“And you are here to fight for him.”
“Yes.”
Cassie was forced to admire the courage that brought Jenny to see her. It was something that she would do. She bowed her head, remembering her pitifully brief encounter in Genoa with the Contessa Giusti. She had been a coward then. She had run, leaving the contessa laughing in triumph behind her. And now she was facing another rival, for another man. What a lunatic thought it was.
“Does Edward love you, Miss Lacy?”
“Yes, he does.” She paused a moment, her green eyes clear and straight on Cassie’s face. “Perhaps you wondered where Edward was this morning. I am certain that he did not tell you, but I must. He was with me. Indeed, I was waiting for him, knowing that he would come, knowing what he would say to me. He was so formal, like the old Edward. It was as if he had practiced the words he would say to me. He asked my forgiveness, but I could not give it to him. Perhaps I am not a very kind person, but I asked him to tell me that he did not love me. He could not say it, Miss Brougham.”
Cassie stared at her, stunned. Edward’s distraction over luncheon—it made sense now.
“Edward is such a bloody gentleman.”
“Yes,” Cassie said, “he is.”
“The first time he told me he loved me was after I seduced him.”
Cassie thought of that long ago afternoon in the cave. Like Jenny, she had been the seductress.
“Please do not think me an immoral woman, Miss Brougham. But I wanted him so badly. He was ill and staying at my father’s house. Such a proper gentleman he was.” A smile lit up Jenny’s face. “Do you know that I drugged his wine? Even with opium lulling his mind, he protested. When I finally told him that I would give my virginity to a Hessian if he did not take me, he grinned in that special way of his, and then gave me such pleasure that I regretted not seducing him months before.” Jenny drew to a sudden halt. “I hope that I have not shocked you, it is just that—”
“You needn’t explain, Miss Lacy, I quite understand.” She thought of the pleasure she had known with the earl, and lowered her face so that Jenny would not see her eyes.
Jenny suddenly rose and paced about the room. She whirled about, misery filling her voice. “I want what is best for Edward. Dammit, you left him.”
“Through no fault of my own,” Cassie said quietly. “It is a very long and quite arduous story, Miss Lacy, and I would never think to bore you with it.”
What an elegant setdown, Jenny thought, and not delivered unkindly. She had tried to nurture fancies of Cassandra as a proud, willful girl, in the final summation a disagreeable witch. She had not been certain which would hurt more—to be right or wrong.
“What a wretched coil,” Jenny said. “Edward’s wretched honor forces him back to you. He has no choice.”
Choice. The earl had never given her a choice. Could Jenny be right? Would Edward marry her because there was naught else for him to do? She was on the point of asking Jenny why the devil she believed that Edward’s honor was his only motive for wishing to marry her. But she drew up short. Neither of them had spoken of love. She because she could not. Could Edward not? She tried to picture a future with Edward, but there was only the earl’s dark face in her mind. And the earl’s child in her womb.
Cassie said finally, “You wish me to give him up then. Go home to England.” She paused a moment. “You have known Edward for only months, Miss Lacy. I have known Edward all my life. We grew up together. The day before we were to be wed, I was kidnaped. Have you any idea what that was like, Miss Lacy?”
Jenny stared at her numbly.
“Kidnaped by a man I had known since I was a child, a man who wanted me because—” She could not repeat the story about her mother she had told Edward. She knew the earl loved her for herself. At least he had, before she had escaped him.