There was something horribly disorientating about all this, Kate thought. She suddenly seemed to be watching him from a long way off. Certainly something had gone very wrong with her world. She was the darling of the ton, admired and envied, on the brink of a brilliant match that would seal her superiority as Duchess of Yeovil. Surely she was not really ruined and disgraced? This couldn't be happening. She wasn't trapped in the library with that dim-witted dandy tearing her to shreds and then offering to marry her. "I must be dreaming," she muttered faintly, then pushed at him to unblock the door. He didn't move. "I must be dreaming!"

"I'm afraid not."

She wasn't dreaming. She really was ruined, had lost Yeovil and was stuck in the library with Ally. It was hard to know which was worst. She pulled at the door again and hissed, "Let me out of here," but at that he took her by the shoulders. "You and I need to have a talk. Or rather, I need to talk to you. I don't think you understand the situation." He tightened his grip as she squirmed beneath it, by now alarmed at his implacable manner. She could feel his eyes on her and forced herself to glower back. This intensified when he steered her to the chair behind the desk and pushed her into it. He took the other facing her, saying, "You can take your longing eyes from the door; I'll get there before you do. And that paperweight." He removed the heavy, ugly item from her grasp and played with it idly before darting a piercing look at her.

"I'll be frank."

"Unlike previously?" Her tone was acid.

"More so, I trust. Kate, you have a choice ahead of you. You can accept my proposal and be my wife."

"I'd rather go and stay with Aunt Maud," she snarled, confident that this oft-threatened punishment was the alternative.

"As if she'd have you," he said crushingly. "No, you still have me, only this time with your uncle's full blessing to treat you exactly as I used to when you were a brattish little schoolgirl. Exactly as I used to," he added with peculiar emphasis. The relish in his tone was not lost on Kate, who had a horrible flashback to the time he'd picked her up and thrown her into the duck pond after a tantrum. She had been fifteen and the awful ease with which he had tossed her into the water was still branded on her memory. So too was the hilarity of Ally, Dom and Robbie as she had floundered out dripping green slime and howling furious epithets at them. The idea that he might do the equivalent in London struck her with stunning force, and she sprang to her feet.

"You would not dare!"

"Really? You're very welcome to try me," he offered kindly, amused at her outrage.

"You have no right!"

"Your uncle's given me every right I need."

"That's not a choice!"

"Of course it is. Either I make you fit for someone else to marry or you marry me. You should be more grateful; you're ruined and nobody wants you; the best you can hope for in marriage otherwise is with someone like Colley, or Dennis O'Callaghan. Oh, I know you think I'm a stupid dandy with a crooked nose but I'm still a far better match than either of them. "

If anything, this genial explanation staggered her further. She dropped back into her seat like she had been felled, and regarded him as though he had two heads. "You'd ask me to marry you out of pity?"

"Hardly! I've no pity for you, Kitty. You've been spoiled beyond endurance, but even that shouldn't make you cruel enough to run off with another girl's betrothed and shame your family. Nor to sneer at any man who dares to lift his eyes to you, nor to flout every rule you can just because you're rich and beautiful. You've done all that yourself."