Kate said nothing. She had too much to think about. She stared at the floor and the intricate markings on the carpet.
‘Kate, don’t you see? That’s why we wanted you to go away to school—to allow you to grow up. To allow Sebastian to have some other girlfriends, and to make sure you both knew what you were doing. And now what’s happened? He’s been refusing to go and see you. We thought you two were finally going to marry, despite Louisa’s attempts to separate you.’
‘Louisa?’ Kate couldn’t understand any more. Everything was totally different from how she had imagined it.
‘Yes. Sebastian found out about her destroying your letters to your father. Silly girl! The truth will always come out in the end. Needless to say, she was sacked immediately. Sebastian wouldn’t even let her work her notice.’
Clare continued talking, but Kate was no longer listening. She had been such a fool! Such a selfish fool! She had thought the worst of everyone and now she was paying a terrible price. She had to get away to sort her feelings out.
She rushed for the door. Clare was calling frantically after her, but she couldn’t hear. She needed to be alone.
She ran down through the paddocks, longing to be in the stables, her secret childhood place whenever she’d needed to be by herself. She ignored the horses. Instead she climbed up high into the hayloft and lay in the sweet-smelling hay, hot tears splashing down her face. How could she have been such a fool? She had felt so rejected as a child that, when faced with love, she had been unable to recognise it. She had misjudged her father, and Clare, and her own feelings of insecurity had driven Sebastian away. She had never felt so miserable in all her life. She felt exhausted, emotionally drained. The hay was soft and warm, and her eyes, heavy with tears, finally closed.
‘Kate.’ The sound of her name pierced her consciousness. ‘Kate.’ Her name came again and she stiffened as she recognised the voice. She sat up, her eyes straining into the darkness. She could see the flash of a torch-light down below, flickering over the white-washed walls of the stables. The voice came again, sharper this time, and she knew she had to answer. She swallowed the dry lump that swelled in her throat.
‘I’m here,’ she said softly, suddenly embarrassed as Sebastian’s head surfaced over the top of the ladder to the loft ‘I came to see the horses. I felt a little tired, so I must have fallen asleep,’ she lied.
‘Everyone wondered where you were, but I remembered,’ he said, climbing up beside her.
‘You remembered?’ Kate repeated wistfully.
‘I remembered,’ he replied. ‘I remember everything about you, Kate,’ he added softly.
‘Oh,’ Kate gasped, a little stunned.
‘Come on; we’d best go to dinner,’ he said, moving towards the ladder.
‘Sebastian, before we go…About Duplas…’ Her voice slowly began to fade as he fixed his dark eyes on her. She took a steadying breath and continued, ‘I know you’re innocent. I should have trusted you.’
‘Yes, you should,’ he agreed.
‘I’m sorry,’ Kate said, her voice almost breaking with emotion.
‘So am I.’
‘But Allan was so convincing—’
‘He would have been,’ Sebastian cut in gruffly. ‘The plant was offering such good wages that he was about to lose his poachers.’
‘Poachers?’ Kate gasped, unable to accept that she had been taken m so easily by his smooth charm. She shut her eyes to close her mind to the reality. ‘I’ve been such an idiot, haven’t I?’
‘Yes,’ agreed Sebastian, with a nod.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said, unable to think of anything else to say. She wanted to beg his forgiveness, to turn back the clock, but she knew that wasn’t possible. There was no sign of forgiveness and her heart sank even further. ‘I should have listened to you.’
She moved towards the ladder. There was nothing left to say. Sebastian reached out, touching her upper arm. His grip was not tight but it was certainly restraining. He saw the look in her eyes and smiled. It was warm and totally unexpected.
‘A marriage has to be based on trust,’ he told her seriously, staring up into her eyes.
Kate looked up, the silence welling up between them as she stared back, unable to comprehend what he meant. Yet her whole heart yearned for it to be a proposal. She nodded with slow understanding, waiting for him to say more.
‘So, do you trust me?’ he asked, his voice low and soft, his warm breath making clouds in the cold night air.
‘Yes, of course. I’ll never fail to believe in you again,’ Kate replied, deadly serious, her heart beating rapidly, filling her ears with its steady thud.
Sebastian’s hands moved gently down the length of her arms till he captured her hands; he raised them to his lips, kissing them tenderly.
‘Then will you marry me, Kate?’
She hesitated for a moment, then a slow smile of delight spread across her face, her eyes dancing with unspoken love as she gazed into his eyes. She would tell him about the baby tomorrow, and she knew he would be delighted. But for now…
‘Yes! Yes! Yes!’ she shouted, pulling her hands from his so that she could hug him.
They both fell back on to the soft hay. He locked her in an embrace, his hot lips hungrily seeking hers. ‘At last,’ he whispered, ‘my first and only love…’
eISBN 978-14592-6276-8
ON EQUAL TERMS
First North American Publication 1998.
Copyright © 1995 by Catherine O’Connor.
All rights reserved Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterpnses Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
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Table of Contents
Cover Page
Excerpt
About the Author
Title Page
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
Copyright
On Equal Terms Page 16