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Mama's shriek cut him off. "My lord, please!" she protested as she covered her eyes.
He shot her a baleful glance. "Get out. I wish to speak to your daughter alone."
"Now see here-" Mama began, peeking at him from between her fingers.
"Out! Now! Or I swear I'll throw you out myself!"
"I'm going, I'm going." Mama's face was a mottled shade of red, though Katherine noticed she took
one last glance at Alec naked before she vanished.
A hysterical laugh boiled out of her. Leave it to Mama to noticethat about him, when she'd ignored the
rest for so long.
She herself should have paid better attention. How blind she'd been. She'd guessed he was deceiving
her, but she'd been so busy worrying about his fidelity that she hadn't considered any other reason for
deception.
But now certain things came back to her-his gifts, the private box at Astley's, and the nice carriage,
probably rented. He'd had no reason to pretend to be rich... except that he had to allay her suspicions.
Because he knew she had a fortune, and he didn't want her to know he knew.
Oh, Lord, how would she bear it? This wasn't Sydney, whom she'd only thought she loved. This was
Alec,her Alec. A fortune hunter, a deceiver, a man with no heart.
Tears sprang to her eyes, and she dashed them away.I should brain him with the sculpture again,
curse him .
"Katherine-" he began.
"Why me?"
"What?"
As she gripped the blanket to her chest, she slid off the bed and turned to him, choking down the lump
of raw hurt in her throat. "Why choose me? Surely there were other prettier heiresses."
His eyes blazed. "I wanted you. When I first saw you-"
"You thought, 'I can learn to tolerate the red hair and the lack of curves as long as she has a fortune.' "
"Blast it, it wasn't like that!" he roared as he slid off the bed after her. "Yes, Byrne suggested you, and
yes, I needed your fortune, but it was your conversation with Sydney that made me want you. You were
so... so..."
"Pathetic?" she whispered, mortified to the depths of her soul.
"Intriguing," he said fiercely. "Passionate and interesting and... full of life. I liked that you spoke your
mind, that you were clever enough to see past Lovelace's evasions, that you werereal when no one else
in society was-"
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"Especially you."
Pain slashed over his face. "Please believe me, sweetheart. Except for lying about knowing Byrne and
deceiving you about my financial situation and my knowledge of your fortune, I did my best not to lie to
