he was not going anywhere, the name had been established.”
Foxleigh laughed. “So you are a Kat living with a Dog, then.”
She turned her face away, but he knew she was laughing along with him. He could hear the chuckle in her voice as she replied, “With a Fox for a houseguest. It is good that I managed to steer you away from the henhouse.”
He laughed harder, and fought down the urge to take her hand and press it to his lips. Who was he kidding? He wanted to pull her to him and join his mouth to hers in a kiss that proclaimed all his feelings, all the time he had spent longing for her. Instead, he took a deep breath and held the cottage door open for her.
As she busied herself with washing her hands and putting away her store of eggs, he mulled over what he should say and how he should start.
She finally relieved him of his problem by handing him a clay mug of chamomile tea and saying, “You have been huffing and sighing and shaking your head for long enough. What is it?”
“I did not know that you were so attentive.”
Her left brow went up. “It is not attentiveness that alerts the passerby to the grunting of a wild boar.”
“Flattering comparison. However, as you have so prettily offered a penny for my thoughts, I will see your bid and raise you a gold coin.” He pulled out a guinea and extended it to her. “This is much less than I owe you for your kindness and hospitality—as for your rescuing me, that is a debt I can never repay.” It sounded good. Perhaps she would accept this small amount of money and go buy food.
She looked at the coin, and then at him. He held his breath as the grey of her eyes swirled around her pupils in an ambiguous flow of mercury. The warning flash within them made him brace himself when she finally spoke. “You offer me money as though I were one of your whores.”
The logical problem with this accusation was patently obvious to him. They had, unfortunately, never engaged in the transaction that would lead to such a payment. But it was beside the point, and he knew very well that saying anything of the sort would get him slapped. “That is not what I intended. Not at all. Of course you are not—that. Only I can see how things are for you. Katherine—Kat, it gnaws at my very soul to see you in such circumstances. Mucking your own henhouse and practically starving. Can you not imagine how this breaks my heart? I would give you anything! I only wish you had come to me when things went badly. What happened? Your parents were such fashionable people, surely they left you something. Is there some business matter with the estate that I can assist you with?”
Katherine looked away and shook her head. “My parents were fashionable people. Very fashionable. And they borrowed a lot of money in order to remain that way. I was such a young fool. I had no idea how things really were until they died and the estate was seized upon by their creditors. The people who were once our friends abandoned me. I was left with a hundred pounds and no experience at all with surviving in the world.”
“Good heavens! They should all be flogged for leaving you in the lurch. But I would have done anything for you. I wish you had come to me.”
“I certainly could not have gone to you, as you must know. I knew very well how that would look, and how the ton would interpret anything of the sort. And anyway, from what I heard, your own estate was not quite what you had thought it would be. The last thing you needed was another encumbrance.”
“But you would never be a burden! I was not as rich as I had thought, but I had enough for both of us. I searched for you everywhere as soon as I heard you had left town. There was no reason for you to starve in this way. And since then, one among my father’s myriad idiotic investments actually turned out to be a valid enterprise and highly profitable. I have more money than I know what to do with. This meagre coin is but a paltry token—enough for immediate necessities. I have not access to my full means right at the moment, but