“Let’s head back in,” he told her, drawing back.
The coldness that engulfed her body was almost too much for her to bear.
Why is he like this?
She felt too frozen to voice her question. He had left her burning and eager in one moment, and then cold and alone in the next. Did he love her? What did it mean that he had kissed the most intimate parts of her being? Was it love?
The question left her reeling as she nodded and quickly pushed herself off the wall. She had known that people in love could be intimate with one another, but what did it mean for them?
She fell into step behind him, her mind a tangled mess of questions.
However, before they could take a step forward, a voice halted them in their tracks.
“Cassian?” Lady Kendrick’s voice cut through the night like a blade.
Cassian stepped back so quickly that Isabella almost collided with him. Had it not been for her quick step back, they would have ended up in a heap on the floor.
Instinctively, they both straightened, though Isabella’s legs still felt weak beneath her, and they’d tidied themselves.
Lady Kendrick swept onto the terrace, her eyes sharp as polished steel, and for one horrifying moment, Isabella truly believed the older woman had witnessed everything.
I will be ruined.
She could feel her heart thrumming violently in her chest as Lady Kendrick’s eye swept over her.
“There you both are,” she whispered harshly. “Do you both realize that people have been whispering about how you vanished together?” She looked irritably from one to the other.
Isabella’s stomach dropped. Gossip like this could ruin a woman, even if she had not acquired so much as a mark against her name in the past.
Cassian, to his credit, recovered instantly, folding his hands behind his back with the air of a duke mildly inconvenienced. “And what of it? Are we to indulge every single snippet of gossip perpetuated by the ton?”
But Lady Kendrick’s eyes narrowed. “This is not the time to be stubborn, Cassian. This is a serious matter.” She narrowed her eyes at him.
Multiple footsteps and a cluster of women’s voices drifted toward the terrace.
Isabella’s eyes widened along with Lady Kendrick’s as they stared at each other in horror.
“Isabella, come with me.” Lady Kendrick’s spine straightened as she quickly stepped forward.
The older woman grabbed Isabella by the wrist and whisked her inside the house, heading to a small storage room with surprising agility. They reached their destination in a matter of minutes, and the door was quickly shut behind them, bathing them both in darkness.
Lady Kendrick leaned against the door, and even in the darkness, Isabella could see that the older woman was pressing her ear against the door. Her heart beat so furiously that it almost drowned out the distant noises of the ball.
Through the door, however, Isabella could hear them. The eager voices of gossip-hungry ladies.
“Your Grace? There you are!” The simpering tones of two ladies drifted into the night air. At least, there were two that Isabella could easily discern.
Joining Lady Kendrick at her side, Isabella pressed a hand over her mouth, her heart battering her ribs as she listened.
Lady Kendrick placed a firm hand on her shoulder, encouraging her to be as quiet as possible.
“Ladies,” Cassian said in his familiar cool, irritable tone, “Was there something that I could assist you with?”
Isabella pictured his eyebrows raising and the subtle setting of his jaw as he clenched it in irritation.
“Oh, we noticed your absence,” tittered one of the women. “The ball is hardly complete without our host.”
“I dislike crowds,” he said curtly. “I needed air.”
