Is she teasing me?
He wondered if the subtle innuendos had been intended or not. “I will not be a fair match, Lady Isabella. Now, if you do not mind, I will consider the matter settled.”
“No,” she barked sharply just as he lifted his cup to his lips.
“No?” He began to grow more irritable with every passing exchange.
She squared her shoulders and looked him straight in the eyes. “I shall not accept no as an answer. If I am to enter this marriage, I wish to do so under my terms. At least, some of the terms, and my terms are that we enter on equal footing after displaying our skills with fencing.”
“Equal footing? And what if you do not win this match, will you then consider my sacrifice of saving your reputation enough equality for you?” He glowered at her, placing his cup and saucer back on the tray.
There would be no hope of finishing it until whatever scheme she had concocted had been satisfied.
She shrugged. “Perhaps, perhaps not, we shall not know until you indulge me in this little request.”
His patience had reached the end of its tether. “Very well, but I am warning you, Lady Isabella, that I shall not be inclined to go easy on you. If you wish to prove yourself, then I shall allow you that privilege and not hold back.”
Her lips curved into a mischievous smile that unnerved him slightly. “Oh, I am counting on it, Your Grace. I do not wish you to hold back in any way, shape, or form.” She sipped the last of her tea and placed the cup and saucer triumphantly back on the tray.
His grandmother sat silently watching the two, her expression unreadable as she chewed the inside of her cheek.
Isabella’s stepmother, on the other hand, did not seem pleased at all; in fact, her face had tensed with a deeply etched look of concern.
Cassian swooped his foil through the air a few times as the steady zing filled his ears. He stood to the side of the hall while his grandmother helped Isabella into her protective garments and whispered something he could not hear.
They kept glancing at him between whispers, but he did not allow the divided loyalty to sway him.
He was about to make his way to the center of the hall when Isabella’s stepmother, the Duchess of Ironstone, halted him.
“Forgive me, Your Grace, but I was wondering if I could have a word.” She glanced over his shoulder at Isabella, who seemed to be too focused to be paying them much attention.
He nodded before following her to the other side of the hall, where they were utterly alone and completely out of earshot. “You need not be concerned, Duchess. I shall go easy on Lady Isabella, despite what I said in the drawing room.”
Her face tensed a little as she looked back at him with a frown. “That is exactly what I do not want you to do.”
“Oh. I am not certain that I grasp your concerns. You do not wish me to hold back for her safety?” His confusion only doubled at the turn of the conversation.
All of the women in his life seemed hell-bent on testing his patience, and Isabella’s stepmother was not proving to be the exception to that rule.
Her face grew even more pensive as she sighed. “Isabella has always given her all to everything that she has set her mind to. She knows her limits, and she enjoys pushing them. If you allow her to win, or even hold back, she will know. And that will make her even angrier.”
“If I may ask, Duchess, why is it that she is angry with me? Was there something that I missed? I would have thought that the meeting with the Queen’s companion had gone quite satisfactorily. We did gain the special permission after all.”
Hanging her head, the Duchess of Ironstone placed her hands on her hips. “There is a great deal that you seemed to have missed, Your Grace. If you do not mind me being impertinent.” She lifted her gaze again with a sympathetic glint in her eyes.
“You may as well, it does not seem as if anyone else minds,” he grumbled.
She sighed again with a light smile this time. “You may not know why Isabella is angry, but I do. Do not hold back, even if that means that she loses. You do not know me, but I am asking foryour trust, Your Grace. Isabella needs to know that you are not holding back. I may only be her stepmother, but I do know her.”
He examined her closely for a moment, noting the sincerity in her eyes, before nodding. “Very well. I may not understand, but I shall not hold back.”
“Are you ready, Your Grace?” Isabella called to him from across the hall.
Turning around, Cassian had to stop himself from laughing when he caught sight of her in the padded shirt, overly large gloves, and mesh mask. It was the dress billowing out from the bottom that added most of the comical effect, but he took the Duchess of Ironstone’s words to heart and closed the distance between them. He stopped a few feet away from her, as was proper for a fencing match.
“And you promise not to hold back?” She asked, her voice slightly muffled from the mask.
Slicing his foil through the air, Cassian crossed his arm over his chest and nodded. “You have my word, Lady Isabella. I shall treat you in the exact same manner that I treat all of my opponents, regardless of sex.” His last word seemed to throw her off a little as she cleared her throat.
