“I have nothing to say to you.”
“Obviously you do or you wouldn’t be so huffy with me.”
“I’m not huffy—”
“Cass, you are huffy—”
“And I am not ‘Cass.’My name is Cassandra. Miss Holwell to you.”
“Yes, Miss Holwell,” Soren repeated, mocking her with meekness. And why not? She was being unreasonable. “I used to call you Cass. You didn’t correct me then.”
“But I did notlikeit. I’ve already corrected you more than once this Season. Especially the evening when you referred to me as ‘Cassie.’ ”
She had.
Soren was unapologetic. “If you truly didn’t like my calling you Cass, why didn’t you say something in the beginning? Back when we were children?”
His logic appeared to stump her and then she said, “Because. Now will you leave?”
“ ‘Because’ is not an explanation,” he argued.
“It is all you are going to receive.” She edged away from him as she spoke, moving as if preparing to physically defend herself.
At last, the thought occurred to Soren that something was very wrong between them. He attempted diplomacy. “I’m not trying to intimidate you.”
“You have followed me into the ladies’ necessary room—”
“I wish a moment’s private conversation with you. Something I haven’t been able to have because you have been avoiding me, haven’t you?”
She didn’t deny the accusation. Instead, she announced, “I will not marry you. I have no desire to have anything to do with you.”
Her bluntness annoyed him. “I’ve received that message,” he assured her. “What I don’t understand is what I did to set you off. Put the whole idea of marriage aside—” He’d have to work on that issue later. “We were friends once, Cass.” Almost too late he remembered to use her full name. “—andra,” he added.
“Until youbetrayedthat friendship.”
Nowtherewas an accusation that surprised him.
“Betrayed our friendship? What are you talking about?” He searched his memory. “You are the one who changed everything. You stopped speaking to me.”
“I gave you the cut direct,” she declared rather proudly. She referred to the social weapon of rudely ignoring an acquaintance. It was a fierce thing to do... if one paid attention to ridiculous etiquette. Soren did not.
“The cut direct?” The words didn’t even taste good in his mouth. “You were thirteen. Children don’t do the cut direct.”
“Idid.”
“Ah, well, you have me there.” He shook his head. Back in those days she was always claiming the silliest of ideas, usually gleaned from books. “Of course, if I wasn’t aware that I’d received the cut direct, it loses its power, doesn’t it? It can’t truly be a cut direct, if I don’t know I’ve been cut. Or that you are being direct. Which you weren’t, by the way, because I didn’t know I’d received it.”
Her answer to his logic was a haughty glare, one he easily ignored.
Soren was glad for this conversation. Jesting aside, he wanted the air cleared between them. “Very well, you delivered the ‘cut direct,’ ” he conceded. “And you did this because I ‘betrayed’ you?” Now, there was another overburdened word. “You will pardon my ignorance. What exactly did my fifteen-year-old self do?”
“You mocked me. Just as you did at the dining table this evening.”
Soren already regretted his blunt comment when he’d told her Camberly would never marry her. It was the truth; still, he could have been gentler, less confrontational... although he would hardly consider his honesty a “betrayal.”
In truth, he’d always pushed her a bit. Some would say that it was the natural inclination of a York wanting to best a Holwell, but he knew differently. He’d wanted Cass to notice him. He did not like being dismissed. Her opinion had always been surprisingly important to him. He’d valued her approval. He still wanted to have it, and more. He would like to have her in his bed.
Marrying Cass Holwell would be no chore at all. She had everything that attracted him to a woman. She was fiercely independent and unafraid, two qualities he hadn’t seen in any other woman in London. He teased her about books but he admired her intelligence. He’d learned long ago a woman without wit could make for deadly dull nights. And she was very easy on his eyes. How could he not be interested in her?
