“With something that truly matters, yes,” she murmured.
“How do you feel?”
She turned to him now and pressed a trembling hand on her chest. “Honestly… upset. I don’t feel at all right crossing my mother, but I could not stand the hypocrisy any longer.”
Cecilia slumped into her seat and sighed, “I suppose this is the best, or worst time, to tell you that she is demanding that you create an annulment agreement for me. She wants me free from thissham of a marriage,her words, not mine, as fast as possible.”
His brows dipped. “I already have. Why didn’t you tell her that?”
Her lips tightened, but she kept her head up. “Because I did not want to.”
Confused, Cassian asked, “Why?”
A muscle jumped in her jaw, but she did not answer. Cassian cursed under his breath. “Why did you not tell her, Cecilia?”
“I…”
He waited. “Tell me.”
“That’s because…” she swallowed.
“Devil and damn,Cecilia,” he growled. “Just tell me!”
“Because I don’t want to anymore!” she blurted at last. “I don’t want the annulment anymore, that’s why I didn’t tell her.”
It was around midnight, and Cassian still had no words to tell Cecilia when she’d confessed she did not want to break the marriage.
What do I want?
After arriving, he’d sent for a bath and a meal, then spent hours catching up on work with the dukedom. He was setting everything up for a formal petition to the Crown as to the dissolution of the dukedom when he left for the continent—or, worst case, washing his hands of all it entailed; now, all he needed was for Ben to send over the paperwork.
The pitter-pat of claws on the floor had him shifting to feel Atticus nosing at his knee. He rubbed his faithful dog behind the ears. “Have you come to tell me to come to bed, boy?”
The soft whine from the hound told him his guess was right. “Let me go get a drink. I won’t be too long.”
He slipped away to get to the cupboard, only to find the bottle of brandy empty. Puffing out a breath, he left the room for the cellar downstairs, but just as he was passing the music room, notes coming from within arrested him in his tracks.
The tune was soft and mournful, and it took him a moment to place the melody.Bach, she was playing Bach. Edging to the partially opened door, he spotted Cecilia at the pianoforte.
She played with a master’s touch, her hair piled messily atop her head, with wayward curls drifting down to brush her temples. Her figure was slowly swaying with the tune, but her expression was not one he had expected to see with someone creating such beautiful music.
The melody wrapped itself around his senses, and while he ached to join her, he slowly backed away. After heading down to the cellar, he returned with a bottle of brandy and poured a hefty glass.
He took a generous mouthful and sank onto the bed. Atticus curled up by the side of his bed. Pressing the glass to his temple, he felt a sinking feeling in his stomach.
The days of their marriage were edging closer to the end date, and he had to find something to tell Cecilia.
“I cannot possibly leave her as my wife and damn her to a loveless life for the rest of her days,” he sighed. “But if she does not want this marriage to be dissolved, do I force her hand or leave it?”
He filled his glass again and, after finishing it, set the glass on the end table and sank to the pillows.
“What should I do for the next few days?” He asked in an agonized breath. “And when am I going to find the stones to admit to my fears about Whitmore?”
Two days later, Cassian found himself wandering the cobblestones of a Mayfair mansion’s garden. He was not usually one for garden parties.
In his past, he had, admittedly, slept through most of their scheduled times and failed to attend at all. He had no hopes of enjoying this one either, especially with the schism between him and Cecilia ever growing.
Silently, Cassian trailed a step behind Cecilia as she was locked arm-in-arm with her friend Emma. Women who only months ago were mocking her, now gazed with glowing, jealous eyes as they remarked on how beautiful she appeared dressed in her silk gown and how prettily her jewels sparkled in the sun.
