Only Scandal Will Do by Jenna Jaxon

him sleep, but do keep him quiet for the next week or so. Head wounds are touchy. We must make sure he does not excite himself and cause more damage.”
    So much for her tale. She’d have to stall Jack on that; even the made-up version of her adventure might give her brother apoplexy. Kat nodded to the physician and leaned over to kiss Jack’s forehead. “Rest first, adventure later.”
    One brief, stubborn look, then he settled wearily onto the pillows and closed his eyes.
    Kat escorted the doctor from the room and began to lead him down the corridor. “How is he really, Dr. Pritchett?”
    “I think he’ll do, if he’s kept quiet. But good God, my lady!” The doctor finally got a glimpse of her face. “Has anyone seen to you?”
    “No, but there’s little true damage. My face is the worst of it. I was slapped rather hard.”
    “Did you lose consciousness?” Pritchett grasped her elbow and led her to a nearby chair. “Hold this.” He thrust the lamp into her hands and proceeded to explore the swollen right side of her face.
    “Ouch!”
    He gently prodded flesh now tender beyond belief. “Did you lose consciousness?” he repeated, feeling her jaw, pressing her nose, searching for fractures.  
    “I believe I did, briefly. Not more than a minute I would guess. I awakened just before they carried me out to the platf–” She had finally blundered. A skilled interrogator could not get from her what this physician had discovered with one innocuous question. “I suppose it was a short amount of time.”
    “Platform?” Dr. Pritchett’s brows furrowed in confusion, then his sharp brown eyes widened and he took a step back. His attention fixed on her hair, neatly braided for the night, the coppery auburn gleaming in the candlelight, and his puzzled expression turned to one of horror. “It was you!”
    Damn him! He had been there. She cursed the tired tongue that had betrayed her and raised her gaze to his, steeling herself. “I beg your pardon?”
    “You were one of the girls in Madame Vestry’s auction.”
    Katarina bit her lip. She could deny it and Pritchett would perhaps pretend to believe her. But it would only be pretense. Her hair, God curse it, was memorable. The man knew what he had seen and what she had just confessed. Rumors would start and a professional man’s opinion would be believed. Better, then, to claim him as an ally and rely on his honor to keep him silent.
    Taking a deep breath, she looked the doctor straight in the face. “Yes, Dr. Pritchett, I was in an auction, though I don’t know the woman’s name you mentioned. I was kidnapped, taken to a house, and then put up on that platform and sold to the highest bidder. I take it you witnessed this disgrace?” Turn and attack. What was a respectable physician doing at such a debacle?
    He nodded, but didn’t seem ashamed. “I was there, Lady Katarina. One of her girls was ill tonight, and as a personal favor to Madame Vestry I called to attend her. Afterward, I looked in on the auction.” He flushed and continued hurriedly. “I would never bid on such a spectacle, my lady.” Then with dawning dismay, “The man who purchased you...” He eyed her figure, stricken dumb himself.
    She straightened and shook her head. “I managed to escape him before he could dishonor me.” The pity in his face said he did not believe her, but it mattered little what he believed, as long as he would keep the secret. “I beg of you, speak of this to no one. Not my brother, not anyone. I will not have him worried in his condition. Especially as nothing can be done to remedy it.”
    “My lady, surely your honor...”
    “Is intact, doctor, I assure you.”
    His frown and straightened posture attested to his disbelief.
    “There is no point in pursuing the matter, in any case, for honor cannot be satisfied.”
    Pritchett’s face grew rigid. “The man should die for this affront, my lady.”
    Kat’s lips curled upward in a smile at his vehemence. “I