“It seems when it comes to you, Cassandra, that I have more than once behaved strangely.”
“How did you find me?”
“Your anger at finding the letters dulled your thinking, love. I have decided that you must have wished me to come after you, for you were not at all careful in how you replaced the evidence. I suppose, when all is said and done, that I must be grateful to Captain Crowley for being in port. I trust that he took good care of you on the crossing.”
She felt suddenly like a mouse being toyed with by an omniscient cat. “How did you know of Captain Crowley?” The instant she asked the question, she knew she could have answered it herself.
As if he guessed her thoughts, he chuckled. “Really, cara, would you not expect me to be aware of every important ship docked in the harbor? I assume the story you concocted for the poor captain wrung his withers.”
He was speaking to her as if to a stupid twit, and in retaliation, she pulled her damaged pride about her like a cloak. “I told Captain Crowley that I was Lady Delford and that I had been captured by an Italian nobleman. I begged him to take me to New York, to my husband.”
His amused expression fled at the word, and anger filled his dark eyes. Cassie had the distinct feeling that he would like very much to shake her until her teeth rattled. Strangely, she found herself not at all frightened or distressed by the prospect.
The earl, with no little effort, regained the tight control he had on himself. The lazy animal grace reappeared in his stance, and he said, “For the past two days, Scargill has kept watch over you, Cassandra. He has watched you chat gaily with Edward Lyndhurst, even stroll through this wretched city on Major Andre’s uniformed arm. Scargill was filled with remorse, you know. You see, it never occurred to him that you would bolt. He, like I, assumed that you no longer wished to leave. You succeeded in making fools out of both of us. As for the bull, Andrea, I failed even there. Daniele was wounded and Andrea long gone by the time I arrived in Riva Trigoso.”
“Damn you, my lord, you want me to writhe in guilt for escaping from a man who abducted me in the first place? I find your wounded pride about it ridiculous.” She lowered her head, away from the pained tenderness in his eyes. “I am sorry that you did not catch Andrea.”
“Why did you do it, Cassandra?”
She looked up at him tentatively, trembling now at the hollow sadness in his voice. “I felt that you had betrayed me, that you had lied to me, and I was naught but what you had wished to create. I felt I had to leave, and fate in the person of Captain Crowley made it possible.”
“That is not what I meant.”
She faltered, her eyes narrowed in confusion.
“I believed, fool that I am, that you had come to care for me. Yet you rushed into Edward Lyndhurst’s arms and wed him the moment you arrived in this miserable city.” His voice became harsh. “Are you pleased with your choice, Lady Delford? Do you moan with passion in his arms? Have you rendered the poor fellow ecstatic, or is he beginning to see that you are not the gentle, malleable girl he had believed you to be?”
She shook her head stupidly at him. “You are quite wrong, my lord.”
“Wrong about what, Cassandra?”
She took a stumbling step toward him.
“You touch her, you miserable bastard, and I will dispatch your soul to hell where you stand!”
Cassie froze at Edward’s shout. She turned numbly to see his hand poised on his saber, his eyes fastened with cold hatred upon the earl.
“Edward, you are wrong. Please—”
“Silence, Cassie.” Edward turned and offered a contemptuous bow to the earl. “Well, Lord Clare, what an unexpected surprise. Your lordship’s pride is such that you could not allow your captive mistress to escape you?”
Jenny’s frantic voice cut through the air. “Edward, you must stop—he will kill you.”