All at once Cassidy realized what came into her mind when she saw Matthias and Isabelle together. It was that afternoon in the woods when Cassidy was alone with Braden: the confusing and remarkable emotions, the heightened sensations, the tingling all through her body, the joy.
That was what Isabelle felt with Matthias. But he wouldn’t run from her, as Braden had from Cassidy. Matthias wanted to kiss Isabelle. And she wanted him.
Cassidy turned away, dazed by the new awareness that had come with Braden’s kiss. “I have to get back to the house,” she said. “Pleased to meet you, Matthias.”
She didn’t wait for his answering bow, but started off immediately. Yet she must have been focused on them even as she left them behind, for she heard their low-voiced conversation.
“So that’s the lass,” Matthias said. “I ken why ye’re so fond o’ her. But ye’ve no need to fash yerself over her with the laird, of that I’m certain.”
“Because she keeps her spirits up no matter what Lord Greyburn does, or how much he changes toward her from moment to moment?” Isabelle returned. “She wants to please him, but she doesn’t grasp the consequences. She’s far too innocent—”
“And is there aught amiss wi’ innocence, my bonny?” he said. “There’s hidden strength in the lass. Ye said yerself that she didna let the villain’s sculduddery upset her. She is a proper match for the laird.”
“I’d rather take her away from England than see—” She broke off. “He’s a bitter, angry man, Matthias. And he’s not human. Not like you.”
“There you’re wrong, my bonny. We’re nae so different as a that.”
“No, Matthias. You are nothing like Braden Forster. He hides too many secrets, and I fear to learn the answers. There’s only one man in the world I can trust.”
Cassidy crouched behind a rise and looked back. Matthias held Isabelle against him, and her arms were about his waist.
Her thoughts turning over what she had heard, Cassidy slipped back into the house and up to her room.
Matthias had said she was a proper match for the laird. Isabelle had called Braden bitter and angry, but if she’d watched him in the woods… if she’d seen the blood dripping from his hand after he’d plunged it through the glass in the library…
Isabelle had told Cassidy not to let anyone choose for her. Cassidy was beginning to recognize the power of choice, of making decisions that could change everything—and not only for herself.
If she had the courage and the wisdom to make the right ones.
She’d no sooner stripped off her dress and begun to wash up at the basin when a maid tapped on the door.
“The Lady Rowena wishes to inform you that guests have arrived,” the maid said, “and she asks you to dress and come down to the drawing room for tea.”
Guests. The only guests Braden awaited were members of the Convocation, the delegates who would meet to discuss the Cause and the survival of loups-garous all over the world. But Braden wasn’t here. Rowena was taking charge, and that didn’t seem at all like her, when she hated her werewolf heritage so much.
Cassidy finished washing up and accepted the maid’s help to dress in one of her nicest tea gowns. She hurried downstairs and met Quentin on the way to the drawing room.
“Quentin, you’re back!” she said. “Where is Braden?”
“He sent me on ahead—I imagine he’ll be along any time now. We haven’t yet caught the footman. The man seems to have vanished into thin air.”
Cassidy’s stomach danced a jittery little ranchera. The footman was gone. Braden would be home soon, and she longed to see him—but she still wasn’t ready.
“Will you allow me to escort you to the drawing room?” Quentin said.
It was the first time she and Quentin had been alone together since the interrupted Changing lesson. The memory of his kiss, and its aftermath, was fresh in her mind. “About what happened—” she began. “I like you, Quentin. I want us to be friends. I hope nothing has changed.”
He seemed almost to blush. “I quite understand. Think no more of it. I’m sure we’ve both had other things on our minds.”