“Did you not want to rest first? The journey must have been?—”
“Nonsense. I do not need to sleep; I need to see my daughter. My mind is made up, dearest.”
Satisfied, Cassian left the room.
The truth was, though he did indeed want them to see how well Adelaide was doing, he wanted to keep them away from hismother. He did not know how she would react, and he was also aware that the time was coming for their conversation about what he had done the night before.
It always came when he least expected it. Therefore, he had learned to always be ready for the attack.
It came shortly after his wife and Lady Wynn left for the village. Cassian said his goodbyes, then turned to see his mother standing at the top of the stairs, glaring down at him.
Not wanting to give her any power, he simply smiled at her and asked if she had slept well.
“Do you plan on inviting all of London here?” she asked, ignoring his question.
“She is my wife’s mother. Adelaide has every right to have her here.”
“Yes, but she did not invite her, did she? Are you that much of a coward that you needed to bring another lady here so that I would not speak my mind freely?”
“You were more than welcome to join us and admonish me, if it is what you wanted.”
It was a lie, for there was nothing he wanted less, but she seemed to believe it. He returned to the drawing room, where he poured himself a drink, and she followed him.
“I suppose Lady Wynn thinks the world of you, yes? You have rescued her sweet daughter from spinsterhood, so you are a hero.”
“That is not quite true, though she is grateful that I married her daughter despite her reputation. Believe it or not, Mother, there are other people with tarnished reputations.”
“Well, I have always assumed that. Why else would she marry you?”
Cassian set his glass down with more force than he had intended. Even his mother jumped back slightly at the loudthud.
Though he did not want to scare her, there was satisfaction in seeing that she was not completely in control. She was still a delicate lady beneath her veneer and had her fears about what he could do.
He needed that fear if he was going to successfully keep her in line.
“I am only going to say this once,” he said in a low voice. “If you cannot bring yourself to respect me, then you can find somewhere else to live. I let you stay here because, whether you can see it or not, I do care for you. But now that I am married, I must think of my wife first and foremost.”
“That is incredibly selfish of you.”
“On the contrary, it is very muchselfless. If I had my way, you and I would sit in a room and not leave it until you accepted that I am not some vicious monster and I had done the same for you. But I know that is not what you want. The truth is, Mother, you revel in all of this.”
She laughed dryly, a gleam in her eyes. She paced the room for a while, not looking at him. Every so often, she would let out a dark chuckle, and he wondered if she was truly beginning to lose her mind. He knew that Bedlam was an option if she could not control herself, but he did not want to do that to his mother, even if it wasverytempting.
“Is that how you think of me?” she asked. “Do you truly believe that I am even half as monstrous as you? We are not the same, Cassian. You know what you did, and it should haunt you till your dying day.”
“You were there too, Mother. You were just as capable of helping him as?—”
“Don’t youdare!” she snapped. “You know perfectly well that there was nothing I could have done. You, on the other hand… Youkilledhim that night, and if you think that I am going to leave and let you do the same to her, then you are very much mistaken.”
“Very well. If you want to believe that I am a murderer, then do so. I will never change your mind, I know that. However, if you intend to protect my wife from me, then you ought to stay here, and the only way to do that is to be kind tobothof us. If youcannot do that, I am well within my rights to send you away, where youcannotprotect her. The choice is yours, Mother.”
His mother looked at him coldly for a moment, before leaving him standing there.
Cassian felt sick having to threaten her the way he did, by suggesting that he would ever hurt his wife, but it was the only way to make her understand. She was never going to believe that he was a good man, so he had to be the best villain he could be.
He remained in the drawing room with a book until they returned, not wanting his mother to see them when he was not present. They were both laughing, and the sound rang through the hall.
It had been a long time since he had heard laughter in his home; the sound was far more pleasant than he had anticipated.
