Of course, the house was in a bit of disarray. It would take time for Arabella to arrange the rooms the way she wanted them. The maid left her in a lovely sitting room overlooking the front lawn, where Logan had unhitched the pony. Cassandra watched him hop on the animal’s back without the benefit of a saddle—
“What are you doing here?” Arabella demanded from the doorway.
Not the best welcome Cassandra had ever received, but what could one expect? “I brought you some treats.”
“Give them to the girl.”
Cassandra handed the basket to the maid, who appeared a tad befuddled over what she should do with it. “Take it to the kitchen, you stupid child,” Arabella said.
The maid ducked her head and did as bid. Cassandra felt sorry for her.
“You don’t need to pretend to care for me,” Arabella announced.
“You are my lord’s mother. Of course, we care what happens to you.”
“But I have been put out of my home.” She’d not taken one step into the room.
“I can understand how upsetting that is. However, Soren and I will not let anyone hurt Logan.”
“It isn’t right,” Arabella said. She walked into the sitting room and saw Logan out the window. He was now trotting the pony in circles on the front lawn. “He isn’t all English. He should not be Dewsberry’s heir.”
“By all that is right, he is English and he is the heir.”
“I’ve never seen proof of a marriage. Have you?”
“I take my lord’s word for it.”
Arabella cut the air with a dismissive hand. “Then I am better off where I am.”
Cassandra silently agreed they all were.
Her mother-in-law faced her. “You don’t have to stay.”
“No, but I wish to visit. If you have time.”
“All I do have is time. Until death.” She looked around the house. “I might as well be here as anywhere.”
Cassandra adopted some of her husband’s words of encouragement. “I’m sure there is something you can do. Why, you could garden,” Cassandra suggested, too late remembering the mess of the gardens in Pentreath’s back lawn.
“What does that do for me?”
“It feeds the spirit.”
“My spirit was fed by being Lady Dewsberry. Even when my husband shamed me with that harlot of his and his bastard children, the title gave me importance. Now that I’m widowed, I am nothing.”
Cassandra could have felt compassion for her plight until Arabella added meanly, “But I rest in the pleasant assurance that someday you, too, will be supplanted.”
“Is that what you think I’m doing? I’m not taking your place. I’m trying to find my own way.”
“You are in Cornwall,” Arabella haughtily informed her. “There is nothing for us here.”
How many times had Cassandra said the same herself?
And yet, hearing her mother-in-law speak this way drove home the realization that, if she wasn’t careful, this could be her fate.
Cassandra was not going to let that happen. She moved to the door. “Well, thank you for your counsel,” she said. “I will take your advice to heart. If you need anything, please send word to the house. We want you comfortable.”
Cassandra then marched out of the house, anxious to leave.
