She should be grateful for this room, for Mr. North had been right in his assessments. She’d seen and encountered several unruly guests at the Green Ox Inn in her short time there, and even now shouts and raucous laughter echoed from its direction. Fortunately, the boardinghouse was only slightly more expensive than the inn. Between her savings and the money from Mr. Clark’s letter, she hadfunds enough for now, but she needed to consider what would come next. Regardless of the outcome of her inquiries, she would need to find another teaching position somewhere soon.
A sudden, salient feminine cry froze her in her spot.
She jumped back and dropped the curtain.
Pointed whispers echoed, and hurried footsteps slapped the cobbles just outside.
Both alarmed and intrigued, Cassandra inched back to the window and strained to hear.
The voices seemed to have come to a stop. When the man’s voice resumed, it was low. And closer. “It’s too late to change your mind. You said you were certain.”
The responding voice was soft. Fragile. Panicked. “I know what I said, but don’t you think this is wrong? Surely it must be, to be—”
“I’ve given up everything for this. Everything, Rachel!”
Clearly this was a private conversation, one not intended to be overheard, but the harshness of the man’s tone chilled Cassandra. She peeked around the curtain’s edge. Light from the inn’s distant torches mingled with the white moonlight to illuminate two silhouettes—a male and a female—just outside the window. The wind whipped through the tight space, tugging the woman’s cape and tossing her long strands of hair violently about her head.
There was something strikingly familiar about the tight curls of the woman’s dark hair.
And then it struck her—she was the young woman from Briarton Park, the one dressed in saffron who’d stared at her as she passed through the chamber.
The girl reached for his hand. “But don’t you think that if we wait, just a little, we—”
“No. No!” The tall, lanky man shook her free with a yank of his arm. “I can’t go back, do you see? I’ve broken all ties for you. Because you said you loved me.”
“And I do! I know James is strict, but I can’t betray him. I just can’t.”
Cassandra had been around enough females of that age to detect uncertainty, if not fear, in the girl’s voice.
The man reached out and grabbed the girl’s shoulder. “You will honor your commitment to me.”
“I can’t. I—”
And then the man started to pull her back toward the carriage at the edge of the inn’s courtyard.
The young woman cried out in resistance, but the man wrenched harder, refusing to release her.
Incensed, Cassandra dropped the blanket around her shoulders, reached for the dagger she’d set on the bedside table, and wrapped her fingers around the cold leather grip. Mrs. Denton had taught her to take action when necessary, especially if the person was unable to act for themself, and it was needed now. Before fully considering the consequences of her actions, she was at the kitchen door and pushed out into the alley.
At the door’s opening the pair immediately stopped shuffling and turned to look at her.
“Let go of her,” Cassandra demanded.
But the man did not drop her arm. “This is a private matter.”
“I wonder then, if it’s such a private matter, why you’re shouting and behaving as such in a public space?” Cassandra smoothed her thumb over her knife, refusing to break eye contact.
The man turned the full brunt of his annoyance on her. “And I am telling you now to leave us be, madam.”
Heart pounding, Cassandra looked to the young woman, whose glassy eyes and unkempt hair made her appear more of a child than a woman.
No, this was not her business. Over the years she’d seen it happen far too many times to other teachers and even her older students—girlsat the mercy of a man. She hadn’t assisted then. What was different now?
She locked eyes with the man and lifted her dagger. “Youwillstep away from her.”
He scoffed and shifted, moving with arrogance, as if he intended to reach out for the knife.
She jerked back and then straightened. “I wouldn’t step closer. I doubt you’d know how to react when confronted with a woman who can properly defend herself.”
