Vanessa snorted but could not think of a response.
The butler appeared at the door with an envelope on a salver.
“Ah! Mail! Bring it here,” Edmund instructed.
“Beg pardon, sir; this be for Lady Darkford,” he said a little apologetically. He walked over to her. “A young person is awaiting your response.”
Cassandra picked the envelope off the plate.
“Who would write to you?” Edmund demanded. “It probably should have been directed to me. Hand it here,” he said, extending his hand.
Cassandra unfolded the letter and glanced quickly at the signature. “No, Edmund, this is meant for me. It is from Lady Guinevere Nowlton.” She quickly scanned the letter.
“So what does she say? What does she want?” demanded Vanessa.
“She wants to meet Alex and suggests Alex and me accompany her on a walk through the park this afternoon with an ice at Gunter’s afterward.”
“No, absolutely not!” declared Vanessa.
“I beg your pardon,” Cassandra said, lowering the letter to the table. “Alex and I walk in the park nearly every afternoon with his nursemaid. He has often asked for an ice, which I could not grant him as Edmund declines to give me pin money.”
“Now see, here,” Edmund began, red creeping up his neck.
“He should like this treat and I believe he deserves it,” Cassandra finished. She looked up at the butler. “Inform the messenger we should be delighted to accompany Lady Guinevere.”
The butler bowed his head. “Yes, my lady.”
“I shall join you then,” Vanessa declared.
Cassandra leveled her gaze at her. For the first time since Edmund and Vanessa Tidemark had moved into the Marquess of Darkford’s London townhouse following her husband’s death, she felt a spark of rebellion. “I’m afraid not, Vanessa. They did not invite you. It would be presumptuous of you to join us.”
“But a chaperone! You need a chaperone!” protested Vanessa. “Tell her, Edmund!”
Cassandra shook her head. “I shall have Alex’s nursemaid with me, and as Lady Guinevere mentions in her letter,” she said, picking up the paper again, “her maid, Rose, will be with us as well.” As would Lord Lakehurst, according to Lady Guinevere’s note; however, Cassandra didn’t see the need for them to know that.
She rose from her chair at the table.
“Where are you going?” Edmund asked.
Cassandra raised an eyebrow. “To the nursery to see my son and inform him of the outing.”
“I’d like to read the letter from Lady Guinevere,” he said, extending his hand.
“No,” Cassandra said simply. She pulled the letter to her chest and walked out of the breakfast room.
A spurt of nervousness assailed her. She thought he might call her back or something; however, he did not. Cassandra climbed the stairs to the nursery on the second floor. Could dealing with Edmund and Vanessa really be this easy? She had been so weak-minded before. She felt more awake to life and suffused with a new courage she hadn’t felt since Richard’s death.
* * *
When the Tidemarkbutler closed the front door behind Cassandra, Alex, and his nursemaid that afternoon, Cassandra raised her face up to the sun, letting its warm rays touch her cheeks despite her deep-brimmed black bonnet. She loved the sunlight, something she’d only experienced on rare sunny London days, rare especially this year which had been inordinately cold and rainy. Vanessa insisted the drapes of the Darkford townhouse always be drawn in mourning, even now, eighteen months after Richard’s death. And Baydon Castle, the Tidemark family’s ancestral home, where they had been living when Richard died, had always been dark. Dark and foreboding. Just thinking of Baydon Castle in passing caused a shiver to race along her nerves.
Enough.
She was in London now, and she relished the days she and Alex went for walks in Hyde Park.
“Mama?” Alex said, tugging on her hand. “Are we going to go now?”
She looked down at her son and smiled. “Yes, of course. I was just taking a moment to enjoy the sunshine.”
