Katherine smiled. "I'd hoped he couldn't stay away." She bent and gave her sister a kiss on the cheek. "There you are.
Now go down and make sure Theodora is not about causing trouble, will you? I'll be down in a moment."
"I hope she'll be so upset because you are not going along with her plan that she has decided to go away somewhere and not attend the wedding!" Lucy stated fervently.
"Now, Lucy, behave yourself!" she called After her sister, but because she ran out of the room so fast, Katherine was doubtful she even heard.
Katherine's maid came in and applied the last touches to her blond curls. Ten minutes later she was fully dressed, so she made her way downstairs to let her family know she was ready to leave for the church.
But when she stepped into the library where her parents were supposed to be waiting, she suddenly froze.
No one was there but …Theodora.
An uneasy feeling settled over Katherine as she stepped farther into the library, nervously searching about the room.
"Where is everyone?" she asked, keeping her voice as steady as possible.
Theodora's lips curved into the most frightening smile Katherine had ever seen. A chill ran down her spine as she tried to assure herself it was only her imagination Theodora seemed so daunting.
"They have gone to the abbey," she answered coolly. "I told them I would ensure you arrived safely and on time." She let out a small laugh. "But of course you won't."
Katherine felt panic building in her chest, and she took a deep breath to try to calm down. She thought about the servants and decided, if she had to, she would scream for their help. "Dora, I told you I had changed my mind, and I meant it," she said firmly, her eyes trying to gauge the distance between herself and the door.
As if reading her thoughts, Theodora began to circle her, putting herself between the door and Katherine. ' Ah, but that is not what we planned, Kate. You know that." Theodora stepped closer to the door. "The Thorntons must pay, and this is the only way to do it," she stated as if it were the most rational explanation in the world. "You see, I was once involved with Nicholas's father."
Katherine stood staring at her cousin with unbelief. "What?
I never heard about--"
"Of course you never heard about it!" she snapped. "I was staying in Malbury when we met, so very few people knew.
He led me to believe I was special to him, then he threw me over for no reason!"
Katherine raced to try to reason with her. "I understand how he must have hurt you, Dora, but this is not going to change your circumstance. This will not make either one of us happy!"
Theodora sneered at her as she clutched the handle of the door. "It will make me happy to see those high and mighty Thornton men suffer as I have suffered! It will make me happy!" she repeated, almost as if she were trying to convince herself of that fact.
Her cousin appeared to be quite mad, completely beyond reasoning. But Katherine was desperate to try. "Please, Dora.
When Thomas and I are married, I will help you make another match! We'll arrange parties, get you a new wardrobe--"
"Stop it! Just stop it!" Theodora cried, jerkily shaking her finger at Katherine. "It is too late for that! This is the only way!"
Katherine stood there for a second, stunned when Theodora slipped out of the room, slamming the door behind her. When she heard the key jiggling in the lock, Katherine snapped out of her stupor and ran to the door. She pounded on it with all her might. "Theodora! Let me out! Ambrose! Let me out of here!"
she yelled, hoping the butler could hear her, knowing Theodora would not listen.
"There is no one to hear you, Kate!" Her muffled voice came through the thick wood of the door. "So scream your little heart out. It will do no good!"
Katherine continued to scream and bang on the door until she had no strength left. With tears streaming down her face, she finally shuffled over to a chair and fell into it, covering her face with her hands. Heavy sobs shook her thin frame as she contemplated what Thomas would think once she did not show up for their wedding.
~
Thomas scanned the congregation for the twentieth time in ten minutes, then checked his watch again. Where was she?
Nervous sweat beaded on his forehead.
He wasn't the only one who was wondering about his absent bride. He heard scattered whispers throughout the building and heads turning to check the entrance to the abbey.
Where was Katherine?
Finally he walked over to the duke and duchess of Montbatten.
"Your grace," he addressed Katherine's mother. "Are you sure Katherine had a way to the abbey?"
Lady Montbatten seemed a little nervous herself. "Yes, Thomas. Theodora assured me she would see Katherine arrived safely and on time."
Thomas directed his gaze to the back of the abbey to the person he'd noticed the last time he'd looked for Katherine.
"Your grace, Theodora is" --he paused, overwhelmed by the same foreboding he'd felt that morning--"Theodora is here."
"What?" Lady Montbatten cried as she turned in her pew and looked toward the back of the church. "Something is not right here!" She jumped from her seat and hastened to where Theodora was.
Thomas followed her, praying his instincts were wrong but knowing they were right.
Katherine had apparently jilted him.
"Theodora!" Lady Montbatten whispered in a hiss. "Where is Katherine?"
Theodora shifted her eyes from Lady Montbatten to Thomas, her face full of innocence. "She sent me on to the church. She told me she would soon follow."
Thomas didn't understand what was going on, but he knew Katherine would not be coming to the abbey, and he knew in his very soul Theodora Vine was part of the cause.
Katherine's mother sighed. "Well, she must have gotten held up for some reason! I'll send Raven to get her and bring her back here," she insisted. "Wait a few more minutes, Thomas. I'm sure we'll have her here as soon as possible."
Thomas didn't say a word. He merely walked back up to the altar, told the crowd the wedding would be delayed a few moments until the bride arrived, then stood beside the vicar and prayed he was wrong and she'd come.
Katherine cried so much she finally fell into a restless sleep.
She'd done all she could think of, yell, bang on the windows and door …
…Pray…
Nothing seemed to work. She had felt so helpless, so despairing. How would Thomas ever understand any of this?
How could he forgive her part in it from the beginning?
"Katherine!" a loud voice bellowed over her, causing her nearly to fall out of the chair. "What are you doing here?"
her father demanded, once she had looked up at him with bleary eyes. .
She pushed her tangled veil out of her face and tried to get her bearings. "How did you get in?"
Her father blew out a breath of frustration. "How do you suppose I got in, young lady? I opened the door!"
Katherine shook her head, knowing she must not hear him right. "But it was locked!"
For the first time in her life, her father directed a frown of pure disappointment upon her. "It was not locked."
"But-"
"Do not insult me by lying, Katherine. I've been looking for you for over forty minutes around the property, thinking you might have been kidnapped or crashed in your carriage. But when I realized the carriage had never left the stables, I came inside to search for you." He shook his head. "I never thought you'd do something like this, Katherine. I am ashamed of you."
I42
Tears were once again spilling from her eyes. "Papa, you don't understand. Theodora-"
"Yes, she informed me you sent her ahead to the abbey.
She's also been looking about the house for you!" He stared at her as if he didn't know her at all. "Did you do it for revenge?
Did you plan this whole thing to bring shame upon the Thornton family?"
Katherine grabbed her father's arm, her eyes plead
ing with him to listen to her. "No! Papa, you must hear me--"
"Instead," he continued as if he didn't hear her, "you have brought more shame upon this family."
With that, he shook off her hand and walked to the door.
"Papa! I didn't do this deliberately! Papa!" she yelled, but he never turned back as he left the room.
Katherine rubbed her eyes, trying to clear them. Walking out into the hallway, she turned in the direction her father had taken. Abruptly she stopped, realizing that speaking to her father was not her top priority. Instead, she ran in the opposite direction to the front door.
Perhaps if she spoke to Thomas, she could explain. Make him understand what had happened.
She did not know what compelled her to stop by the abbey first, but she asked her coachman to do that very thing.
As she let herself into the church, she was assaulted by the sweet smell of the roses her mother had decorated with. On each pew end was a small bouquet, and in the very center of the altar was a huge one with both pink and white roses intertwined with the same colored ribbons.
Beside the bouquet, sitting on the front pew, she saw him.
Thomas was there, bent over slightly; his eyes seemed to be Focused straight ahead, staring at-nothing.
Her heart felt as though it were breaking as she slowly walked up to where he sat. The-floor creaked beneath her slippers, but he did not turn or make any movement of acknowledgment at her presence.
A few feet from him, she stopped. Taking a deep breath, she called softly, "Thomas."
He stood then and slowly -turned toward her, his face swathed with hurt and betrayal. Those blue eyes that had gazed lovingly into hers only a few days before now stared with stark coldness.
"Thomas, listen," she began, her voice shaking. "This was Theodora's doing. I tried to-"
"I can't believe I've been so gullible," he ground out bitterly, making a slashing movement with his hand. "I had a feeling all along you and your evil cousin were up to something. I never dreamed you would go to such elaborate lengths." He ran his hand through his already mussed hair. "Or perhaps I did but did not want to believe it," he added with a self-deprecating murmur.
"It's not like that, Thomas." She realized it was time to tell him the truth. ' You see, I did set out to hurt you, but I changed my mind After I met you. It's just that Theodora would not accept it. She locked me in the castle. I couldn't get out!"
"You mean you set out to convince me to marry you, all along knowing you would never go through with it?" he asked, focusing on her first sentence. He appeared confused.
Katherine hurried to explain.
"Yes, Thomas, but I changed my mind! Don't you understand?
I was hurt and bitter over what happened with your brother and how the ton turned against me. Theodora convinced me this was the only way to avenge myself. But I couldn't do it."
An appearance akin to revulsion spread across his face as he stared at her. "That you could even think of hurting an innocent man, a man who was falling in love with you, horrifies me, Katherine. You are not the person I thought I knew."
With one last look, he brushed past her. Katherine turned and ran After him. "Thomas, I've changed! I fell in love with you, too. I even asked God for forgiveness for the sin I had planned to commit! Please, believe me."
He kept walking, and she followed him outside, in the shaded courtyard of the abbey. She expected to see his coach waiting for him, but when she saw only a horse, she thought his family must have taken it back to Rosehaven. He stopped and turned toward her when he reached the animal. "You know; Katherine--l have waited weeks for you to tell me you love me, but you didn't. You can perhaps understand why I'm having trouble believing you now."
"Thomas'" she cried, tears pouring from her eyes as she watched him mount his horse and snap the reins to urge him forward. "But I do love you, Thomas. Believe me. Please, believe me."
Katherine realized her words were falling on deaf ears. As he galloped away, she fell to her knees, her wrinkled wedding gown spread about her as great sobs shook her body.
"My lady!" her coachman called, running to her.
' I've lost him," she muttered incoherently. "I canʼt believe I've lost him- "
"I'm sure 'tis not as bad as all that, my lady." He managed to lift her to her feet.
Katherine allowed him to lead her to the carriage and tuck her in safely. She lowered .her gaze to her gown and saw the dirt stains that now marred the once lovely satin material.
She wished with all her heart God could remove the stain in her heart as easily as her maid could remove the stains from her wedding dress.
----
"Are you all right, Thom?" Nicholas entered the sitting room where his brother was staring out the window.
"Have you come to say I told you so?" he asked bitterly, wishing everyone would go home.
Thomas heard Nicholas sigh and his footsteps come nearer to him. "I think you know better than that," he answered quietly, making Thomas feel shameful at his malevolent attitude.
"The vicar came by a minute ago, but I told him 'you weren't receiving anyone."
Thomas nodded, his eyes still fixed ahead, staring at nothing.
"I appreciate that."
The brothers lapsed into silence, then Thomas saw Nicholas move beside him on the other side of the wide picture window.
"He did say, however, that he saw you talking to Katherine outside the church." Nicholas cleared his throat as he cut his -gaze over to his brother. "Well, no --that is not exactly what he said. I believe he told me you were yelling, and she was crying, running after you." Nicholas turned to stare fully at his brother; "What happened? Why didn't she come?"
Thomas made himself face his brother. "You were, indeed, right when you said it seemed an odd coincidence she happened to turn her attentions to me. She was conspiring with her cousin, Theodora Vine, to get me to the altar so she could call it all off; thus vindicating the hurt you caused her. In other words, she was using me to hurt you."
Nicholas shook his head, dumbfounded. "You can't be serious!
I thought she'd turned to you because you were the only man available to her, not because she had a malicious agenda!"
Thomas closed his eyes briefly and tried to block the sharp pangs of hurt and disappointment that pierced his heart and soul. Instead, he tried to focus on the emotion that was easier to express-his anger. "I cannot believe I have been so foolishly misled," he spat out, talking more to himself than to Nicholas. "I knew something was amiss; yet I kept pursuing her and trying to make it work."
Nicholas gripped his arm. "Thomas, you are not a fool! You simply loved her, and you cannot be faulted for that!"
"I even prayed I could be the right man for her, Nick. In my stupidity, I assumed God had put us together and she would be the perfect mother for Tyler and all our children to come." He swallowed hard, trying to chase away the bitterness that seemed to clog his chest and throat. "She seemed to love Tyler, Nick. How could I have misunderstood?"
"God can work this out, Thomas. What did she say to you?
Why, if her plan was to abandon you at the altar, did she show up later? Surely by staying around she would have to bear the chastisement of her father and mother.”
Thomas had a picture of Katherine's tear-stained face as she pleaded with him to forgive her. "She said she had tried to make it to the wedding because she had fallen in love with me and had changed her mind about her plan." He let out a snort of disbelief. "She had the audacity to blame her absence on Theodora locking her in a room. Why wouldn't the servants let her out then?" he asked, throwing his hands up in the air.
Nicholas frowned thoughtfully. "But, Thomas, what if it's the truth? Katherine is not an evil person by nature. I could quite believe bitterness made her concoct the plan, but guilt and love for you would not let her go through with it."
Thomas was not ready to hear reason. He turned his heated gaze to his brother. "She purposely tried to get me to
fall in love with her, and I" -his voice cracked, and he paused a second before continuing, his voice more solemn--"and I did, Nick. I love her still, and one day soon I will forgive her misdeeds against this family and me. But I will never allow her back into my life again."
Nicholas slammed his hand down on the white, wooden window seat, startling his brother. "Don't do this, Thorn," he growled at him. "Remember what bitterness did to me?
Dwelling on bitterness and anger separates you from everyone you love, and most important it will separate you from God." He took Thomas's shoulders in his hands and shook him gently. "And living a life without God's love is the coldest, most miserable world you could possibly live in."
The Engagement - Regency Brides 02 Page 14
