“Does she love you?”
“No.”
“How do you know it?”
“She has never expressed any such attachment, nor do I expect her to.” Simon was vaguely surprised at himself at answering her questions. “A solid marriage has nothing to do with sentimentality.”
“Have you ever kissed Lady Katherine?”
“She is a lady of refined sensibilities,” he said gruffly.
The damn chit rolled her eyes, and he was struck by a stunning sense of recognition.
“So, you have never kissed each other.”
Simon had never been tempted to and had merely thought he was not a man given to great passion.
His silence was its own answer, for Miss Fairbanks then demanded, “Then why are you marrying her?”
He would be damned if he ever admitted to wondering the same thing of late. Still, he had believed his mother when she informed him of his long-standing engagement with Lady Katherine, which had been made in the three years that were missing. A part of him had been grateful, and the feeling that he had left behind a promise had felt familiar. He had never asked Lady Katherine to marry him again, but the silent understanding existed.
There had been no formal announcement, nor had they planned a marriage date, but Simon had been aware that the time for all those things had loomed close. It was one of the main reasons they had returned to town from Edinburgh. To remind society he lived and to claim his place among the ton as the new viscount. The perfect start to his new life, his mother had earnestly recommended, would be marriage to a perfectly respectable lady.
“Please be honest with me,” Miss Fairbanks said softly. “Why are you marrying Lady Katherine if you do not love her.”
Simon hesitated briefly. “Love will grow in time.”
She raked him with a piercing look. “There is more to it, I can tell.”
The damned woman was likely to keep him tied up until he spilled his guts to her satisfaction. “I have been engaged to Lady Katherine from before I went off to war. She waited on me faithfully. It would be callous of me to disregard her loyalty. I am also the new Viscount Havisham. I have a duty and responsibility to the title. That duty involves marrying well and producing an heir.”
Miss Fairbanks closed her eyes, a grimace of anguish marring her lovely features. “You were told there was an attachment…an engagement. I am even more determined to claim my seven days with you, my lord.”
A pounding ache went through his heart. “Woman—”
Her eyes glittered fiercely. “No. You will promise it, Simon Gracely. You will stay with me in this cottage for seven days!”