“How cold you are,” she whispered. “Is that what being a duke requires? The removal of one’s heart?”
“It requires a focus on what matters. And what matters is that you calm yourself, and return to your family before you are truly compromised.”
“I have no intention of staying a moment longer in your company,” she huffed. She turned to storm off, her chin high, but in her haste, her boots caught on the heavy rug. She stumbled, pitching toward the floor.
Despite himself, George felt a tug of endearment. Her clumsiness was so at odds with her sharp tongue. He reached out to help, but she swatted his hand away.
“I do not need your help!” she hissed, scrambling up and tangling her fingers in her skirts. She took two more furious steps, but her hem snagged on a stray book. She pitched forward, and this time, George didn’t ask.
He lunged, catching her by the waist and pulling her flush against him to keep her from falling.
The world went still. She was tall enough that her eyes were nearly level with his. He could feel the frantic beat of her heart through her bodice. For a moment, his gaze dropped to her lips.
“Well,” he murmured, “you are a danger to yourself.”
“I was perfectly fine until you?—”
“I swear that I saw her!” Lady Sylvia’s voice echoed. “She left with Lord Lashton, and they came this way.”
The door flew open. Sylvia stood there, her face a mask of faux-horror, leading a small pack of gossips. George didn’t let go—he couldn’t. He was paralyzed by the sight of Lady Cassandra’s father pushing through the crowd.
The older man took in the scene: the dark room, his daughter in a duke’s arms, their faces inches apart.
“Your Grace,” Lord Hurton said, his voice trembling with fury. “You will restore my daughter’s reputation. You will marry her!”
.
Chapter Four
“Of course, she will not see our daughters again.”
Cassandra had held her head down ever since she had been seen at the ball. She had never expected to feel such deep shame as she did in that moment, and it felt like it would never leave her.
Even so, her aunt and uncle declaring that she would never see Rose and Sophie again felt like a knife in her side. It was brutal, and she saw no fairness in it whatsoever. Nobody seemed to care how it had all happened, only that she was now a wanton, and completely ruined.
“Mama, this is not fair,” Cassandra protested, but her aunt hushed her at once.
“You only have yourself to blame. You know what comes of wandering around unchaperoned. You should have known better.” Her aunt then turned to Cassandra’s mother, eyes accusatory.
“Andyoushould have known that your daughter was like this. What did you think would happen?”
“That is quite enough. Cassandra understands that she has made a mistake, and she will accept the consequences for that, but taking her cousins away is–”
“I do not want my daughters to catch whatever it is that she has. I have always suspected that she has been ruining Rose, filling her head with such unscrupulous thoughts, but this is too far. I have all of the proof that I need that she is a terrible influence, and these are the repercussions. If she does not want to end up alone, should have thought about her actions.”
Her aunt and uncle left then, and Cassandra crumbled, collapsing onto the settee. She was trembling, and desperately wanted nobody to touch her.
“If it were not for that dreadful Lady Sylvia...” she whispered.
“Lady Sylvia is not the one that was seen alone with a man,” her father reminded her. “She cannot be blamed for what you did.”
“But what she did was cruel! She wanted me to be seen with Lord Lashton so that I would be tied to him for the rest of my life, after telling me how horrid he is.”
“And you were alone with a man,” he thundered. “When you told me that you were willing to try, I truly did believe you. I thought that you truly did want to do something to help your future,but now I can see that you were merely trying to ruin us all as revenge.”
“That is not– is that truly what you think of me?”
“At the moment, yes. Now go and make yourself presentable, so that the Duke might pity you and take you as his bride.”
