It was most foolish of her to be disappointed, for what else was there between them save such business? Kate smiled brightly. ‘I’m glad.’
Virgil frowned. ‘Yes, but I’m not so sure that your family will be as enthusiastic. It is one thing to test barriers, as you said last night, but another to force an uninvited guest on people who, frankly, may not be very happy to receive me.’
‘You are invited, for I invited you.’
‘Did you tell them—the note you sent—how did you describe me?’
‘As a man of great wealth and extraordinary influence, a business associate of Josiah with a fascinating history.’
She had not mentioned the one salient fact that he was sure would have been the first to occur to almost anyone else.
‘You don’t think,’ Virgil asked tentatively, ‘that it would have been safer to warn them about my heritage?’
‘Why should I? I look at you and I see a man who has achieved what very few others have. You are rich and powerful and you have succeeded against overwhelming odds, which also makes you fascinating. Why should I tell them the colour of your skin any more than I should inform them the colour of your hair, or whether you are fat or scrawny?’
Or attractive. Really extraordinarily attractive. Which, she should remember, was quite irrelevant.
‘Besides,’ Kate said disparagingly, ‘why encourage them to judge you before they have even met you?’
Virgil drew himself up. ‘I don’t give a damn—begging your pardon—about what your family think of me. I was more concerned about what they’d think of you.’
‘My family can think no worse of me than they already do,’ Kate said with a toss of her head.
I don’t doubt that. I suspect you take pride in being a rule-breaker.’
‘Not at all,’ Kate said. ‘You misunderstand me. Breaking rules, even unjust rules, is far more painful than unquestioning obedience. I wish I did not have to be a “rule-breaker”, as you call me.’
She looked quite wistful and Virgil found himself
at a loss, for it seemed that they were speaking about two different things. He could, however, agree with the sentiment. ‘I know exactly what you mean.’
Kate nodded, touching his sleeve in a gesture of sympathy he was already beginning to associate with her. ‘Our cases are hardly comparable. There are a good deal of rules which ought to be broken, no matter how painful.’
She would not have said so if she knew the price he had paid for his disobedience. No matter how unconventional she was, she would likely condemn him for it—and quite rightly so.
Virgil rolled his shoulders, as if the familiar burden of guilt were a tangible weight he carried. ‘I play by my own rules,’ he said.
ISBN: 9781426876721
© Helen Dickson 2012
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