“Love,” Cassidy whispered. “I ne’er was struck before that hour With love so sudden and so sweet.”
If only it were that simple, Isabelle thought. “When you’re young, such feelings can be very confusing. They can make us believe things that aren’t true. A part of me knew that I would not be allowed to marry this man, because we were from very different worlds. But I ignored my common sense. When he asked me to go away with him, alone, I did. We touched one another, Cassidy—we kissed, and—when it was over, he left me. He made me believe he cared for me, but when he had what he wanted, he pretended he had never even met me.”
“Oh, Isabelle.” Cassidy folded Isabelle’s hands in her own and chafed them gently. “But how could he do that? Why would he want to leave you? You’re so beautiful, and so kind.”
Humbled by Cassidy’s faith in her, Isabelle stared at the tangled blankets. “It didn’t matter. He was to marry someone else. But because I’d been alone with him, no other good man wanted me. Those rules, Cassidy. One cannot ignore them, not here. So I left England.”
“And I thought you wanted to come back,” Cassidy said. “I’m sorry I asked you—”
“No. Never be sorry.” She managed a smile. “I’m here with you now, where I want to be. And I can tell you about these rules, so you don’t make the same mistakes I did. There’s such generosity in your soul, Cassidy. That is why you must be careful, and use your mind as well as your heart.”
Cassidy was quiet for a long time. “Braden was married,” she said. “I thought that maybe he left me because he still… She died in an accident.”
Isabelle had heard rumors of Braden’s former wife. But how he had treated her, or how she died, Isabelle didn’t know.
“Married people can be together,” Cassidy said. “If I could be good enough—”
Good God. Now she mentioned marriage. Isabelle squeezed Cassidy’s fingers. “You are perfect as you are. Changing yourself to please another is a path that leads only to sorrow. Do not do anything unless you know it is right for you. You may not get another chance to decide.”
“But I can choose what’s right for me.”
Isabelle wished she could bring herself to lie. “Yes, Cassidy. The choice must be yours.”
Cassidy pushed at her blankets. “Then I should go with Braden.”
So much for distracting the girl. “Never forget that Lord Greyburn has great power. He ordered you to stay here. If you go after them, your very disobedience may inspire Lord Greyburn to act more harshly.” Isabelle braced herself to be cruel. “Do not deceive yourself, Cassidy. You are not strong enough to defy him. You are not his match.”
Cassidy’s determined expression faltered. She lay back on the pillows. “No,” she said, closing her eyes. But that stubborn tenacity remained in the set of her mouth, and Isabelle could imagine the words that went unspoken:
“Not yet.”
Eleven
For three days Braden and Quentin remained away from Greyburn, and no one could—or would—tell Cassidy when they were to return.
The house had fallen under a pall of silence since John Dodd’s disappearance. The servants didn’t respond when Cassidy tried to talk to them; they did their duties with anonymous efficiency. Rowena, as usual, kept entirely to her own rooms after venturing from seclusion to inquire about Cassidy’s health.
No one at Greyburn seemed to care how Cassidy spent her time. She could eat when she wished and wander the grounds at will, and she had plenty to occupy her thoughts.
There were two things she couldn’t forget, no matter how far away Braden went. Again and again she relived those moments in the forest: how he’d held her, kissed her.
And she remembered what Isabelle had told her the night Braden left: “You are not his match.”
She knew why she was not—because she couldn’t Change. Rowena made much of Milena’s perfection; she hadn’t lacked the true werewolf nature. And Braden had loved Milena.
Isabelle said that changing yourself to please someone else was the wrong thing to do. But if Cassidy could turn into a wolf, Braden would have to see her differently. He would listen to her and stop pushing her away—let her into that lonely place he didn’t want anyone to touch.