Upon a Midnight Clear Read online

  "Oh?" he said. "Maybe if you stopped lying and—"

  "What makes you think I'm lying? I had to support my son and myself so what better way than prostitution? Jeremy and I—"

  He was now using the cloth to soap her face so she couldn't finish the sentence. "First of all," he said, "you would die before you sold your body."

  "But I—"

  "Second of all, you're so beautiful that if you went into prostitution, you wouldn't be in the starved condition you're in now."

  "Oh?" Kathryn said, looking up at him. She should, of course, be too embarrassed to speak, since she was in a bathtub naked and he was washing her as though she were a child. But somehow being with Cole seemed almost natural.

  "You have to listen to me," she said with urgency. "There are things going on that you don't know about. I am a hunted woman. There is a reward for me. I—"

  "You ready to get out?" he asked, holding out a thick Turkish towel.

  Kathryn grimaced. She had to get through to him, had to make him understand how dangerous being around her was. "Turn your head."

  "Not on your life," he said without a smile, then when she didn't move, he said, "You can stay in there all night if you want, but when you do come out I'm going to be here holding the towel for you."

  "You're a very stubborn man," she said, then, with her eyes on his, she stepped from the tub into the waiting towel.

  "I'm trying to match you," he said as he wrapped the towel around her and began to dry her. Then he carried her into the bedroom and set her on the edge of the bed while he picked up a hairbrush from the dresser. "And just where do you think you're going?" he said when she started to rise.

  "I'm just going to check on Jeremy one more time," she said.

  "Jeremy is fine. He's young. He'll recover. At least he'll recover if all this ends. Sit!" he ordered when Kathryn remained standing.

  When she didn't move, Cole climbed onto the bed, spread his long legs across the bed, then motioned for her to sit between them so he could comb the tangles from her hair. She opened her mouth to say that it wasn't decent for them to be in this position, but his look made her close her mouth and give herself over to the deliciousness of having his big hands on her hair.

  When he'd finished, he pulled her back against him, tightening his arms about her protectively. For the first time in six months she was warm and clean and fed. But it was too much for her as she leaned her head back, and she began to softly cry.

  "I want to hear all of it," Cole urged, his lips on her ear. "Every word. From the time you were born."

  Kathryn started to protest, but instead she began to tell him the story of her life. She repeated how she had been the daughter of the cook of a large estate in Ireland, nothing more than the child of a servant. But the daughter of the house had, according to her tutor, the intelligence of a parsnip, so Kathryn was taken from the kitchen to study with the daughter in the hopes that the young mistress would learn by osmosis.

  It didn't happen. Over the years the tutor gave up, let the girl ride her horses all day, and instead taught Kathryn everything he knew.

  The problem came when the daughter's older brother, the young man who was to inherit the estate, the tall, handsome Sean O'Connor, returned from school.

  "I was quite mad about him," Kathryn said, ignoring the way Cole's arms tightened about her. "He was beautiful and elegant and his words were nothing but honey." She smiled. "I would have given in to him if it hadn't been for my mother, who said all the O'Connors were sweetness on the outside and treachery within. And besides, she made sure that Sean and I were never alone."

  "But you were," Cole said softly.

  "Oh, yes," Kathryn said with anger. "He got me alone all right, but not until after he'd gone to a great deal of trouble. Do you know what he did to me?" She didn't wait for an answer. "He put on a pretend marriage, is what. He got one of his friends from Oxford to dress as a priest, and he put on a marriage. Just like one would put on a play."

  "What made you think it was a false marriage?"

  "I was young, but I wasn't stupid. Or maybe I was, I don't know. After the… the ceremony, Sean took us all to a pub. He was already drunk, so I don't know what he wanted with more whiskey, but then I have never understood drink. There was a barmaid there, and she said, 'If that one's a priest, I'm a nun.' Then she asked me if my mother knew that I was out with these men. Suddenly everything became clear to me."

  "And you ran away," Cole said as he pulled her closer.

  "Yes, I ran. But I didn't get very far. I was halfway back to the cottage where my mother lived when Sean caught up with me."

  When she said no more, Cole urged her to continue. "Then what happened?"

  He could feel her body tense into a knot. "It was dark and Sean was drunk. He said that after all the trouble he'd gone to, I owed him. He said he'd never worked so hard to get a woman, and he was going to have me—whether I wanted him or not."

  For several minutes Cole rubbed her shoulders until he could feel the tension beginning to leave her body. "I went to London," she said softly. "I got a job as a cook's assistant, but I was fired five months later because it was evident that I was going to have Jeremy."

  Kathryn took a deep breath. "I stowed away on a ship bound for America, and since then…"

  "Ssssh," Cole said. "Be still. It's over now."

  "But it's not!" she said fiercely, twisting about to look kt him. "Can't you see that it will never be over as long as I'm alive? Sean knows about his son. He wants him, and he'll do anything to get him back."

  Putting her head in her hands, Kathryn began to cry. "I can't give Jeremy up. And he wont allow me to send him back."

  "Jeremy's father can't do anything to harm you because he's dead," Cole said above her sobs, and it took Kathryn a moment before she heard him.

  "What?"

  "Sean O'Connor died of a fall from a horse years ago. He was drunk, he took a fence, and he didn't make it. Died instantly."

  A thousand questions tumbled through Kathryn's head. "But if he's dead, how can he be chasing us? Why would anyone else want us?"

  "Jeremy is his son," Cole said softly, then waited for her to understand.

  "His bastard, you mean," she said bitterly.

  Cole smiled at her. 'Tell me, was the barmaid who told you O'Connor's friend wasn't a priest, was she pretty?"

  "Yes, very, but what… Oh, I see. You think she and Sean were lovers?"

  "What do you think? Was O'Connor the type to have a mistress in the local tavern?"

  "Sean O'Connor went to bed with any woman anywhere," Kathryn said bitterly. "He was rich and gorgeous, and he had a way about him that was as charming as the devil." Her eyes began to fade to dreamy. "All he had to do was talk to a woman in that low voice of his and a girl would—"

  She broke off because Cole kissed her, kissed her hard and thoroughly, and when he pulled away, she was limp in his arms.

  "Did he kiss you like that?" Cole asked angrily.

  Kathryn's first thought was to tease him, but she saw the hurt in his eyes. She had yet to comprehend what he must have done to be able to rescue her. She had never thought to see him again. Yet she couldn't continue to see him because there was danger and—

  "If Sean is dead, then who put those posters out saying I was wanted?" she asked, eyes wide.

  Cole was watching her closely, and he was relieved to see that she was not grieving over hearing that her son's father was dead. "Why did you marry him?"

  "I didn't love him, if that's what you mean," she said with a grimace.

  "But, according to you, he was the most handsome man on earth. Even the angels must have praised him."

  Kathryn smiled at his jealousy. "Yes, he was beautiful to look at, but the truth is he was as stupid as his sister. If it didn't have four legs he didn't understand it. I doubt if the man could read a nursery rhyme."

  "Yet you married him."

  "It was either that or have my mother discharged. Besi