Sorry for this chapter - not for the sensitive.
Guy turned to see Katherine being shepherded into the room. She kept her eyes downcast and he almost could not bear to look at her. She looked ill and scared and he would have given everything to help her.
Instead he merely stood there, aware that Vasey was watching his every reaction, his every move. He had already bawled him out about fighting with Gifford, for he had guessed that was how Guy's injuries had occurred.
When she was seated, she looked across to see Guy and took in his cut and bruised face and his bandaged hand. She gave him a clear, sweet smile. Had she too guessed how he had earned his injuries? Guy could not bear her to look kindly at him and so stared at his feet, at Vasey, at some point on the wall, anywhere but at Katherine.
‘Well Madam,’ Vasey said, ‘Have you thought any more about our little proposal?’
Guy shifted uncomfortably- it wasn’t ‘our' proposal, it was Vasey and Gifford’s.
‘The answer is still 'no',’ Katherine said, quietly.
Vasey screwed up his mouth and narrowed his eyes.
‘Katherine, Katherine, this is silly. Why drag this out? You will agree in the end.’
Katherine shook her head without even looking up.
Vasey sighed melodramatically and reached under his desk for the packages that Guy had brought from Gifford. Guy saw that the one containing the necklace had been slit open.
‘Your intended has sent you a present, Katherine. A sign of the strength of his feelings … and his intent ...’
Katherine raised her head and looked at the necklace. ‘It's hideous,‘ she said, ‘just like him.’
Guy could not help smiling at that.
Vasey snorted. ‘Very well.’ He turned to Guy with a look of malice, a look that Guy recognised was usually the precursor to something unpleasant.
‘Would you like to take the other package over to Lady Katherine?’ he asked.
Guy saw that this other package had been unsealed but that the lid was still on it. Something about the way Vasey was holding it and the look in his eyes and the tone of his voice made Guy's stomach knot. He did not move.
‘Gisborne ...’ Vasey's voice was more insistent.
Katherine's interest was now spiked by the tension that was running between the two men. She looked quizzically at the package.
‘Gisborne,’ barked Vasey, ‘I am giving you an order.’
Guy slowly peeled himself off the wall and picked up the package. He felt his pulse racing and his breath coming faster. As if he were dreaming, he walked over to Katherine and stood there with the package in front of him.
She looked up into his face.
Oh God! She is so, so lovely.
‘Show Katherine what is in the package, Gisborne.’ Vasey's voice was slow, his tone menacing.
Katherine was still looking into Guy’s eyes, and he could see her trying to understand the way he was looking at her.
And then, very slowly, he took the lid from the package and Katherine looked into it.
He saw her eyes flare in horror and she was on her feet, gasping and putting her hands over her mouth. She backed away, pushing the chair over and fell awkwardly to her hands and knees. She was sobbing and retching uncontrollably.
Guy looked down at what was in the package: three fingers on a blood drenched piece of material.
Vasey's voice boomed out. ‘They are Foster's, Katherine. Three today and three more next week if you don’t agree to marry Gifford. The decision is yours.’
He laughed, ‘Look at it this way, at the moment Foster is inconvenienced; hold out any longer and he'll be a cripple.’
