“Call for this door to be opened and let me go. Do you think you shall be safe from the consequences of your actions if you’re caught?”
“Oh no,” Falchester whispered. “But the only consequence should be your marriage to me and your dowry in my coffers.”
Lord Falchester laughed at his own expense, wiggling his brows at her, and Isabella’s eyes darted around the room, looking for something that would create an opportunity for a way out.
“I will never marry you. Over my dead body!” she declared, and as though on cue, the door broke open.
No, the door did not simply break open; it exploded inward. Lord Falchester staggered back as the wood slammed into the wall behind him, and Isabella’s breath caught as Cassian stepped inside.
Her husband seemed like he was carved from unrestrained fury. Not wild or reckless but cold and contained. Every muscle drawn tight. Every breath trembling with control.
“Step,” Cassian said, his voice low and shaking with suppressed violence, “away from my wife.”
Falchester paled. “Y–Your Grace, this is…”
Cassian advanced, each step steady, lethal. “You put your hands on her again after my warning?”
Lord Falchester’s throat bobbed. “I–I only meant…”
Cassian seized him by the collar, lifting him off his feet. Falchester’s shoes scraped uselessly against the floor.
“This will be the last time you touch her,” Cassian said in a voice of pure ice, “or even are in the same space as her.”
Isabella had never heard him speak with such devastating calm. The danger was sharper for its restraint. Terrifyingly different from the violence he displayed the last time. If anything, he seemed more dangerous than then.
“Cassian,” she whispered, stepping closer.
His jaw clenched. The muscle ticked violently, once, twice, then he let Falchester drop, though not gently. The man collapsed in a heap, gasping like a landed fish.
Cassian didn’t punch him. Didn’t strike him. He only pressed a heavy boot to Falchester’s shoulder, pinning him effortlessly to the ground, where he lay groaning.
“You will follow these footmen,” he ordered as servants spilled into the room, summoned by the crash. “You will be escorted off the property and reported. And you will not speak to or about my wife again. Not even her name, you understand?”
Falchester could only nod before being dragged away.
Cassian finally turned to Isabella, and her world stopped.
“You came,” she whispered.
His chest rose on a harsh breath. “I should have come sooner.”
“How are you here, though?” Isabella asked, raising a brow.
“I arrived, and you were nowhere to be found. Your sister said you went to attend to grandma, who called for you, saying she was ill. I knew then that something was entirely wrong and came in search for you,”
The tears that had pooled at the base of Isabella’s eyes dropped freely in that moment, and she didn’t know which of them moved first. Only that suddenly, they were close, so close she could feel his breath tremble against her forehead.
“Can we leave here?” she asked amidst their embrace, and Cassian nodded, leading her out of the room and back to the ballroom where everyone watched with equal parts confusion and curiosity.
Tristan found Lady Kendrick locked in a nearby room minutes later, and not long after that, the couple loaded into their carriage, neither having the energy to remain at the function.
Isabella’s joy, however, was that the guests truly didn’t know what transpired, and the charity ball had neared its end when the commotion began. Isabella had requested to ride back with Lady Kendrick, who still seemed shaken.
When they arrived back at Everthorne townhouse, she retired at once, exhausted due to being manhandled at such a delicate age, but Isabella knew it was also because Cassian had just arrived and was marching into the house.
Isabella had wanted to retire to her chambers as well, but she felt she should at least relay her gratitude to Cassian.
“I did not expect your arrival at the ball; however, I’m extremely grateful that you came to my rescue. I don’t know what I would’ve done had you not come, so thank you, Cassian,” Isabella said, beginning her journey to her chambers, her heartshattering with every added distance between them. But after she’d reached the hallway that led to her chambers, Cassian stopped her with a soft, rough, “Isabella.”
