“It doesn’t make any sense. Why should they hate you now? It ended so many years ago.”
“But it didn’t,” Isabelle said. She freed her hand. “When you came to find me in San Francisco… Cassidy, I gave myself to men. For money. When I first went to America, I didn’t know what else to do, or how to survive. I had no useful skills but the one Lord Leebrook had taught me. For a while, after I met your mother, I gave it up. But in the end, I went back to the life I had made for myself.” She smiled bitterly. “You see, men will pay good money to be with a woman. Men, like bulls and stallions, are driven by powerful instincts that must be served, whether they are married or not. There are always women like me who will accommodate them—for a price. Love is not part of that price.”
Very pale, Cassidy gazed at her. “Lord Leebrook knew what would happen when he… did that with you,” she said. “It’s not your fault. I don’t care what you did in San Francisco.” She gripped Isabelle’s arms. “You’re my friend, Isabelle. That will never change.”
Tears slipped from Isabelle’s control. “I can’t help you now, Cassidy. My presence here will only bring you harm.”
“I’ll talk to Braden,” Cassidy said. There was a peculiar, obstinate certainty in her voice that Isabelle had seldom heard before. She pushed a rumpled handkerchief into Isabelle’s hand. “He won’t make you leave.”
What made the girl think she could sway Lord Greyburn? Simply because he’d kissed her?
Isabelle studied Cassidy’s flushed, determined face, and realized that it had undergone a metamorphosis that had begun the moment they arrived in England.
Was it the face of a girl awakening to full womanhood—the face of a woman in love?
If Isabelle left now, she wouldn’t see that final blossoming. And she would have no chance of protecting the fragile petals that could be crushed by masculine arrogance.
By Braden and his Cause.
“I still need you, Isabelle,” Cassidy said. “Promise me you’ll stay.”
Promises were deadly. Isabelle was afraid: of humiliation and scorn, of the softness that had grown in her since she’d met Cassidy and Matthias. Yet she could almost believe that Cassidy would protect her, as she once thought to protect a naive girl.
“If it’s possible,” she said softly, “I shall try.”
Twelve
“She cannot stay.”
Rowena sat on the edge of the chair in the library, her voice eloquent with distaste and civilized affront. Braden could imagine her back ramrod-straight, the slight curl other lip and the hauteur within her hooded eyes.
For the past three days, nothing had gone as planned. He and Quentin had failed even to locate the treacherous John Dodd, let alone capture him. All of Braden’s resolve and lupine tracking skills hadn’t been enough to bring the man to justice.
And during those three futile days of hunting across the countryside, Braden had been unable to put Cassidy out of his mind. She haunted him, waking and sleeping: her eager innocence in his arms, the taste of her lips and the sleek strength other body, her fortitude after the footman’s attack.
He should have been entirely focused on the final preparations for the Convocation, with all such distractions behind him.
Instead, this morning he’d returned to chaos.
“You have explained,” he said, his back to Rowena, “that Mrs. Smith is not the respectable woman she has pretended to be. What you have not explained is why the Sayerses were here in the first place.”
“They are family, Braden, whatever you may believe. I had the right to ask them—”
He swung on her. “You invited them because you still believe they are allies who can help you escape your duty. It’s as well they’ve gone, or I would have sent them away myself.”
“It wasn’t they who should have left,” she said, rising. “It was that woman—”
“You may regard Beatrice as a second mother, and Alice as your sister, but they turned their backs on us and everything our grandfather fought for. Forget any hope of assistance from that quarter.”
Her frustration and defiance was a living presence between them. “As you stated, they are gone,” she said. “But that woman is still here. I demand—”
Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156