Then Cassidy arrived. She flew to Rowena’s side. She, too, spoke to Braden, and her countenance was both pleading and mutinous.
The earl turned to his wife and said something that made her flush and drop her gaze. Then he gave Rowena a command, and after a moment, trembling, she obeyed and walked with futile dignity back into the house.
After a last exchange between the earl and the delegates, the maids reentered their carriage and the party was off. Isabelle left the window and sat in the comfortable chair near the fireplace, listening carefully. She heard doors slam, voices echoing in the entrance hall—and then silence,
Cassidy came to Isabelle’s room soon enough. She closed the door and marched to the window to gaze down at the empty drive.
“You saw what happened,” she said.
Isabelle rose and joined her. “I saw, but I couldn’t hear. Do you wish to talk about it?”
Cassidy whirled about and paced the length of the room. “You know that Rowena is to marry an American she’s never met,” she said. “The man was supposed to come to this meeting, but he didn’t appear. So when the French delegates left, she tried to escape.”
“Dressed, I gather, as one of their maids.”
Cassidy paused by the washstand and pushed the heavy, loose hair from her face. “Yes. I don’t know how she got them to take her… but Braden found out. He caught her. They argued.”
Isabelle knew that the conflict was far more hazardous than a mere argument. Was it a reflection of what had happened between Milena and the earl—if indeed her desperate attempt to escape Greyburn, while heavy with child, was a real event and not some fabrication of a malicious enemy?
“You came to Rowena’s defense,” Isabelle murmured.
“I know what it’s like to be expected to marry someone you don’t love. Sometimes I’m not sure Rowena likes me, but she’s so unhappy. I can see what the Cause has done to people. It isn’t right.”
And you believe you can alter what isn’t right, Isabelle thought. Was Rowena only the second prisoner held against her will by Lord Greyburn? Would Cassidy become another?
“But the earl didn’t listen to you,” Isabelle said.
“No.” Cassidy sat down on the bed and hugged herself. “When we came inside and Rowena went to her room, he reminded me that I’m his wife now, and I have to obey him. I must never stand against him where the Cause is concerned.” She looked up. “I don’t think I can do that, Isabelle.”
Yet there was a time, not very long ago, Isabelle thought, when you wouldn’t have dared openly defy him. Is the earl beginning to realize what you’re becoming?
Perhaps Milena had disagreed with Lord Greyburn. Perhaps she, too, had defied him. If Cassidy pushed Braden to the edge of his tolerance…
“I know that Braden is wrong about this,” Cassidy said. “About Rowena. I think she’d do anything to get away. Anything.”
Isabelle found sympathy in her heart for Rowena in spite of that lady’s cold condemnation. They would never be friends, but they were both women. They’d both been used by men, in one way or another.
“There’s little you can do, Cassidy,” she said. “It is a matter between the earl and his sister.”
Cassidy plucked at a fold of Isabelle’s counterpane and crushed it between her fingers. “It was so good with Braden, Isabelle. I thought we finally understood each other. I thought he would listen to me.”
How difficult those first lessons are, Isabelle thought. Would I could have spared you them. “Men and women are different, Cassidy—human or otherwise. There are always misunderstandings, difficulties—”
“I don’t know why. I’m so happy, to be married to Braden. Knowing we’ll always be together. But I can’t pretend that everyone else is as happy as I am. You, Rowena, even John Dodd and the other servants—how can I just ignore what’s going on around me?”
“You can’t solve all the world’s problems,” Isabelle said. “I am responsible for my own fate. Rowena is responsible for hers. That is the way of the world.”
Cassidy popped up from the bed. “I may not know much about the world, but I can’t stop saying what I feel. Even Braden can’t tell me what to think.” A stubbornness that was almost anger flashed across her face. “Not when it means doing something wrong. Isabelle—I look in the mirror now, and I see someone I never knew before. For the first time in my life, I’m sure of who I am and where I belong.”