?”
He straightened his shoulders and lifted his chin. “Harrison Mallory was not my father.”
With a jolt at his sudden announcement, she looked up at him. Was this true? Pain and anger flashed across his angled face as he nodded.
“I am a bastard, Katherine.”
Sarah let out a burst of laughter, but Dominic ignored her cackle and the way Cole grinned. “I believe there is evidence to the identity of my true father hidden somewhere in this house. Cole refused me access to the estate unless I married you.”
She cast a glance over her shoulder at Cole. At least he had the decency to stop grinning and put a falsely apologetic expression on his face. Still, his eyes sparkled with glee. Nausea and fury rushed through her in equal measure.
“And that leads us to Julia’s question,” Dominic said, breaking eye contact with her finally to stare at Cole. “She asked why our brother would do this. Why he would come here to tell you these things and ruin whatever we shared in the last few months. It’s because his father taught him to hate me, taught him that I deserved nothing. Cole can’t stand it that I have something he once desired. That I have you.”
“A bastard doesn’t deserve a lady,” Cole said as he folded his arms. “He certainly doesn’t deserve the lady I was meant to marry. I thought Katherine would never grow close to you, but when I found her letters to Julia that expressed only her contentment, I knew I couldn’t let that go on. I couldn’t let you have what you didn’t deserve. To protect my name, I may not be able to tell the world you are a bastard, but I’ll be damned if I will see you be treated as my equal if there is anything I can do to prevent that from occurring. Now your wife knows the truth of what you are.”
Katherine stared at the man she once planned to marry. Cole’s pettiness, his childish jealousy and cruelty shocked her nearly as much as Dominic’s lies. Being a bastard in name was something her husband had no control over. Being a bastard in action was something Cole apparently thrived on.
“So all this pain you caused, you did it out of some old childhood grudge?” she murmured in disbelief to Cole.
“I thought you should know the true character of the man you married,” Cole said, the kindness returning to his eyes. Only now Katherine could see how false that was. How pretended. She had been blind to his true character.
“And what of the man she would have married had Sarah not returned when she did?” Dominic asked. “What of the secrets you kept? The cruel lies you told her and everyone else?”
Cole blanched. “Dominic…”
Katherine shook her head. If there was more to be told, she wanted to hear it. Now that she was aware of how in the dark she had been, she wanted to come into the light. She wanted to know it all.
“Tell me,” she whispered.
Dominic looked at her. He didn’t flinch away from her emotions. He only gave her what she needed, though she had no doubt it wasn’t easy for him to reveal what he’d fought so hard to keep secret.
“Cole required your fortune after a long series of bad investments and nights of gambling. And he desired the property you inherited from your father. Your guardians were to receive a special stipend if you were married before you were twenty-one, so my brother used their knowledge to transform himself into the man of your dreams.”
Katherine choked on a strangled cry. Eustacia and Stephan, the ones who were supposed to protect her, had been a part of this deceit as well? And all for money. The pieces of the painful puzzle snapped together one by one, leaving her ever more alone and feeling foolish and heartbroken.
Dominic swallowed hard at her outburst. His hand stirred, but he didn’t raise it to touch her. She wasn’t sure whether to be grateful he respected her need for distance or not.
When she managed to calm her breathing, he continued. “When Cole thought he had won your hand, he wagered away your property and spent your money before he had the right. That was why he needed me to take his place. To keep his fraud from being revealed and your fortune within the Mallory family.”
She covered her mouth. Tremors rocked her from her head to her toes. She could hardly breathe. But she needed to know more. “Is that all?”
“I don’t know.” Dominic turned on his brother. “I believe there is more, but I have no proof.”
Julia stepped forward. “Please, isn’t this enough?”
The thin control Katherine had managed to keep on her emotions snapped. “No!” she cried. “It isn’t. I want to know everything. I want to know every lie told. Now!”
Dominic flinched at her fury, but he kept his gaze on her face. Somehow, even knowing everything he’d done, it comforted her to see that he didn’t back away. He didn’t attempt to placate he
r or treat her like a child.
He sighed. “I think Cole knew Sarah was alive before that fact was revealed the night of your engagement soiree.”
“No, that cannot be true,” Julia said as she stumbled back. Adrian caught her arm to steady her.
“You think not?”
Now it was Sarah who spoke. For the first time she didn’t look smug, she didn’t look cold. She looked angry. Vengeful.
“Sarah, don’t!” Cole snapped.
Sarah shook off the hand he placed on her arm. “Why, Cole? So you can play victim even more? I’m tired of being the one to blame. I want you to have your share.” She smiled at Katherine with feline nastiness. “Of course my husband knew I was alive. He knew for years. In fact, it was because of Dominic that I was ‘lost’ in the first place.”
Dominic reeled back. He had suspected Cole was aware of Sarah’s survival at some point, but he hadn’t realized his brother had known for so long. And he certainly had no idea he played some part in their cruel trick.
“Explain yourself!” he ordered as his anger threatened to overflow.
Cole grasped Sarah’s arm, but she pushed him aside as she stepped closer. Dominic felt an urge to throw himself between Katherine and Sarah, but he resisted. From the utter betrayal and pain in his wife’s eyes, he doubted she would appreciate his protection now. He’d certainly failed to protect her up until this point.
“Although we tried for several years, Cole and I never managed to produce any children, let alone a male child to inherit the Harborough title. My inability to produce brats was the only reason why I was allowed to have as much fun outside our marriage as Cole was.”
Katherine flinched at the crude reference to Sarah’s sexual escapades.
“Cole didn’t care and neither did I. We didn’t want any children interfering in our lives. But then you began to raise yourself up in the world, Dominic.” Sarah smiled. “Women began to whisper about you at parties in our circles. Despite not having a title, you were becoming an eligible bachelor. And though you expressed no interest in marrying, Cole knew that could change if the right opportunity arose. He realized if he and I produced no children, but you had a son, that boy would inherit the title, the estate, and all the money in entail.”
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