“I feel strangled by the rules and unspoken directives of the Ton,” he explained. “Being an aristocrat is more of a noose around my neck than a luxury people think it is. Don’t misunderstand me, I appreciate the life my family has afforded me, but I am not myself when I am constantly in the eye of the ton.”
She was confused. “So, your response to being judged by the ton was to act out some of the most scandalous acts the ton has ever seen… so you can be judged by the ton further? How does that follow?”
His grin was criminally wicked. “It does not, but I enjoy giving old women conniptions and seeing young Misses blush to the roots of their hair when I wink at them.”
“You’re incorrigible.”
Cassian shrugged, “I have been called worse.”
I know. By me, no doubt.
“So, have you considered what you will do with those old books you rescued from the firepit?” he asked.
“They are in place, and I plan to go through them to find what I can use to make a lending library for children or donate some to the orphanages or children’s homes around here.” She paused. “Are there children’s homes around here?”
He gave her a flat look, “No,” he drawled. “All the children in the township are slaving away in the rivers and mines to pay off their parents’ debts to me.”
Wiping her mouth, Cecilia shook her head. “All right, that is enough for me tonight.”
He slumped—rather artfully—into the arm of his chair and lifted his wine. “You are bowing out after four rounds? Why, Cecilia, I thought you were one of the few who would battle all fifty.”
“That’s the difference between men and women. You men prefer to fight with fists and rage. I prefer to fight with my mind and things I understand,” she explained. “At the moment, I am at a loss.”
“I thought you knew me,” Cassian pouted.
I thought so too, but now I realize the face you give to the ton is not the one you wear here.
“So did I,” she said. “I, however, find myself reevaluating everything I do know about you. Until I have more ammunition, I will sequester myself and rearm.”
“I will be waiting,” Cassian lifted his wineglass in a mock salute.
CHAPTER 10
That evening after her bath, Cecilia collapsed on her bed. For one of the rare times in her life, she was too tired to do anything but hug her pillow and use all her intelligence to untie the tangled knot that is Cassian.
How can Fitzroy be an infuriating rapscallion and an interesting enigma at the same time?
“The man is so confusing, he makes the Sphinx’s riddle look as simple as the alphabet,” she muttered inconsolably.
Her memory had to be fooling her because there was no possible way the kiss was as scintillating as she remembered it to be. Surely, he had not made gooseflesh flush all over her body, nor had his kiss curled her toes in her slippers.
Flinging herself at Gabriel had been an imprudent thought. Had it been a thought or an action? Either way, she had acted worse than a trollop.
Why was Cassian affecting her so when she had made a promise to herself not to let him get under her skin? She did not find anything alluring about the bounder. Even if she found him the teensiest bit attractive— in a rough, uncouth sort of way— it was no excuse for her actions.
It was confusing, and that wasn’t even accounting for her reactions to the man. Her cheeks grew uncomfortably warm at the memory of that infernal, drunken kiss with him.
Beneath that blithe, nonchalant exterior, the one who could jump out of windows at three in the morning and be at Westminster debating bills by noon was a man who coveted his privacy like a pirate and his gold.
But the more she thought about it—the more it made sense.
If someonereallywanted to hide who they were, what better way to do that than to give everyone a false impression, ascandalousimpression, that it deterred one from looking further?
“It is sort of ingenious, actually,” she admitted to herself.
She was not even sure he had shown her a good deal of his true temperament for her to make a judgment yet. She finally slipped into an uneasy sleep, not sure what to expect from Cassian the next morning.
Her intuition aboutnot sure of what to expect to from Cassianwas spot on as she walked into the breakfast room to find—
